November 5, 2023 More of Lake Powell         

My humans are letting me outside without a lead.  They stick close to me, but I am loving sniffing, rolling and wandering.  Then I get bored and go sit on the steps and they let me in where I can take a nap.

The weather here has been great.  It is cold in the mornings (low 40s) but gets up to about 70 during the day.  I actually did a morning walk today.  I walked over to the launch ramp.  It is a long launch ramp but only about 50 feet of it is left for launching, otherwise your tires will go into the mud.  There are only 4 vehicles in the parking lot so it is not busy.  Hopefully a wet winter will add to the water levels.  I watched all sorts of fish swimming around; little ones, big ones.  Obviously they are not worried about anything!

Spouse has been talking to Igor.  His real name is Steve and he is a retiree.  I have taken him off my list of serial killers!  He really is quite nice.  Just a bit on the reclusive side.  He warned us off the road we were planning on taking out of here, so we will reroute ourselves.

After a leisurely morning, we got on our bikes and did some more pedaling.  We checked out the residential area, then pedaled up a dirt road.  Well, it had a lot of rocks too.  We bounced around for about a mile til we got to a water tower.  An amazing view of the lake presented itself.  After bouncing back down the trail, we headed back.

Let me give you a little personal Lake Powell history.  In the late 80’s and early 90’s, we used to come here every year.  Our friends Rick and Sue with their kids and friends often came, as well as my sisters and kids, and Doug’s daughter.  We would pack all of our belongings (bathroom, kitchen, living room, bedroom) in the boats and head back to the Dangling Rope Marina area, about 25 miles from Wahweap.  There were a few areas of somewhat level ground where we could set up camp.  We would regularly head over to Dangling Rope and have an ice cream, buy fuel and ice and just people watch.  Oh, they had flushing toilets which was really nice.

Sad to say, Dangling Rope is no more.  With the water issues, it was closed.  Apparently, for 2 years it sat with all of the goods still inside.  They have since moved the fuel docks up to Hall’s Crossing.  This has significantly changed the dynamics of the lake.  Without that marina, folks like us really couldn’t camp in that area for any length of time.  You need fuel and ice to make it and if you have to schlep all the way to Wahweap, that would be a real problem.  Without Dangling Rope, it is about 60 miles from Wahweap to Hall’s Crossing.  In boating terms, that is a real long way!  Plan to have a jerry can of fuel on board just in case.  It is a $600 an hour tow if you need it.  Ouch!

Houseboats have the room to store jugs of gas, so I guess they rule the territory now. 

Another thing affecting Hall’s Crossing is the fact that the ferry is no longer running between Hall’s Crossing and the more popular Bullfrog.  Without that connection, hwy. 276 does not exist as designed.  Hopefully, we will get a wet winter.

After a leisurely day, we relocated to the RV section of the park.  It isn’t open, but the electricity works and we can dump our tanks.  We really did try and pay, but they can’t take the money so, we will take advantage of it. 

We have electricity!  We did some cleaning and Spouse dumped tanks.  We showered and were a bit frivolous with our resources!  Our generator has been   great, but it does suck propane.  It is nice to be able to not think about it.  The down side of this is that the park has not been maintained and there are sticker plants all around.  We need to pick them off our shoes and Rudy.  Another good side is that the flies we had at the campground do not seem to be a problem here (although we did import two little bastards from there…  just can’t seem to nail their asses!).