In My Element: Lake Powell

I really felt in my element at Lake Powell. I grew up spending my summers and vacations in Maine at my family's lake house so I truly feel at home on a boat and that's exactly how we explored Lake Powell. 

In an attempt to sleep in, we aimed to leave the house at 8am MT to pickup the boat at 9am. We ended up hitting the road around 8:45am and drove a little fast trying to earn back some time. Luckily, Arizona is an hour behind standard Mountain Time because they don't participate in daylight savings so we ended up getting to Wahweap Marina right before it opened. Our skipper for the day, my friend also known as Captain O, checked us in, took the safety course, and got the keys for our 19ft power boat. This whole process took over an hour. We packed the boat, asked the staff if they had any recommendations, and off we went to explore the lake! 

It's harder than we expected to explore a lake using a paper map. Luckily, we've learned that we have to download the Google Map of our destination before leaving the house while we still have service. More often than not, we don't have cell service on the drive or at our destination so downloading the map let's you see your location in real time on the map even when you don't have service. This is truly a life saver.

Originally, we wanted to make our way to Rainbow Bridge which is one of the things Lake Powell is known for but it takes at least 2 hours to get there by boat and the staff told us that since we had already been to Arches National Park, this is just another arch.  We decided to just put-put around and take our time exploring other parts of the lake. 

Once we made our way out of the no-wake zone, we cracked open a spiked seltzer and tested the boat. We learned pretty quickly that they put a few safety measures in place. The speedometer was disabled and the engine speed was capped. After getting comfortable with the boat, we found a nice casual speed where we could listen to music, chat, and enjoy the ride. We headed for Last Chance Bay and simply enjoyed being on the water.

Once we found a cool spot with awesome red rock scenery jutting out of the earth, we decided to shut the engine off, have lunch, and take a dip. While we were floating, I saw this large black blob emerge from the peninsula and thought it was a cow at first. After my eyes adjusted I quickly realized that it was a wild horse! Another one emerged from the horizon and I was in awe. I've always wanted to see wild horses and this was so unexpected. What's even more serendipitous is that my friend captured my whole reaction on camera because we were taking pictures at the time all this happened. You can see my expressions change below.

We decided to take a dip in the lake before moving onward so we put on some pump up music, had a little dance party, and made our way to the front of the boat to all jump off at the same time. For the record, we're available for hire for any romcom or girls trip movie. 

After drying off, we secured our potential fly-away belongings and made our way to Antelope Canyon. From the ground, Antelope Canyon is closed for the rest of 2020 because it's on Navajo land and they're limiting exposure to Covid. This area was filled with kayakers and paddleboards. It was super cool navigating the windy river. 

Eventually we made our way back to the marina, filled up on gas, and departed Lake Powell to head 10 minutes down the road to Horseshoe Bend to watch sunset. This was packed with people but we managed to get a spot right on the edge overlooking the bend. The sun was glaring until it finally descended past the rocks and that's when it got really beautiful. We captured the moment and made new memories before finally heading back home. Another great day with even greater friends.