We arrived in Lake Powell yesterday and while driving through the local town of Page AZ we saw so many things that we wanted to circle back to. Today we headed out with all kinds of ideas of places to see and about a gallon of water.
It was 75 degrees when we woke up this morning and by noon, when we finally finshed up our work related items for the day, it was 103 degrees on our Jeep’s outside temperature guage. Wow its hot here!
When you step out of your car the heat hits you like a wall. You can feel your face melting and all you want to do is go back inside.
We drove about 4 miles to the Glen Canyon Dam and looked over the side of the cliff face to see the 600 foot tall dam wall. It is impressive and it feels a little freaky looking down that far.
As a family, we made our way out onto the bridge that spans the Colorado river. We lasted about 5 minutes on the bridge and wanted to go back to the car. The two major factors in leaving were the extreme heat and the shaking bridge. A large truck rolled across the bridge and shook it a bit which Sydney didn’t like at all. Once the 7 year old decides that she’s not liking the 700 foot high shaking bridge, we all need to go.
We drove about 2 miles up the road to a overlook area where you can get a good look at the dam upriver and also see the Colorado river disappear into the canyons in the distance. This is where the Grand Canyon starts and you can see how the river has cut itself though the red rocks of the plateau. It’s absolutely beautiful.
After our 1000ft hike down to the edge of the plateau we took status of everything and realized that we didn’t bring enough water to do any more hiking today. As a group we had gone through 90% of our water in about 2 hours. Like I said, it was really hot!
So, we decided to find an ice cream shop and cool down. This was totally the kids idea but, I’m surprised I didn’t think of it first.
We rolled into the town of Page and we found an ice cream shop at the DAM PLAZA. We all laughed about the name and talked about how people give directions around town; “Turn left at the dam plaza!” and other colorful examples. There were no shortages of jokes here as the kids love to express themselves when given the opportunity.
After picking up a few ice cream shakes we headed back to Lake Powell where we are camping. In my usual fashion, I took the long way back and found an overlook of Lake Powell from a high point behind the Glen Canyon National Park. The view from high up on this hill was incredible.
The opposite side of Lake Powell is in Utah. We are heading in that direction on Friday. Our trip takes us up to Moab though the canyonlands and we are looking forward to that. In the meantime we are dealing with a time change between Arizona and Utah that keep catching us off guard.
Today after getting ice cream out Jeep clock said it one hour later than it was. It seems to pick up on radio towers in Utah and change the time on us. Our cell phones are doing the same thing so, we are constantly double checking our watches to make sure that our technology is screwing with us. Wish us luck as we try our best to keep track of our appointments this week.
Luke's Journey Across The USA 