Lake Powell

[gwpowell]

I have seen an article in our Australian Water Ski mag on Lake Powell. It looks brilliant out there. So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on the best places to stay on land or water (house boat) and the best place to hire a ski boat.

I am thinking of coming over there for holiday next year. Maybe you might have better places than Lake Powell to suggest.

[coz]

Originally Posted by gwpowell

I have seen an article in our Australian Water Ski mag on Lake Powell. It looks brilliant out there. So I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on the best places to stay on land or water (house boat) and the best place to hire a ski boat.

I am thinking of coming over there for holiday next year. Maybe you might have better places than Lake Powell to suggest.

Once you've been there you might not want to go back down under
Great lake with all kinds of thing to do and see http://lakepowell.com/index.cfm

[Itsme]

Lake Powell is a fantastic place to vacation!!!

We reccomend that you bring a Mastercraft to pull with and at least one PWC to explore.

We used www.lakepowell.com houseboats for our trip - very professional and really nice equipment.

Good luck!!

[Sodar]

Powell is gorgeous. If you have the means, I would recommend renting a privately owned houseboat. When we went, my parents and a few of our family friends really did it up and got the most incredible houseboat for about the same price as the rental companies were renting their 72' for. Our houseboat had 2 PWC slides/ramps up the stern (Not having to TOW PWCs is a god send!) and an upper deck with a wetbar, spa and ceiling fans. Boat also had Sat TV, which made it nice to keep up with current events when you are out in the middle of no man's land!

[craig3972]

one item to note... when there are a few boats running around it can get quite rough .... the vertical rock walls (stunning and breath taking) bounce the wake wash right back out.
Dont forget to visit Rainbow bridge .. worlds largest natural rock bridge- amazing!

[gwpowell]

Thanks guys.

Sodar do you have the details of the private houseboat you hired?
Did it come with the PWC included on the ramps?

[ncsone]

I second Sodar's recommendation. We rented from the company (not private rentals) at Wahweap 2 times and had houseboat issues both times. I am guessing that a private HB would be a lot better maintained than the ones at Wahweap.

It is a spectacular place to go, though. Others are right when they say that it can get rough between those rock walls. Fortunately, it only seems to be really bad on the first few miles out of the Wahweap area.

[swchopper]

If you want the whole Lake Powell experience, renting a houseboat is the way to go. Just look online.
You can also just stay at a hotel in Page, Arizona. I have young kids and so we do that every year. With an infant, it's nice to get out of the hot weather, shower, and eat at a good restaurant.
Lake Powell CANNOT be beat! Enjoy

[kgrove]

Anyone with experience camping on Powell? Houseboats there are pretty damn expensive to rent. We've thought about just packing tents and camping gear, but that's alot of stuff to put on my little (relatively speaking) MC.

[FrankSchwab]

kgrove -
We camp every year. My buddy has a PS190 that carries all his and his wifes gear; I carry my wife and kids in my Maristar 200. You can pack a lot of stuff in an MC, because most of it doesn't weigh that much.

My recommendation:
1. Tent. If you're going in July, August, or September, it should be a strong one. Late afternoon thunderstorms are likely, accompanied by 50 mph winds. You don't want to be trying to fish your tent out of the bottom of the lake. Make sure you have good staking supplies; sand anchors work well if you can find a sandy beach, otherwise enough rope to tie off to whatever rock crags you can find is necessary.
2. Sleeping pad. Get a $30 Queen-size airbed from Wally world. Discard after use, as the valves never seem to seal well the second time.
3. Sleeping bags. Not particularly necessary; in late summer, mid-70's may be as low as you see at night.
4. Water. Bring several 2.5 gallon jugs per person.
5. Food. You're on your own; I'd be happy with seven days worth of sandwiches for breakfast, lunch, and dinner; but everyone else seems to want to spend their days either preparing meals or cleaning up after them.
6. Porta-potty, and unless you're really intimate with those around you, a tent to put it in. No burying your turds at Lake Powell.
7. Gas. The only gas is at the marina's - Wahweap/Antelope Point, Dangling Rope, Bullfrog, Halls Crossing, Hite. It can be 60 miles between Marinas, so if you have a PS190 with a small tank, you might want to bring along half a dozen 5 gallon jugs. They ride quite nicely on the swim platform.
8. Shade. There's not much on the lake; a couple of EZ-Ups (staked down well) are life savers. Oh, bring sunscreen.
9. Water toys. Lots of water toys. Bring something you've never done before and learn it. We had a blast renting an Air Chair, and spending a week learning to ride it.
10. A map. The Stan Jones map has a lot of fans.
11. A GPS. Even a $100 hand-held cheapy (what I use) is immensely useful, but you can get by by reading the mile markers on the channel buoys.

That's pretty much all you need. We tend to camp near Gunsight, which puts you reasonably close (~20 miles) to both Dangling Rope and Antelope Point marinas.

If you have a small MC, leave Wahweap early (like, 5 AM early). The main channel can get extremely choppy later.

And that's probably all you need to have a blast there.

/frank