Monumental Houseboating on Lake Powell
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MILLIONAIRE STRIPERS
Our weekend party boat pulled out from the Wahweap Marina fully stocked with booze, beer, bait, and soon to be baked boatswains. We were pulling a pair of wave runners and a fishing boat through the Colorado River channel. past buttes, bluffs, banks, spires, cathedrals, and towering monuments, the kind you see at the Bijou during a John Wayne/John Ford film festival.
Before pulling out of the marina we power boated over to the marina store to buy fishing licenses. There was a million dollar fish tournament going on at Lake, Powell, and we were determined to catch that rascal. We were informed that we had to have a fishing license for both Arizona and Utah, because Lake Powell shares the borders of both states. We realized that we had Utah licenses but were fishing in Arizona waters.
PADRE POINT
It took a couple of hours to motor up and around Padre Point and Padre Bay and into Labyrinth Canyon, and across the transparent state-line from Utah to Arizona. We were happy to moor in Labyrinth Canyon because a storm was brewing. "Scurvie" and his crew of motley maties buried the four anchor lines in the oxide red/orange powder sand, and then it was a round of cocktails as the Cheetos and other snacks were busted out.
After the storm blew over, the sun came out in a radiant splash, and Janna, the "Jet Boat Queen," was the first out on the water, blasting through the narrow confines of Labyrinth Canyon to its terminus. Water-skiing and jet skiing is best in the broad, calm waters of the backwater bays, like Labrinth, but not in the Colorado River main channel, Water safety rules of Utah and Arizona apply: 800 RIDE PWC — Utah; 602/774-5045 — Arizona.
Meanwhile, everyone else threw their gear into assigned bunks. That night Chef Boy-ar-dee "Scurvie" whipped together a cordon bleu salmon dinner fit for a five star table as the sun set on Tower Butte, a ragged, decayed molar rising like a Pleistocene fossil out of the plateau off our port side.
LET'S HAVE A RUM PUNCH
After a few more rum punches, it was a conversation of past adventure bragadoccio, yarns, and blarney. Everyone seemed to agree in appointing Scurvie the galley swag for the rest of the trip, even though it was mainly hotdogs and sandwiches during the day. But the next night it was marinated steaks grilled on the propane foredeck stove, with the meat proving to be as tender as sandal soles. I didn't tell Scurvie I used my cut as fish bait. I think everyone else demoted him a Michellin star or two as well, but no one wanted to cook, so we continued to pump up his food finesse.
LAKE POWELL GOLF
The two teenage boys onboard, "Wild Bill" and "Wild Blakely," lost their imaged milion dollar fish prize poker hoards to the Professor in a continuous game of Five Card Stud, reminiscent of the Barbary Coast, with the Professor's made-up rules.
The next morning Danny powerboated Jaime and Scurvie into the National Golf Course in Page, Arizona, for a round or two on the links. Everyone else just sunbathed on the top deck like ruby-throated rainbow trout left too long on the grill. Some people should never be allowed into the wilderness. The skipper (Danny) returned a few hours later as another terrific storm swelled up, sending the greasy sunbathers below. Golf ball-sized hailstones pummelled the alumnium houseboat roof like popcorn, rattling everyone's nerves, and then gleamed in the oxide sand and red sandstone rocks, like while alien gemstones. As this spring storm blew out the lake returned to a pacific peace.in time to pick up the two pickled duffers stranded at the 19th hole. Read more on the Lake Powell National. Click Here.
LAKE POWELL MARINAS
There are five marinas on Lake Powell, all operated by the Aramark Corporation, and all are open daily to the public. All marinas are land-based, except Dangling Rope Marina, which is accessible only by boat.
Lake Powell Resorts and Marinas
PO Box 56909
Phoenix, AZ 85079-6909
You can rent a houseboat at any of the four land-based marinas. For reservations for houseboats or accommodations, boat rentals, charters, or day lake cruises, call toll free 800/528-6154. In greater Phoenix 278-8888 or fax 602/331-5258.
Reservations office is open 7 days a week, 7:30 am to 4:40 pm Mountain Standard Time, March through October. Open Monday through Friday other months. Closed Thanksgiving weekend, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Wahweap Lodge and Marina
Box 1597
Page, AZ 86040
602/645-2433
Fax: 602/645-5175
Bullfrog Resort and Marina
Lake Powell, UT 84533
Fax: 801/684-2312
Halls Crossing Marina
Lake Powell, UT 84533
801/684-2261
Fax: 801/684-2319
Hite Marina
Lake Powell, UT 84533
801/684-2278
Fax: 801/684-2358
Dangling Rope Marina is 41 miles from Glen Canyon Dam and has no phone, and runs on solar power. It has it's own gas dock.
You boat into Padre Bay around Padre Point, from Utah, and then you are in Arizona, under Tower Butte, part of the Navajo Indian Reservation. Tower Butte has identical symmetry on all four sides. From Wild Horse Mesa it rises 800 feet, its flat top three feet less than a mile above sea level.
Labyrinth Canyon winds its way from Padre Bay like a boney finger, pinching the sandstone puffball canyon walls narrower and steeper. At the end of the canyon I hiked on miles of sandy trails through rivertine shrubs, dead animals, shade, sun, shade, sun, and like an English maze garden. other canyons that shoot off or into the one we are on. But which one? I would not want to be here during a flash flood. In fact, there is no trace of the earlier storms the last two days, the sand sucked every molecule into it's earthern lair. The sand is dry; we take our shoes off; the oxide pushes between our toes like old, but still warm, campfire coals. The horizon is only up and it is an infinite turquoise and cloudless. Blakely and I hear sheep bleating, so we know we are on the Navajo Indian Reservation.
Back at the houseboat the passing storms stirs the fishing into a frenzy, and poles are hung over the top and bottom decks, with every other cast snarled in someone else's line. That night we caught plenty of stripers and in the morning it was channel cats on anchovies, but the million dollar fish received a good conduct medal for not landing on our lines. Everyone was cursing their bad luck and that had to be the most reviled fish in the lake. At least we saved film. By noon everyone was getting a little sunburned so it was time for more beer and Cheetos, and by the looks of some of the crew, they could have cut back on both.
MILLION DOLLAR FISHING TOURNAMENT
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Kriss Hammond, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent – Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com To book travel visit Jetstreams.com at www.jetstreams.com and for Beach Resorts visit Beach Booker at www.beachbooker.com
About the Author
Kriss Hammond, Jetsetters Magazine Correspondent. Join the Travel Writers Network in the logo at www.jetsettersmagazine.com Leave your email next to the logo for FREE e travel newsletter.