The too Grand Canyon and weird Lake Powell

Our trip took us to the less-visited North rim of the Grand Canyon. I know there will be those who will be surprised at what comes next, but I must admit that I was not blown away. Sure, the scenery was beautiful, but I think the scale was simply too big for me. Because the canyon itself is so large, wide at the top and then narrowing and becoming steep further down, we couldn’t even see its entire depth from our vantage point. And since we weren’t able to actually hike into it (way way too difficult for the girls) I found myself feeling somewhat removed and not taken in by the view. More generally, I think I enjoy places where you can actually “enter into” nature, and not only appreciate it from a convenient scenic viewing point by the road. That’s probably why we insist on taking hikes, even very short ones, at every opportunity. Even if you can actually see a wider angle from the view point I truly enjoy getting further involved.

From the Grand Canyon we headed towards Lake Powell, which is actually a man made lake created by a huge dam built on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon. Surprisingly (well, at least to us – because we didn’t do too much research…) the drive there was amazing. The road took us along the Vermillion Cliffs – that true to their names, are sandstone cliffs in various shades of brown and red, sculpted by the wind and river into interesting shapes. On the way we stopped in Lee’s ferry, which historically was one of the only points for crossing the river. We got out to dip our feet into the ice cold water – a real treat with the scorching heat outside - and saw a group of people with rafting boats and heaps of equipment. They were preparing for embarking on a 16 day trip down the river, through the Grand Canyon and beyond. The girls enjoyed playing in the water while Kim, one of the rafters from Flagstaff, told us about everything such an adventure entails. I love it when you stumble across something like this, and get to meet people and unexpectedly be exposed to something you really know nothing about!

Lake Powell, as I said, is man made. And it really does look very weird and out of place – a huge body of sparkling blue water, plunked smack dab in the middle of desert canyons. Indeed, from what we were told the dam project was highly controversial due to the huge environmental impact. I found myself pondering this as well. On the one hand, hydro-electric energy is fairly clean and preferable to other options. On the other hand, a lake with a marina in the middle of the desert just looks very very wrong. We had hoped we would be able to enjoy some swimming and cooling off in the lake, but there are actually no real beaches, both because the water level is highly variable depending on rainfall, and because the lake’s status as a National Recreation areas prevents and development along the shore, i.e. no shade. It was too hot for hiking, so we mostly hung out by the pool and the girls and I also joined a short boat tour of Antelope canyon, one of the tributary canyons (see the post by Noga). Again, sailing down the canyon and the juxtaposition of the dry sandstone cliffs and the clear water was beautiful in a way, it just didn’t feel right. Not the way it was intended by nature. I hope this doesn’t come out pretentious, but I found myself mentally comparing the Native American stance of honoring the land (which I know very little about beyond that statement) with the more modern practice of molding nature to serve our needs. I know there are many advantages to the latter, but I found myself wishing we would find a way to practice a little more humility and try to refrain from actions that have such large-scale impact.

Anat