Lake Powell is an artificial reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border betweeen Utah and Arizona. It was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the controversial Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a popular summer destination. The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell.
History
The filling of the reservoir began in 1963. It reached "official fill" (full capacity) in 1980. More recently, however, several years of drought have reduced it to less than half its capacity.
Geography
Lake Powell straddles the transition eleveation between Kayenta Sandstone and Navajo Sandstone. This transition, with the different qualities of the sandstone, provides the basis for many of the geographic oddities in the region.
Features
The lake provides access to many natural geographic points of interest as well as some remnants of the Anasazi culture.
- Rainbow Bridge National Monument
- Fort Defiance
- Cathedral in the Desert (completely flooded by the filling of the reservoir, but now beginning to re-emerge as the water level drops)
- Hole-in-the-Rock crossing
- the Rincon
Development
Because most of the lake is surrounded by steep sandstone walls, access to the lake is limited to developed marinas:
- Page/Wahweap Marina
- Lees Ferry Subdistrict
- Dangling Rope Marina
- Rainbow Bridge National Monument
- Escalante Subdistrict
- Halls Crossing Marina
- Bullfrog Marina
- Hite Marina
Dangling Rope, Rainbow Bridge, and Escalante are accessable only by boat.
Many environmentalists continue to call for the decommissioning of the dam and the draining of Lake Powell.