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Lake Powell questions


lonestar

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Planning first trip to Powell. Possibly stay at resort at Wahweap. Can this be done with daily boat trips out to wakeboard and surf? Not ready for the houseboat effort yet. But have questions about distance to travel daily to find good spots? And what about current water levels? Will the boat be safe in the parking lot overnight? So many unknowns

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Wahweep Bay is large and prone to heavy winds.  There is plenty of shoreline on the Bay, but it isn’t the picture postcard stuff that is further out. To cross the Bay it can be 20 - 30 miles. Many of the inlets and fingers at Powell are narrow and have steep rock cliffs, which will rebound your surf wakes for about 20 minutes before they go away. If the weather is accommodating, you can stay in the Bay, and with big enough open water, have no problems with your waves. Have fun.

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Hi Lonestar:

Yes, you can easily do Day Trips out of Wahweap.  And, I’d recommend Navajo Canyon as the best / closest place to Wahweap to Waterski / Barefoot, Wakeboard and Surf.   But, if there are no summer monsoons or winds, you can waterski, wakeboard, surf in the main channel. 
 

I’ve been to Powell over a dozen times.  And I boat camp for 3 - 5 days on these trips out of a 1994 Malibu Echelon. Best places to camp are in the Escalante Arm.  Again, if weather is nice, you can cover a lot of the lake in a day including going from Wahweap to Bullfrog / Halls Crossing. 
 

For more insight, go to:

https://wayneswords.net/
 

Roger 

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Have you already made your reservations?  The lodge may very well be booked out. There are some VRBO in Page. 
 

The further you get from the marinas the better the lake is. 
 

NPS never does a good job of marking underwater hazards. Especially true this year so be cautious. 
 

Going from Wahweap to Bullfrog in a day during the summer in a Malibu is way too long of a ride for me. The whole lake is scenic. Take it in pieces. 

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We stay in Page every summer at a VRBO. Other than the long walk up the ramp it’s very doable launching every day. Warm Creek and Padre Bay are easy to get to for the day. Lone Rock and the cove just up from Wahweap toward the dam are even great places in the morning. It’s an incredible place and still worth it even without a houseboat. 

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We did a trip a few years ago and stayed at the Courtyard Marriott in Page. We had ground level rooms with sliding glass doors. We were able to park the boat right outside our room and bring the boards and jackets in at night. I grew up going to Powell and staying on house boats and while that was more fun as kid who didn’t have to do any of the work, it was very doable to stay in Page. Besides, we are used to trailering to the lake every time we go out anyways.

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If you stay off the lake, do they still have the zebra muscle inspection each time you want to launch? It's been a while since I've been to Powell, but remember it did take a bit to get through.

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Last year We had to inspect coming into Utah, and at the end of our trip went through a inspection at the top of the launch, (had to pull out anything that got wet, anchor, bumpers , ropes vests) 

if you want to relaunch you will need to go through decontamination or lay up for 30 days. 

there may be a bow hook lock they give you to re-launch the next day but not positive.

 

We are headed back for a houseboat week in June, and can’t wait. Hopefully there is a decent snow melt between now and then.

Edited by Stevo
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We launched daily in Wahweap for a week in October.  No daily inspections- stop at ramp checkpoint and they would just ask if it was our last day but no full inspection until the last day on the lake when pulling out.  They check ballast and anything that could contact the water as Stevo mentioned on the full inspection.  

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It’s definitely doable to take each day as it’s own “mini trip” if you will. As others have mentioned it’s a long possibly HOT walk up the ramp and ensueing wait in line.  Depending on where you live there will be some dry times involved even if you get de- conned the Qugga issue is nothing to take lightly or not do the right thing with.  Again depending on where your coming from,, Powell can go from 0-100 in a matter of a few short minutes when it comes to storms. Always and I mean always keep an eye to the sky as that lake has claimed lots of boats and lives.  We have a houseboat on a buoy and get down 5-6 times a season, the water level is ever changing. It’s always dangerous with regards to submerged rocks regardless of water level. Not trying to be doom and gloom just being real. At the end of the day though there’s no other place like it anywhere on earth.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Is it possible to rent a slip and just leave your boat in the water during your vacation?  Or are the slips usually sold out or mega expensive?  I've been wanting to do a Powell trip but the cost for a house boat big enough for my crew is a little steep.  

 

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49 minutes ago, Slaney said:

Is it possible to rent a slip and just leave your boat in the water during your vacation?  Or are the slips usually sold out or mega expensive?  I've been wanting to do a Powell trip but the cost for a house boat big enough for my crew is a little steep.  

 

You can.  I don't think it is very expensive, but I cannot see the advantage.  The launch lines are not long, and you can launch every day without difficulty.  

I personally would get a hotel in Page, most nowadays have guards that roam the parking lot or you can also get a room with the boat parked right outside.  

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In Bullfrog slips are around $40/day. 
 

The water is low this year. Which limits the ramps that are open. I know I wouldn’t want to launch and retrieve every day this year out of Bullfrog. I can’t speak to the south end. 

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Just saw several videos of current lake Powell water depth and whoa is it low.  I think lowest its been since they built the damn (heard from a news story).  I always look here for water level updates, etc. 

https://lakepowell.water-data.com/

As of today:  April 17th, 2021

Lake Powell is 135.55 feet below Full Pool (Elevation 3,700)

By content, Lake Powell is 35.63% of Full Pool (24,322,000 af)


Snowpack is 69% of avg
TotalPrecip is 73.00% of avg

Castle Rock Cutoff is 15.5' below absolute minimum.  

No matter how low, Lake Powell is amazing, but it looks like it might be a tough year.  And, be super careful, lots of rocks getting exposed just below the surface.

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Only 2 launches open after this weekend, and Wahweap has about 5ft left before it closes. 
 

fingers still crossed on our trip in a few weeks. Based on the in/out numbers the last month we should be good to launch but pulling out will be within 1-2ft of the minimum for the launch.

Anything after the weekend of 6-12/13 Is gonna be tight.

C7659CAD-E790-41DC-9FCF-04D2108366C4.jpeg

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Hard for me to believe that either NPS or Aramark won’t do something to extend ramps. 
 

We go over July 4 and Labor Day, plus hopefully a fall fishing trip. 

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Hope so, but if it’s a deterrent for people I’ll enjoy a less crowded lake.

I saw some air footage of the spot we plan on parking the houseboat and it looks perfect, with a larger beach than last year.

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2 hours ago, Stevo said:

Hope so, but if it’s a deterrent for people I’ll enjoy a less crowded lake.

I saw some air footage of the spot we plan on parking the houseboat and it looks perfect, with a larger beach than last year.

I don’t think there is much chance it will be any less crowded. The rentals have been sold out for this year for months. It wasn’t that long ago that Bullfrog had a couple dozen rentals in dry dock because people weren’t coming to the lake. I hope I’m wrong but I’d guess it will be as busy as ever. 

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33 minutes ago, RyanB said:

I don’t think there is much chance it will be any less crowded. The rentals have been sold out for this year for months. It wasn’t that long ago that Bullfrog had a couple dozen rentals in dry dock because people weren’t coming to the lake. I hope I’m wrong but I’d guess it will be as busy as ever. 

Yeah it was kinda tongue n cheek, we got lucky last year with wahweap opening up 1 week before our scheduled trip, 

no tour boats again this year is a plus. 

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9 hours ago, Stevo said:

Only 2 launches open after this weekend, and Wahweap has about 5ft left before it closes. 
 

fingers still crossed on our trip in a few weeks. Based on the in/out numbers the last month we should be good to launch but pulling out will be within 1-2ft of the minimum for the launch.

Anything after the weekend of 6-12/13 Is gonna be tight.

C7659CAD-E790-41DC-9FCF-04D2108366C4.jpeg

 

They will put down metal grates at the bottom of the concrete to extend the ramp.  I am told that there is still quite a bit of usable real estate even below the end of the ramp.  I think Bullfrog has been doing that for a while.  I think they are a little more slippery than the concrete, but most people do just fine with 4WD.   

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13 minutes ago, TallRedRider said:

 

They will put down metal grates at the bottom of the concrete to extend the ramp.  I am told that there is still quite a bit of usable real estate even below the end of the ramp.  I think Bullfrog has been doing that for a while.  I think they are a little more slippery than the concrete, but most people do just fine with 4WD.   

I remember they did that back in 2002 but they have yet to do it at Bullfrog this year. And from Wayneswords it sounds like launching anything bigger than 20.0’ at the main Bullfrog ramp is a no-go (Executive Services Ramp is open but there are other challenges). I’m also under the impression that the Halls ramp has a cliff at the end of it so no extension there. 
 

As bad as this year seems, next year will be worse unless we have a HUGE winter. February prediction is about 3525 (dead pool is 3490). 
 

We have a rather sizeable investment in a houseboat at the lake. Starting to get concerned about the near future, and that’s something I’ve never said before. 
 

 

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37 minutes ago, TallRedRider said:

 

They will put down metal grates at the bottom of the concrete to extend the ramp.  I am told that there is still quite a bit of usable real estate even below the end of the ramp.  I think Bullfrog has been doing that for a while.  I think they are a little more slippery than the concrete, but most people do just fine with 4WD.   

This might be what it will come to.  This is Bear Lake in Northern Utah. This is standard operating procedure.

 

Tractor launch.jpg

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39 minutes ago, Rack said:

This might be what it will come to.  This is Bear Lake in Northern Utah. This is standard operating procedure.

 

Tractor launch.jpg

They do that at Big Mac in Nebraska as well.  But it won’t help when the ramp goes off a cliff. 

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RyanB,  You Are Correct, Tractor would not work in this situation.  (This is the Antelope Launch Ramp at Lake Powell)

Lake powel.jpg

Edited by Rack
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  • 2 weeks later...

Dangling Rope Marina at Lake Powell closed. 
Thus, it is now 100 miles between marinas to get gas ️ and ice. 
 

https://apple.news/AAsaAK2HxSOGA6da_C_tUJg

 

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