Spectacular Lake Powell Utah

Spectacular Lake Powell Utah had been on our bucket list for years and we were quite excited to be finally crossing it off that list!

Lake Powell is one of two enormous water storage reservoirs for the Colorado River Basin. Together these reservoirs provide water to 40 million people in the West. The Lake Powell reservoir was formed by Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona, and its waters extend northeast into southern Utah.

For some reason we never quite managed to get to Lake Powell until this year. And why we went in June 2024 is quite ironic. Steve and I were planning to explore more of Colorado. Our last trip there was in 2007. At that time we had stopped in Carbondale to visit our friend Susan, who had moved there from Wellington FL several years prior.

As soon as I knew we were heading to Colorado from Utah I call Susan to make sure she be home when we planned on visiting. It turned out she and her husband had booked a houseboat for 2 weeks on Lake Powell. WOW! We could see her AND get to cross another item off our list.

The drive to Bullfrog RV Park from delightful Parowan, Utah was long and winding, but quite beautiful. We checked in with no issues. But when we reached our site things started to go south. All that’s available there is 30 amp service. That means only one air conditioner can run at a time. Normally that has not been a problem. However we had not experienced such high heat before in the 4 years we have been traveling.

At somewhere between 105 and 112 degrees one AC can’t even come close to cooling our rig. We were still traveling with our friends Sandee and Mack and their site’s power wasn’t even giving them 30 amps! So they had to run their generator 24/7 to keep semi cool.

But we couldn’t leave without visiting with Susan and her hubby. Plus we were really looking forward to being out on their speedboat for the day to really take in spectacular Lake Powell.

The morning after we arrived we headed to the marina to meet up with Susan. The walk to their boat felt like walking through a blazing furnace but once on the water it was delightful. The lake was smooth as glass and the mist from the boat’s wake kept us cool and comfortable.

Steve and I love being on the water. Whether it’s the Intracoastal in Florida, the back bay at the Jersey shore, the Atlantic or the Pacific or even a mountain lake in California; we had never seen a more magnificent body of water than this one. Everywhere we looked we saw amazing rock formations, some with caves and some with arches.

We tried to rent a boat at the marina so we could share the beauty of the lake with Sandee and Mack… there was no one at the marina! We waited for half an hour to talk with someone and no one came. But Lake Powell is truly spectacular, even if the campground sucks.

Yet, when we got back to Ladybug, we couldn’t leave soon enough!!! We were scheduled to stay for 4 nights and left the very next morning to head to Durango, Colorado. The experience at that park was so awful, and it’s the ONLY RV park, that I highly doubt we would ever return. There is nothing else but the lake. No wifi, no cell service, no grocery store and no restaurant!!!!! But at least we got to cross Lake Powell off our bucket list!

Don’t get me wrong, Lake Powell is truly unlike any lake we have ever seen and certainly worth visiting. I would not recommend staying there in an RV. At least not at that location. But this lake is huge. So big that it is in both Utah and Arizona, so we might try checking out the Page, Arizona part of spectacular Lake Powell one day. Just maybe at a cooler time of year.