Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell

I had mixed feelings about Lake Powell all day. I think the flooding of Glen Canyon in 1963 was the first event that triggered a sense of outrage in me over what humankind does to the environment. One of my early memories is of seeing photographs of Glen Canyon as it was about to be 'lost forever' when the Glen Canyon Dam started to do its job and backed up the Colorado River and many tributaries to create Lake Powell.  As I recall, my father got a book of photographs, perhaps Eliot Porter's The Place No One Knew. I asked why this place of incredible beauty was never going to be seen again and my father explained that it was a plan to control the flow of water to protect and irrigate farms downstream and to create electricity.  I remember feeling great grief that I would never be able to see this magnificent place that henceforth could only be seen in historic photographs.

Today we took a boat tour on Lake Powell and cruised up Antelope and Navaho Canyons, as well as along the lake side of what I recall my parents calling the 'damn dam.'  I felt the grief

again, as I thought of the beautiful rock formations that were buried under the water we moved across.  The lake, as most such artificial lakes along the Colorado, is currently relatively low. The rock walls of the canyons have a crust of white as a result of the calcium carbonate left behind as the waters receded.  You can still see the patterns in the sandstone, but the natural color of the rock is covered.  It is an unintended consequence of humanity's selfishness and desire to use the environment to meet its needs.  We learned the 'coastline' of the lake is longer than the Pacific coastline of Washington, Oregon and California.

And... on the other side of the coin, without Lake Powell, I doubt I ever would have made it in to those canyons I saw today. Granted, I could only see the tops of the canyon walls, but it took determined (and brave) adventurers to get up those rivers and slot canyons by foot. I don't think I would have made it.

Living in the desert, I must admit it is a wonderful experience to be at a big body of water. There are beaches, and the sand where I walked into the water today is very fine and soft.  There are clam shells in the sand.  People have a lot of fun on the water - vacationing on houseboats, riding jet skis and jumping off the cliffs into the deep water (over 400 feet in many places).

The scenery is still spectacular, but my heart also aches for what has been lost - not just what I can't see, but places sacred to the people who have lived in this area for centuries, and the ways that plants and animals were affected when their habitats were changed by men with big machines.                                                                          

Top of the dam - about 20 feet wide

Looking downstream from the Glen Canyon Dam bridge - see the boats?

See the trucks and cars where the turbine rooms meet the rock wall
 at the far side of the canyon?  It is a long way down!

It is impressive to see about 450 vertical feet of water being held back behind the dam, although you really only get the perspective on that when you look on the downstream side of the dam. To get a sense of how deep the canyon is, the little curved white line along the edge of the river is a line up of pontoon boats.  

I recently saw a movie (Watermark) that included scenes of the Three Gorges Dam being built, and it reminded me of reading Peter Hessler's River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze in which the author describes the antiquities that would be lost, as well as the 1.3 million people who were relocated because their towns and homes were going to be flooded after the dam was completed and the Yangtze rose behind it. I guess it beats burning coal, which is causing such bad pollution in China that people wear masks, to say nothing of the impact of carbon emissions causing climate change.  And that brings up the fact that from Lake Powell you can see the Navaho Generating Station, which burns coal mined on the Navaho reservation. Have you seen the clips of people whose water has been polluted to mine the coal and they don't even have electricity themselves?  The power station helps provide the energy to pump water from the Colorado River into the Central Arizona Project - which provides water to Phoenix and Tucson.  Hmm, more messing with mother nature, so we can live where we want to live.  And I benefit from it.


Enough of a rant - here are a couple of more photos of the lovely canyons we were in today. They call the last one a Navaho Tapestry.  I think it looks like a mural of ocean creatures swimming.  Of course it is just the pattern created on the sandstone as a result of wind and rain.  Wow.  I'm so glad I got to come here.