Lake Powell is an absolutely huge reservoir on the Colorado River, taking in the Utah and Arizona borders although most of it lies in Utah. It's one of the region's premier holiday spots and two million or so people visit every year. The lake is nothing short of spectacular, the second biggest man made reservoir by capacity in the entire USA, taking in Garfield, Kane, and San Juan counties in Utah and, in Arizona, Coconino County.
Lake Powell's shoreline is a whopping 2,000 miles or more long, longer than all the states on the Pacific coast combined.
Visit the Dangling Rope Marina, only accessible by boat. Famed for its excellent ice cream and hot dogs, it's exactly like an old-school western trading post but the whole place is run on solar power. There are numerous brilliant guided boat tours too. Here are just three of them.
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A tour telling the tale of the Glen Canyon Dam
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See the awesome Rainbow Bridge
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Discover the story behind the stunning traditional tapestries made by native Navajo people
Get all three under your belt and you'll begin to understand why this magical destination thrills and delights so many people every year.
Take a tour of Antelope Canyon to discover the narrow, tortuous, sculptural geology of the lake's lower end, with its beautifully colourful bands of rock and deep greeny-blue waters.
Lake Powell has 2 visitor centres and 5 marinas, mooring for over 2,000 private boats and a host of great restaurants, camp sites, houseboats, boat rentals, fishing, water sports and guided tours.
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Visit Horseshoe bend for canyon cliffs dropping 1,000 feet straight to the river below
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Go to Lee's Ferry, the historic site of an old Colorado River ferry
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Trek to Marble Canyon, an excellent starting point for the Grand Canyon
The Navajo National Monument is the state's biggest and most impressive prehistoric cliff dwelling site, stuffed with fascinating thirteenth century Anasazi tribal ruins. A real blast from the past.
In the 1880s Mormon pioneers seeking a route south spent 45 days blasting through a rock wall to make a path wide enough for their wagons. You can still visit the Hole in the Rock Trail today.
The Hole In The Rock Trail is a 90 minute hike with thousand-foot cliffs on either side and spectacular views of Lake Powell. There's a plaque commemorating the hard work and sacrifice of the hearty pioneers who carved it out of the sheer rock. Bullhead City Arizona is over the water from the casinos of Laughlin, Nevada and Lake Havasu City is home to the London Bridge, brought from England. Parker is a popular water recreation destination. And Yuma is just seven miles north of the Mexico border at Algodones Baja. Jump in a hire car and off you go...Cathedral Canyon delivers a thrilling wow factor, a frighteningly narrow slot canyon just twelve feet wide with soaring red and orange sandstone walls so high you can't see the top
Lake Powell is so huge that the entire area is known as 'Arizona's West Coast'. The water delivers every kind of pleasure you can imagine, in and out of boats, but the landscapes are equally spectacular. There's something for everyone, and it's all totally awe-inspiring. Take the astonishing Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, for example, which covers almost 300,000 acres of breathtakingly beautiful wilderness including the multi-coloured Vermilion Cliffs themselves in all their striped glory, plus the remarkable Paria Canyon, the Paria Plateau and not forgetting Coyote Buttes. No wonder Lake Powell and its massive-scale surroundings make a world-class holiday destination.