Laserfiche WebLink
<br /> <br />ChicagQ Tribune I The return of Glen C nyon <br /> <br />e <br />. <br /> <br />430 F <br /> <br />NEWS <br /> <br />SPORTS <br /> <br />ENTERTAINIIIiNT <br /> <br />Join Mileage Plus, <br />earn 3,000 miles. <br />Roll over this area to learn more <br /> <br />121 E-mail this stOry <br />diL Printable format <br />jJ Search archives <br /> <br />(e. chicagobibune.com r Web enhanced by Googlca'(il <br /> <br />Search: I <br /> <br />chicaaotribune.com >> Travel <br /> <br />Stories <br />If you go ... <br />May 1, 2005 <br /> <br />The return of Glen Canyon <br /> <br />By Dan Leeth <br />Special to the Tribune <br />Published May 1,2005 <br /> <br />PAGE, Ariz. -- The desert's own extreme makeover began March 13, 1963. <br />Diversion tunnels closed, and the flow of the Colorado River began flooding <br />sandstone gorges near the Arizona-Utah border. The new reservoir transformed <br />Glen Canyon, "The Place No One Knew," into lake Powell, "Jewel of the <br />Colorado." <br /> <br />A rafter's river became a boater's haven. Although the aquamarine lake <br />augmented access to the blushing tapestry of canyon country, many of the area's <br />grandest cliffs, slots, arches, bridges, windows, domes, pits, alcoves, grottos, <br />seeps, springs, fins and falls lay seemingly drowned forever beneath the wakes. <br /> <br />Times have changed. The West's lingering drought has dropped lake Powell <br />more than 130 feet, and formations that have been waterlogged for more than <br />three decades now stand high and dry. Boaters today have what may be truly a <br />once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see sights unseen since the year Neil Armstrong <br />sauntered on the moon. <br /> <br />It may not last. Already, with the spring runoff just beginning, the lake has risen 3 <br />feet. And it could, according to a National Weather Service forecast, rise another <br />42 feet by July 1. <br /> <br />"People think they know lake Powell because they've been coming here for 25 <br />years, but they have never seen it at this level," says Steve Ward of lake Powell <br />Resorts. "It's been quite an eye opener." <br /> <br />More than a half-dozen natural arches and bridges have emerged from the <br />depths, once again offering rock-rimmed portals to a blue sky. Some pierce <br />precipices while others arc straight from water's edge. Most remain nameless or <br />bear monikers long since forgotten. <br /> <br />Weathering pits, which graced canyon-top mesas before the dam, are again <br />seeing sunlight. These pothole depressions can stretch 125 feet across and <br />plunge 50 feet deep. Topped with sun-warmed water from the receding lake, they <br />form natural slickrock soaking pools, ideal for houseboaters who lack hot tubs. <br /> <br />Freshly exposed sandstone domes poke like bald brown noggins in a sea of blue. <br />Submerged walls that once forced a canyon's meander again breach the surface, <br />turning high-water bays back into sinuous waterways. <br /> <br />"I'm sure they are a pain for motorboaters, but for kayakers, it's like being in little <br />mazes," says les Hibbert of Hidden Canyon Kayaks. <br /> <br />http://www.chicagotribune.comltravellchi -gpe lr2klO.20mayO 1,1 ,3121440.story?col1=chi-travel-hed <br /> <br />Page 1 of3 <br /> <br />Please register or log in <br /> <br />Subscribers: <br />Get the Advantage <br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> <br />5/2/2005 <br />