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- Aug 9, 2007
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- 12,950
Audra and I spent a few days exploring Glen Canyon this past weekend with my sister and her family, including three of my youngest nieces and nephews. They don't camp much but they had seen photos and really wanted to come and do a little exploring with us. At first I was thinking September would be the perfect time for it. Typically the monsoons have died down and the temps are still nice. But as the trip approached, it started looking pretty rough with all of the turbulent weather associated with the pacific hurricanes we've had this year. I knew their camping gear wasn't the most robust, so Audra and I got down a night early to scout out a prime campsite.
It took longer than I expected to get to Wahweap. So long in fact that we only had about 90 minutes from when we launched to race up the lake and find a campsite. Coming out of Bullfrog, I'd be seriously concerned about finding one at all, but it turns out Wahweap is loaded with good sites. But we didn't want good, we wanted great. We got to Face Canyon during golden hour to find all the best sites taken. On the way out, we came across this group parasailing. It is illegal here, but it doesn't seem like there is a lot of enforcement of any of the other rules either. Oh well. Fun to see, I guess.
It soon became clear that we wouldn't find the perfect spot that night, so we decided to just find a patch of sand to drive the boat onto for the night. We could wake up and find a site and then go pickup the family from the ramp. But it turned out that small patch of sand we found next was the perfect site. Possibly the most perfect I've found all year.
We tied up the boat and started setting up camp for the next 4 nights. This was the view to the east that night.
It was calm, clear and very hot that first night. We sat out on the boat admiring the stars. I ended up sleeping right on the floor of that boat that first night. It was just too hot to go to the tent.
In the morning, I poked my head over the edge of the boat to see some nice color on the horizon.
And then the light hit the rocks above camp.
And then camp. It was such an incredibly beautiful scene. I couldn't stop taking pictures.
Under beautiful skies, we motored back to the Wahweap launch ramp to pickup my sister and her family.
We went straight back to camp and proceeded to setup and play in the warm water. Everyone loved paddling around the Sea Eagle.
There was a school of Blue Gill hanging around the boat which made for a fine opportunity for all three of my nieces and nephew to catch their first ever fish.
We spent most of that first day close to camp just exploring and playing. Nikita tried to catch fish as usual, but she did a better job of getting hugs and pets.
Me and a niceLargemouth Smallmouth Bass caught off the back of the boat in camp that evening.
That night I broke out my new DIY fishing light I made. All together it was only about $20 to make and it performed very well. The light consists of some PVC from Home Depot, a bit of wire I had laying around, an 8 AA battery pack from Radio Shack and an $8 string of waterproof LED lights from Amazon.
Here is a short video of the small baitfish circling around it at night. I dipped my iPhone 5S right in thanks to the LifeProof nuud case.
The next day we went up to Rainbow Bridge. Audra and I hung out in the boat with the dogs while everyone else hiked. I didn't really get any great photos that day, but it was a great day with great weather. I think the highlight was watching people try to dock at the crowded string of docks at Rainbow Bridge.
After a stop for ice cream at Dangling Rope, we went back to camp as some thunderstorms rolled through the area. My nephew really loved exploring the slickrock domes around camp.
The storms that evening made for some awesome light. It rained a bit all the way into the following morning, but by 10am, it was once again beautiful and sunny.
My sister with a nice mid-morning catfish in camp. We caught a lot of larger ones at night too.
Later that day we went over to Cookie Jar Butte. I'd wanted to explore the potholes around here for a while, but I'd left my hiking shoes at camp and the slickrock was too steep for what I had. I'll be back for that later.
We did do some more wake boarding while we were there though. That's my brother in law catching some air. This was his second time wake boarding. Not too bad.
We found a nice spot just below Cookie Jar Butte to park the boat and play for a while.
I found a friend.
Next we went over to Labyrinth Canyon and followed it all the way to the end of the water. It was very cool and very narrow, but also particularly sad because all you really see are the tips of the walls with lots of water hiding the rest. It got so skinny at times that I only had a couple feet of clearance on each side of the boat.
We stopped at the Dominguez Butte floating restroom on the way back to camp. Turns out there is great fishing near the floating restrooms!
My sister and wife fishing and soaking in the late afternoon sun. Soon after this photo was taken, I learned the hard way not to ever kick a catfish. I caught one and as I went to release it, it fell on the back deck of the boat. I knew those things had big, sharp spikes on their fins, but before I could think, I used my foot to get the fish back into the water. Luckily the bone in my big toe kept the spear from going all the way through it. I'm not sure if it's venom or what, but the 'sting' that those things give is INCREDIBLE PAINFUL!!!
We motored around in the evening and caught a few more stripers before heading back to camp for dinner.
In addition to the green fishing light, I recently installed some color changing LED ambience lights under the edges of the seats of the boat. Flipping them to red makes for an incredibly awesome star gazing experience. Looking off the back of the boat with the green water makes you feel like you're kind of drifting through space. Good times.
The next morning was time to go home. While everyone packed, my sister and I ran over to the floating restroom to clean out the portapotti. We took an extra hour on the way back to catch more than a half dozen nice stripers.
It was an awesome trip, particularly because the weather turned out so good and I was able to go with family. We decided while we were there to just leave the boat at Wahweap for the foreseeable future. It's so much cheaper than towing it around and it solves the problem of keeping snow off the boat here at home. It also makes it so much easier to quick and easy trips down there. I used to only want to go for 4-5 days because of the trouble and cost of towing, now 3-days sounds pretty nice. I'll probably do a handful of off-season trips down that way if any BCP'ers would like to join. Just let me know. I'm getting another knee surgery sometime in November, but if all goes well, that will be the one that actually fixes it.
A lot more photos here for anyone interested in seeing the full set:
https://plus.google.com/photos/1135...s/6062683233658097745?authkey=CO2ihpSk7aWLyQE
It took longer than I expected to get to Wahweap. So long in fact that we only had about 90 minutes from when we launched to race up the lake and find a campsite. Coming out of Bullfrog, I'd be seriously concerned about finding one at all, but it turns out Wahweap is loaded with good sites. But we didn't want good, we wanted great. We got to Face Canyon during golden hour to find all the best sites taken. On the way out, we came across this group parasailing. It is illegal here, but it doesn't seem like there is a lot of enforcement of any of the other rules either. Oh well. Fun to see, I guess.
It soon became clear that we wouldn't find the perfect spot that night, so we decided to just find a patch of sand to drive the boat onto for the night. We could wake up and find a site and then go pickup the family from the ramp. But it turned out that small patch of sand we found next was the perfect site. Possibly the most perfect I've found all year.
We tied up the boat and started setting up camp for the next 4 nights. This was the view to the east that night.
It was calm, clear and very hot that first night. We sat out on the boat admiring the stars. I ended up sleeping right on the floor of that boat that first night. It was just too hot to go to the tent.
In the morning, I poked my head over the edge of the boat to see some nice color on the horizon.
And then the light hit the rocks above camp.
And then camp. It was such an incredibly beautiful scene. I couldn't stop taking pictures.
Under beautiful skies, we motored back to the Wahweap launch ramp to pickup my sister and her family.
We went straight back to camp and proceeded to setup and play in the warm water. Everyone loved paddling around the Sea Eagle.
There was a school of Blue Gill hanging around the boat which made for a fine opportunity for all three of my nieces and nephew to catch their first ever fish.
We spent most of that first day close to camp just exploring and playing. Nikita tried to catch fish as usual, but she did a better job of getting hugs and pets.
Me and a nice
That night I broke out my new DIY fishing light I made. All together it was only about $20 to make and it performed very well. The light consists of some PVC from Home Depot, a bit of wire I had laying around, an 8 AA battery pack from Radio Shack and an $8 string of waterproof LED lights from Amazon.
Here is a short video of the small baitfish circling around it at night. I dipped my iPhone 5S right in thanks to the LifeProof nuud case.
The next day we went up to Rainbow Bridge. Audra and I hung out in the boat with the dogs while everyone else hiked. I didn't really get any great photos that day, but it was a great day with great weather. I think the highlight was watching people try to dock at the crowded string of docks at Rainbow Bridge.
After a stop for ice cream at Dangling Rope, we went back to camp as some thunderstorms rolled through the area. My nephew really loved exploring the slickrock domes around camp.
The storms that evening made for some awesome light. It rained a bit all the way into the following morning, but by 10am, it was once again beautiful and sunny.
My sister with a nice mid-morning catfish in camp. We caught a lot of larger ones at night too.
Later that day we went over to Cookie Jar Butte. I'd wanted to explore the potholes around here for a while, but I'd left my hiking shoes at camp and the slickrock was too steep for what I had. I'll be back for that later.
We did do some more wake boarding while we were there though. That's my brother in law catching some air. This was his second time wake boarding. Not too bad.
We found a nice spot just below Cookie Jar Butte to park the boat and play for a while.
I found a friend.
Next we went over to Labyrinth Canyon and followed it all the way to the end of the water. It was very cool and very narrow, but also particularly sad because all you really see are the tips of the walls with lots of water hiding the rest. It got so skinny at times that I only had a couple feet of clearance on each side of the boat.
We stopped at the Dominguez Butte floating restroom on the way back to camp. Turns out there is great fishing near the floating restrooms!
My sister and wife fishing and soaking in the late afternoon sun. Soon after this photo was taken, I learned the hard way not to ever kick a catfish. I caught one and as I went to release it, it fell on the back deck of the boat. I knew those things had big, sharp spikes on their fins, but before I could think, I used my foot to get the fish back into the water. Luckily the bone in my big toe kept the spear from going all the way through it. I'm not sure if it's venom or what, but the 'sting' that those things give is INCREDIBLE PAINFUL!!!
We motored around in the evening and caught a few more stripers before heading back to camp for dinner.
In addition to the green fishing light, I recently installed some color changing LED ambience lights under the edges of the seats of the boat. Flipping them to red makes for an incredibly awesome star gazing experience. Looking off the back of the boat with the green water makes you feel like you're kind of drifting through space. Good times.
The next morning was time to go home. While everyone packed, my sister and I ran over to the floating restroom to clean out the portapotti. We took an extra hour on the way back to catch more than a half dozen nice stripers.
It was an awesome trip, particularly because the weather turned out so good and I was able to go with family. We decided while we were there to just leave the boat at Wahweap for the foreseeable future. It's so much cheaper than towing it around and it solves the problem of keeping snow off the boat here at home. It also makes it so much easier to quick and easy trips down there. I used to only want to go for 4-5 days because of the trouble and cost of towing, now 3-days sounds pretty nice. I'll probably do a handful of off-season trips down that way if any BCP'ers would like to join. Just let me know. I'm getting another knee surgery sometime in November, but if all goes well, that will be the one that actually fixes it.
A lot more photos here for anyone interested in seeing the full set:
https://plus.google.com/photos/1135...s/6062683233658097745?authkey=CO2ihpSk7aWLyQE