Solo kayaking on Lake Powell

After Anna and Aria's visit to Colorado, I drove them back to Utah, and the next day departed for Lake Powell in southern Utah.  I'd thought about kayaking here for a few years, and then had a conversation with Andrew, the airbnb owner in Ridgeway, about where they have kayaked there, and decided to give it a go.  I put in at Hall's Landing, a 90 mile drive from Blanding, Utah.  Talked with the helpful National Park Service employee and got going late, around 6 PM.  Paddled for an hour, and made camp with a great moon rise over the lake as a backdrop.  I kayaked for three days, and explored 4 different side canyons, Moquii, Henson Creek, Crystal River and Forgotten Canyons.  Moderate boat traffic on the first full day, but then things quiet down, since big winds came in.  Couldn't get out in the kayak for about 24 hours, and only a handful of power boats braved the big waves.  Did a nice day hike up on Saturday when the wind blew hard most of the day to the mesa top with a good view of the Lake and a couple of side canyons.  Most of the boat traffic this time of the year are fishermen as Lake Powell has excellent smallmouth bass, largemouth bass and striped bass fishing.  Talked with only one person the whole time and it was the coordinator (President?) of the Utah Bass Association who was in the back of the Crystal River side canyon fishing for smallmouth.

Camped just off the main channel, as camping spots are few in the spectacular steep sided side canyons.  The main channel typically has one vertical steep side and a more gentle other side with a number of indentations, following the course the Colorado River carved over the millions of years.

One story - My tent blew in the lake as I was setting it up on Friday night - just have finished putting it up and staking it, when a huge gust blew the whole tent (no fly - never used the fly) up and over a ridge and into the next small bay.  Crazy scrambling, getting on the life vest and spray skirt, getting in the kayak, paddling around to the next bay, and recovering the tent which was just barely floating took about an hour - I ended up having to dismantle the tent out in the bay while in the kayak, with the wind howling the whole time.  Reset it up on that side of the ridge with large rocks anchoring each corner, and it worked fine for my two nights at that site, although with the wind a fair amount of sand blew into the tent (couldn't put the fly on, it would have been even more likely to blow in).  So a happy ending, but a total crazy fire drill.

Wind is definitely the big issue here, as Lake Powell is huge (185 miles long) and a southerly  or southwesterly wind in particular can create big waves on the lake.

I decided to paddle out one day early (making for a long 9 hour paddling day of exploring and hoofing it back to Halls Landing) because the long term forecast had predicted wind for the next day...turned out to be accurate as the wind was blowing hard in Utah and western Colorado as I drove home the next day.  All in all, a fun adventure.