Lake Powell water level - "official" thread

yogi799

New member
Hey everyone, first of all, so glad to have found you all thanks to Wingnut and also some searching. Did not know which forum to join where everyone had moved to, but Wing has confirmed it was here. What a loss and what a relief we're all back. I was not on the old forum before it had closed, so i did not know if Chap had given the members enough time to move. We have probably lost a bunch of great threads though, I suspect nobody had time or tools to migrate them all automatically

I've search (to be a good sport) and have not found one main thread about this horrifying issue (just a few piecemeal threads). Just saw this on CNN, holy mother of God. Is Lake Powell basically gone???

I was there 3 years ago and loved it to death. Was planning to return obviously, and do so regularly if $$$ allowed.

Is this cyclical or have we lost the lake for another gazillion years? My local Georgian Bay (Great Lakes) was extremely low 10 years ago, they had local residents petitioning and fighting with the authorities to bring the levels back up... People lost water access to cottages.... Not sure if the gov't did anything or the nature corrected itself (we get a tonne of snow and rain here usually) but believe it or not, the lake came back with a vengeance. For the last 3-5 years we've had so much water that many islands have disappeared. That is great of course, but we've lost some gorgeous beaches too (well, they shrunk in size).

Will the same happen to Lake Powell too or is the prospect much worse? Is the lake still usable? Saw some pics from last year on here, but perhaps the situation has gotten even worse?
 
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Doc

Liquid Addiction
Staff member
So tragic. I am shocked I did not hear of this on any of the news channels I try to keep up with.

Welcome to Net Boat Talk Yogi. Bt Doctur and I have been here for a few years. Bt Doctur was on the chap site and said yall needed a place to land. I'm glad this turned into that spot. The yacht club that was using it went to facebook for events and this forums was slow. Perfect fit. Cheers!!! :beer:
 

Phillbo

Well-known member
I took this picture last week. As the lake goes down this island has emerged in the middle of the marina. They are continuously reconfiguring the marina to allow for it's growth. They have also been extending the ramps on the south end to allow launching but the north end is without a ramp for now. I've been on the lake when it was completely full but I'll never see that again.

Another infrastructure issue is the loss of Dangling Rope Marina about 60 miles up stream. No more fuel mid lake. I don't really have an issue with that since i have ab ig tank and get to the spots I want to go and back without needing to top off. It's actually made the lake better for us sonce it limits the crowds and the annoying wake boats up lake.


wahweap island.jpg
 
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yogi799

New member
So in other words we don't know if it's cyclical or not? Georgian Bay is huge and came back higher than it was before. Boaters in east USA also say lakes are too full. How ridiculous that one part has too much water and is flooding and the other is too dry and lakes vanish from the face of the earth.

To lose Lake Powell, and it sounds like we might, would be such a tragedy. I discovered it 3 yrs ago and consider it the most amazing lake (to my knowledge) for boating in the USA.
 

Phillbo

Well-known member
It's going to be a loooong cycle I doubt it will come up more than just a couple feet this year before dropping again. 2 fold issues. Lack of good winter snow pack in the Colorado water shed and increased population in the west. Also a vast majority of the water is used for agriculture in California.
 

Denny

Well-known member
Gold Site Supporter
Very sad,:cry: try to save me some, I'm coming your way the 1st of October this year.
 

Denny

Well-known member
Gold Site Supporter
I took this picture last week. As the lake goes down this island has emerged in the middle of the marina. They are continuously reconfiguring the marina to allow for it's growth. They have also been extending the ramps on the south end to allow launching but the north end is without a ramp for now. I've been on the lake when it was completely full but I'll never see that again.

Another infrastructure issue is the loss of Dangling Rope Marina about 60 miles up stream. No more fuel mid lake. I don't really have an issue with that since i have ab ig tank and get to the spots I want to go and back without needing to top off. It's actually made the lake better for us sonce it limits the crowds and the annoying wake boats up l

I took this picture last week. As the lake goes down this island has emerged in the middle of the marina. They are continuously reconfiguring the marina to allow for it's growth. They have also been extending the ramps on the south end to allow launching but the north end is without a ramp for now. I've been on the lake when it was completely full but I'll never see that again.

Another infrastructure issue is the loss of Dangling Rope Marina about 60 miles up stream. No more fuel mid lake. I don't really have an issue with that since i have ab ig tank and get to the spots I want to go and back without needing to top off. It's actually made the lake better for us sonce it limits the crowds and the annoying wake boats up lake.


View attachment 1513
When the water was up were boats docked over it?
 

Denny

Well-known member
Gold Site Supporter
Yes. they had to move the dock.
Wow! It is hard to believe that it is turning back into a desert.
A couple of years ago my son and I were on one of your lakes in the area.
I picked up a chart at the boat rental store, and it showed an Island in the area that we were presently in.
I looked around, the Island was gone, it was now a peninsula.
 

SST

Active member
I just took my first look at Lake Erie depths. It would appear that our LWD reading is about 1/2 foot below the previous years which averaged 573 feet above sea level. We've had a lot of precip around here including the Great Lakes water shed so I'm no looking at any significant low water levels until late in the summer if precip dries up. With Canada opened up, looks like I'll be able to take a couple of trips to Toronto this season unless this new variant takes hold. YUK!

Marina opens on May 15th. Almost there.
 

Denny

Well-known member
Gold Site Supporter
I spent this past week-end jumping through all the hoops getting a Canadian fishing license, getting ArriveCan so I can anchor and go ashore in Canada, and reloading CBP ROAM, so I can return home.
All the layup work is done, all I have left to do is light her up and pump out the antifreeze, the rest is up to Mother Nature.
 
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