Halls Crossing / Lake Powell, UT - 6/4 thru 6/10/08

Lake Powell was created by damming the Colorado River, down by Page, Arizona --- the Glen Canyon Dam. The lake is 186 miles long and backs up into more than 96 major canyons. Its 1,960 miles of shoreline are longer than the length of the whole western coast of the continental U.S. It has a surface area of 161,390 acres and is the second largest man-made lake in the country, after Lake Mead. The lake's blue waters are the product of a score of rivers draining large portions of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and New Mexico, and is more than 500 ft. deep in some places. It took 17 years to fill the lake, which is lined with very high walls of stone. There are several thousand houseboats on the lake, as well as thousands of other water craft.

Halls Crossing is located in the northern part of the lake. We decided to visit this part of the lake because of the friends we made while we were in Mexico in Feb./March. Vickie Miller is the manager of the Halls Crossing Marina and her husband, Daryll Evans, now retired, was the manager of the campground in which we stayed as well as the convenience stores. They treated us royally and were very kind, gracious, and generous with their time. We were treated to several boat rides and also asked to work there, this season if we could (we can't) or next summer (we might).

Joe spent many hours helping Daryll install a new dishwasher, while Irene read and worked on this blog. We enjoyed a delicious barbecue ribs dinner on their patio, overlooking the lake. The following evening, we all enjoyed Irene's pasta with sauce, meatballs & sausage, which she simmered for four hours - unfortunately it was not Casa di Trevi's fresh pasta, but Barilla's tortiglioni.

Unfortunately, besides great memories, we also took away with us four desert mice. Irene was so afraid after we caught the first two and then saw two more running around the living room, that she slept in the backseat of the Honda CRV one night at our next stop.