I’m now several paddle trips in with my new inflatable stand-up paddle board and I’m having a hard time believing I had to sell myself SO hard on buying it.
I’ve taken it out a good half-dozen times now: Both on weekday sunset cruises around Lake Mary, and on some longer weekend excursions! I went to East Clear Creek right before the Pipeline/Haywire/Double fires broke out (seriously, more on that later I swear) and spent this past weekend up at Lake Powell.
I’d originally planned on going camping on the Mogollon Rim for the extended holiday weekend, but a bunch of my friends bailed due to sketchy weather forecasts and work, so I ended up finding new ways to entertain myself over the Fourth of July holiday… like outdoor movie night on our new deck (yep you guessed it, more later), a downtown Flagstaff art festival, a barbecue at a friend’s house, s’mores over a backyard fire and a day trip to Lake Powell up at the Arizona/Utah border.
Lauren — who was also bummed about the failed camping trip — and I weren’t really sure what to expect because 1. It was a holiday weekend and 2. Lake Powell is at a record low, but we were pleasantly surprised.
We used my America the Beautiful pass to get in for $0 admission, and parked at the Wahweap boat ramp, which is JUST south of the Arizona/ Utah border.
It was shockingly vacant. We were able to park three spots from the lake’s edge, inflate our SUPs and then just walk down to the beach area to launch.
So convenient!
We spent about three hours (and four miles) paddling up into Utah to explore some inlets and coves around the lake.
I already can’t wait to go back. The wake, currents and winds were just enough to be a little bit of a challenge (my shoulders are still sore!) but not enough to be unsafe, annoying or unfun. There were several boats out, but very very few paddlers.
Plus — even with historic drought-induced low levels — Lake Powell is still GORGEOUS! Desert paddle boarding is highly underrated.
The weather was perfect too. It was in the high ’90s, and since Lake Powell is a desert reservoir, the water was the perfect balance between cool and warm.
We finished our day by heading down to the marina and getting dinner at Latitude 37.
After dinner, we drove back to Flagstaff.
I really can’t wait to head back up to Lake Powell and explore more of it. (Fun fact: Lake Powell is the second-largest man-made lake in the country. It has 2,000 miles of shoreline — more than the coast of California!) Several of my friends and I already have plans to come back and explore different side canyons on the lake.
