Lake Powell 2024

In the middle of May we went to Lake Powell with all of my siblings. This trip was complicated. It was a trip in memorial for my mom. My mom always loved Lake Powell, and facilitated trips down there. It was a very special place to her, especially Bowns Canyon. Because of these big memories and feelings about my mom and Lake Powell, this trip was hard and important for me and my siblings. To be honest my siblings felt more deeply about this than I did. I loved going to Lake Powell with my mom, but she and I connected in many other ways than Lake Powell. I miss her the most in my yard and garden, planning trips, talking about yummy food, thinking how happy she would have been when my kiddos did such and such thing. Those all make me ache. Kayla and Marc both felt that this trip was important, but unfortunately had different feelings about timing. Marc wanted to make this trip happen last fall. Kayla was not ready last fall or earlier this Spring. We finally settled on mid-May, which is only problematic because it is a traditionally sketchy time weather wise to go to Lake Powell. 

We drove down on Friday and stayed at Defiant House in order to pick up the houseboat on Saturday morning. The drive was no big deal with our kiddos. They are getting older and everyone is getting more satisfied with audiobooks. Picking up the houseboat was interesting. I have never really been in charge of it before. I had to sign a lot of papers, but the most serious of which was that I took the responsibility on myself that I would make sure that everyone in my party returned home safely. I opted to get the additional insurance, which was for peace of mind. I am glad we had it when we ran into a windstorm on Monday. 

After we picked up the houseboat. everyone dropped off their stuff, and we headed down the lake. John drove the houseboat a lot which was trickier than you would have thought. We wanted to camp down river so that we could all go to Bowns Canyon together in just the two boats. We towed the Glastron, and Kayla and Cortney drove their boat. Unfortunately when we got down to the area, Kayla's boat started having trouble with starting. So the Glastron was sent to recover them. We were stuck with the houseboat that couldn't maneuver very well in the small canyons. We ended up finding a place in Iceberg canyon to camp which was lovely. Our girls were the only ones that ended up in a tent on the shore. Everyone else stayed on the houseboat. All of their cots lined up in a row barely fit, but they did fit! Kayla rigged up a warm shower on the back of the boat--super spoiled us!

The next day we headed to Bowns Canyon. It was lovely to be out on the water again. It felt very strange to be there without my mom and grandparents. I remember how along exactly that stretch of lake, I looked over and memorized my grandparents' faces. I knew that wouldn't have many more times of seeing them at them at that location. I never thought that I should have been memorizing my mom's face at that time too. It's not fair how quickly she died after her parents. 

When I was a kid, the water level was my higher so getting to Bowns canyon wasn't a big deal. Nowadays we had to hike up a large, rocky ascent to get to the top of the bluff and then hike over and down into Bowns Canyon to get to the baptism and confirmation pools. Honestly getting down into the other canyon and back up again felt like the most treacherous part, but the whole thing was an effort. 

Resting in the shade after making it to the top.

We used to waterslide down that slope, clear up there!

Not a bad view if you can make the punishing hike. 

We made it to the baptism pool! Everyone waded in to cool off after the hot hike. All four of us were baptized here except Marc who they couldn't bring because of boat trouble. 

David slipped and fell off the edge just like Dad did! It is slippery! 

We then walked over to the confirmation pool where we had a little service about mom. I couldn't believe how close those pools were together. They seemed my further in my memory. 

My siblings and I each said some words about my mom. I spoke of her hard working nature, her endurance of pain, her willingness to be uncomfortable and inconvenienced to be a part of our lives. I miss her. Patti brought letters that their family had written to burn. She read a little excerpt from Jane's. It was so touching. Kayla addressed her words to Mom and apologized that we didn't get her cremated and spread her ashes here like she wished to. She brought a pair of mom's sunglasses and one of her bandanas to bury there. Kayla also brought a pair of her own sunglasses so she wouldn't be alone. It was pretty touching with a lot of feelings. 

It is an interesting thing to have these shared feelings with my siblings, but also feel so alone in my grief. I had a moment on Mother's day when I was out in my garden when I spoke to her. I don't know if she could hear me, but I told her things anyway. My mom is a big deal in my life and her loss touches a lot of aspects of it.  

Standing where we have a painting of us standing when we were confirmed.

The little boys made a cairn in the middle of the pool for her. 

So much beautiful life in the desert. 

This is where the glasses are buried. Patti brought the little bottles so we could take some sand home. 

It doesn't look as far as it was to hike up there.

Unfortunately Kayla's boat had trouble when it was time to leave the canyon. The glastron took a trip back with the first group of people, but then it randomly started. They decided to make a port-a-potty stop and we ended up chasing Marc. It was a little bit ridiculous, but all ended okay.  

There is nothing like the night's sky at Lake Powell. 

The next day there was high wind forecasted so we stayed at camp. The kids played on the rubber docky and the paddle boards. John and I went on a little hike with Darcy. David and Patti made a nice breakfast, and we made a nice dinner. John and Marc anchored the houseboat with a second anchor, thank goodness. We took down our tent and planned on having our kids sleep inside the houseboat. These were all good preparations because the wind really picked up that evening. The back of boat was well anchored but the wind carried the front of the boat 20 feet along the shore until it hit some rocks! Thank goodness for that insurance in that moment! We were trying to deal with that crisis when Cortney yelled for help from the back. The rail on his boat had bent badly and the boat was only being anchored by one rope. The paddleboards were going crazy, and their was the rubber docky flying about. It was a chaotic time to say the least. Everything worked out okay. We waited until there was a break in the wind and got the houseboat resituated on the sand. We got the paddle boards deflated and the rubber docky rolled up and secured. I feel bad about the damage to Kayla's boat. I am glad we had everything else secured well enough. Those gusts of wind going through the canyons are no joke. It was funny that all of the kids were pretty oblivious to everything because they were watching a lego batman movie. 

On our hike we made it up to the high water mark. It was a nice, shady snack spot. On the way back we rolled some big rocks over various edges. It was a good time. 

Playing with the cousins in the sand was good time! 

That smile says it all.