Lake Powell Houseboat '94 Episode 3: Rainbow Bridge

Hell Houseboat
a lake powell houseboat adventure

(EPISODE III)
Rainbow Bridge

Bullfrog Basin Launch to

click thumbnails to see the big picture

The morning after the Bobcat Attack, nerves were on edge. We rose at first light. The sun gradually turned on the color, going from greyscale to kodachrome. We ate a hearty breakfast. Big Ed and Wanda fished. Despite Homer having yakked endlessly about fishing he did not spend more than a few minutes with a pole in his hand. His brother caught many fish. Homer caught none. The morning passed leisurely. At some point Durango mentioned that this was the day we planned to float to Rainbow Bridge. Homer had pretty much given up telling us we could not get there. So we waved goodbye to Bobcat Cove, not knowing at the time that it would be our favorite spot on Lake Powell..

As we motored uplake, coursing our way through the main channel, using the navigation buoys to point the way, hunting for the correct route using binoculars, the scenery seemed to vary at every turn, amazing shapes, colors. We looked for possible campsites for that night's stay as we got ever closer to the side canyon that leads to Rainbow Bridge...after a couple hours of making our way up the lake, we came to the buoy that said Rainbow Bridge...this was our first side canyon, it was narrow, very narrow, speed boats making waves that reverberated off the canyon walls tossing our little houseboat like a cork in a bathtub. It was a wild ride. The canyon twisted and turned, at every bend we craned to try to see Rainbow Bridge...

Wanda on the roof deck keeping a lookout for oncoming boats and
Rainbow Bridge as we made our way up the canyon...

Finally we saw Rainbow Bridge. It was much bigger than anticipated. An enormous arch over 300 feet tall. By now Big Ed was a master at piloting the behemoth and so he managed to virtually parallel park at the crowded dock. We hiked to Rainbow Bridge, took the requisite photos and returned to the boat. Lulu was acting a bit flamboyant and attracted the attention of some foreigners. Germans most likely.

Rainbow Bridge barely visible in the background as Big Ed leads the way to securing the boat...

Lulu posing for some tourists...she was acting like a glamour queen, looking quite radiant actually, and so she became just one more scenic wonder needing to be photographed...

The boatride out of Rainbow Bridge's canyon was a bit more wild than the wild ride in. A large tour boat was coming in as we were heading out, traveling well above the posted 5 MPH speed limit, creating an enormous wave. We saw the wave coming at us like the tidal wave in the Poseidon Adventure. It crashed over the front, slamming the deck chairs against the wall, flooding over the slight bulkhead, spreading across the floor of the boat, soaking everything. The houseboat rocked and rolled out of control. It took several minutes for calm water to return us to an even keel.

We motored on, we wanted a place to dock the boat for the night. By now Big Ed ran the engines at top speed. We passed many good looking campsites. Lulu went down to the Galley to prepare our evening feeding of marinated baby back ribs. Way too much bother for such primitive conditions. Big Ed and Homer were piloting. There was no reasoning with them about campsites til they smelled those cooking ribs, then it was stop at the first lame site they saw, slightly up the San Juan River, fish corpses on shore, not a pretty site...

Bullfrog Basin Launch to

Bobcat Cove to Rainbow Bridge to

Skull Cove to Bloody Bat Cove

Moki Dugway Moab Arches National Park

Canyonlands Bryce Canyon National Park

Zion Monument Valley

Grand Canyon Mexican Hat