Spent two wonderful nights at Lee's Ferry, paddling and bike riding and birding
After two enjoyable days at Lake Powell, we were up early and fixed our breakfast in the parking lot of the marina watching the sun come up and start lighting up the various rock formations around the lake. We took off and headed toward Lee's Ferry. The ride down from Page to the turnoff to Lee's Ferry is quite spectacular in the various formations and colors. We stopped at the Navajo Bridge and were rewarded with a condor across the river from us. We are not sure if he had been injured or not. There were two guys that walked up and told us it was not a condor but a raven. Sorry guys, we got close enough to see that it was a condor. The day we left there was condor 50 perched right below where you can walke out onto the bridgel We were having camera and battery issues so did not get a good shot of this one.
We made good time and got to Lee's Ferry before 9:00 a.m. We drove up into the campground and wow it was full! We decided to head down to the launch point and go for a trip up the river. Packed ourselves a lunch, inflated the boat and were on the river by 10:30. This was as good a sendoff as we have done on some of the times we have camped up in the campground.
Headed on up the river leaving behind the sounds of a group loading up to go downriver. The river was not running too swiftly so we were able to stop and enjoy the various birds and views as we headed up river. Only people who have permits can go downstream so fishermen in their motorized boats and the intrepid souls in their kayaks and canoes head up river. You can also hire the "blue boats" to take you upriver. In recent trips it seems they usually do not arrive at the launch point until 2:00 or 3:00 in the afternoon so this might entail an overnight stay at one of the campsites on the river upstream so probably would require some planning but is something we are working on figuring out.
We made it to our regular pull out---where there is a canyon and a cave to be explored and a nice sandy area to have your picnic. We pulled in and found a little shade and had a nice picnic of leftover aspargus, stirfry and new improved tuna salad sandwich (the tuna was mixed with dijonaisse, cherry tomatoes, spinach, and green onions served on a croissant. Better than the average. We took a walk up the canyon and also a short rest and as we got back down--------------oops the wind we had read about was blowing. When I saw blowing, I mean whitecaps on the river! Gulp!!
Talked over our strategy and headed out. Basically the strategy was the head back across to the side of the river where we would eventually get out. It worked because the whitecaps seemed to be where the flow of the river was and where it hit the canyon walls which was on the opposite side from us for the most part but not always. We hit several places where we just stopped paddling and let the wind blow around us at about 35-40. mph. So what is usually a lazy float home, paddle when you want turned into a real experience.
We made it back safely, loaded up and went to the campground and found a nice spot to set up. We were not right on the river but did have some river and lots of mountains in our view. Visited with a couple from Durango that were going to take foot peddle operated kayaks up the river the next day. He also had a sail he could attach and they were wind surfers. Unfortunately they left the next day and we did not get to see how their trip turned out.
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