Slots-R-Us
Active Member
Anyone remember what water elevation restricts entry to 50 Mile up the Escalante arm at the big sand bar?
50 Mile Sandbar
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JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
You are blocked when the lake level is below about 3601. Right now it's at 3598. Here's a photo of what it looked like at 3605 a little over a month ago...
Slots-R-Us
Active Member
Thanks! I remembered it being right around current level. Appreciate the info
dallas massie
Well-Known Member
When does the arch start coming out of the water . Does it ever make a bridge. JFR can you post that picture before the lake , at that spot .
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JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
The top of Gregory Bridge (the visible part) goes completely underwater at 3661 or so. The bottom of the bridge span (now underwater) becomes visible at about 3550. No one has seen that since about 1969. In spring 2005, we came pretty close at 3555. The USBR currently projects that we may get as low as 3550 in spring 2022, but that's the "minimum probable" scenario....
Before the lake, the bridge had a span of 127 feet. Here's an aerial of the bridge before the lake, with upstream at the top of photo. You can see the sandbar at left... the natural course of the stream is under the bridge, which is why even when the lake is blocked at the bar, there's still a lake upstream--it's flowing under the bridge!
dallas massie
Well-Known Member
Thank you very much.I might go there in March just to see that.
Slots-R-Us
Active Member
I was tracking that a couple of years ago when the water level was down. I love to go down in the spring right at the low level mark. Of course, it didn’t get low enough to see the arch but we did get to experience Cathedral in the Desert with the bottom dry...very cool!
Slots-R-Us
Active Member
There is an old black and white picture around somewhere showing a small boat just barely fitting under the arch. Probably the last time the bottom of the arch was seen.
I believe Gregory arch is the second largest natural bridge in Utah being just a little smaller than Rainbow Bridge. Please correct me if I’m wrong, suffice it to say it is a substantial structure that has been under water for a long time
I believe Gregory arch is the second largest natural bridge in Utah being just a little smaller than Rainbow Bridge. Please correct me if I’m wrong, suffice it to say it is a substantial structure that has been under water for a long time
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Here's a couple of old photos that are circulating. The color one dates from 1969 and was taken by Stan Jones shortly before the bridge disappeared for good. The black and white one was taken by Don Thompson in 1960.
I know that at a span of 127 feet, it was one of the largest natural bridges in Utah. Rainbow Bridge is largest (234 foot span), followed by Sipapu Natural Bridge (225 feet) in Natural Bridges National Monument. Of course, there's also a whole lot of arches (not natural bridges, which are created by stream erosion) of comparable or even larger size than those. The largest natural bridge in the world is in China, called the "Fairy Bridge" at 400 feet...
hellasnow
Member
here it is at roughly 3600 tuesday September 8th. i was able to walk my small 19' four winns through the cut till about thursday. i was beaching to the side and behind on the backside. then i got nervous i wouldn't be able to get it out after a nights sleep. i kept a marker going while we were there for the week. we had a good dozen jet ski's come by and we would waved them through to go on into the canyon. nice part was we could take slow boat cruzes back about a mile or more and had the entire canyon to ourselves.
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
That is awesome... always wanted to camp there exactly in way you just did!! Bravo! By the way--those are fantastic photos!!!
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hellasnow
Member
i've been watching the water all year and as our trip got close i knew it would be perfect! Probably the best spot on the lake at that time in my opinon. It took some work though! a family with a houseboat was there prior to us and was nice enough to let us know when they would be leaving. 7:30am on sunday morning. we stayed in the Rincon saturday night with the houseboat and i woke up early. Left the Rincon at 6:45am for a nice glass boat ride into the escalante. as we rounded the corner to where you could see the beach they were literally just backing the houseboat off the beach at 7:21am. the stars aligned and i was more than ecstatic! we had about 5-6 newbies with us this year and we kept telling them you have no idea how lucky we are for the water to be right and for even the chance to have that spot. been waiting a Looooooong time for that spot exactly how it was. 15 years on the water and finally got it!
JFRCalifornia
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Looks like you really earned that spot! I was in the Escalante looking for a spot on the morning of Sept 5 (Saturday), which of course was crazy Labor Day weekend. I figured there was no chance I could get that spot, and sure enough, there must have been 6 boats trolling the water right there, plus what looked like a circus tent and a sideshow on the beach! The only thing missing were the clowns and elephants! Anyway, it was a long shot... And every other of the good spots in the Escalante was taken too, even the ones I thought were lesser known. But then I took a hunch that no one would be down Indian Creek because it generally doesn't have any sites, but at a low lake level, the talus slope toward the end can actually have a pretty sandy shoreline... and it was there! So ended up with a fantastic spot in Indian Creek, right outside the shady alcove at the end...
You're right--persistence pays, and you did a great job with that!
And as I said above, I'm super impressed with your photos...they really illustrate the constraints of that site around 3600 perfectly... thank you! By the way, I'd love to use one of them in the guide I'm putting together... what do you think?
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hellasnow
Member
ya we left the beach around noon on friday am and had people on us like flies trying to hold it. we were like watch out we have a 75' houseboat to get off the beach and swung around. it was supposably 5 families boat camping! thats a lot of people!
Indian creek! nice call probably had it all to yourselves in there, sweet! sounds like you did a nice job as well. Persistence and knowing the lake pays off big time!
I don't see why it would be a problem to use a pic or two. i might have some others as well if you'd like i can post them or start a new thread.
Feel free to add them to the 2020 photos thread!
Favorite LP Pics 2020
New thread, as requested. :giggle: And, some photos from my earliest trips to Lake Powell in early the 70's to start things off. This is where it all started for me: Lake Powell, fishing, and boating. Sorry for the poor quality of these old photos.
Squirrel
Keeper of San Juan Secrets
Ya’ I know about those noisy crows, I had a pet crow in the “60’s” that talked. Then there was the one that got in my boat, that picture is too large and won’t load. Sq
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