Hansen Canyon is one of those that greatly benefits from higher lake levels. When it’s near full, there are lots of beaches; when it’s near 3600, there are very few. At low levels, the only really reliable beach is in a cove on the left as you enter, perhaps 0.5 miles from the main channel. At 3590, it’s a big 500-foot long beach, perhaps 120 feet from lake to canyon wall. But it shrinks steadily as the lake rises, finally disappearing at about 3620 or higher. Substantial options open up about 2 miles into the canyon, but only once the lake reaches 3630 or higher. At this level and above, several coves and small bays present themselves, and at the very end of the navigable lake, there are sometimes longer stretches of beach along the narrowing channel, especially on the left side as you head upstream.
Steep-walled Crystal Springs reluctantly gives up beach locations at any lake level. When it does, they tend to be small, rocky and less than ideal, with very little shore area. There are slightly more (but still limited) options at lake levels below 3610, as small Kayenta beaches can sometimes be exposed. Perhaps the best spots are near the end, a little over 2 miles in, where there are more extensive although still somewhat rocky beaches in and around a beautiful alcove, with the softest sand and best shade closest to the alcove, which is on the south (or right) side headed upstream. This beach area can sometimes extend several hundred feet, and since it’s really the only really high quality houseboat spot in the entire canyon, it is unlikely you will achieve privacy here, but it is a beautiful site nonetheless. There tends to be slightly more beach area in this alcove at lower lake levels, as more sand is exposed. Kelsey warns that this alcove site has historically been so overused and popular with boaters that one end of this site used to be known as “Toilet Paper Alley”, with a smell to match.
