Rainbow bridge canyon

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'm surprised to read just now it was moved in 1993. I would have guessed the mid 80's.
Talk about bad memory. I went to LP (south end) several times a year during the 80's in our 21 Sea Ray Cuddy Cabin and I don't remember fueling at Rainbow Bridge. One of our regular camping spots was Llewellyn Gulch, so passed and visited Rainbow many times. After the oil embargo and gas crunch we packed gerry cans to minimize on lake purchases, so maybe we didn't fuel up much there.
 
Last edited:
Trix said:
I'm surprised to read just now it was moved in 1993. I would have guessed the mid 80's.
Talk about bad memory. I went to LP (south end) several times a year during the 80's in our 21 Sea Ray Cuddy Cabin and I don't remember fueling at Rainbow Bridge. One of our regular camping spots was Llewellyn Gulch, so passed and visited Rainbow many times. After the oil embargo and gas crunch we packed gerry cans to minimize on lake purchases, so maybe we didn't fuel up much there.
Click to expand...
I was at Rainbow Bridge in Sept 1992, and the marina was already gone by then--or somehow missed it on the way in...
 
wayne gustaveson said:
I arrived near the end of 1975. In March 1976 I took my wife and went to Rainbow Bridge for the first time. I took a quick tour of Rock Creek before I realized I was not in the main channel but in a side canyon. Found my way back to the channel and found the way to the old Rainbow Bridge Marina. It was closed so I bought gas and put money into the money box and headed to the Bridge. Lake Level was high so we we could park the boat almost under the bridge. Lake water went under the bridge. We saw the amazing structure and then I mentioned to my wife that I had forgotten something back at the boat. I told her I would go find it and be right back.

When I got to the boat I found my {fishing rod} and tried fishing with a plastic worm for the first time. On the second cast I got a "huge bite" and started playing my first Lake Powell bass! At least I thought it was a bass until it jumped the first time. Then I knew it was a rainbow trout swimming nicely under rainbow bridge. We had a great battle but I was young and strong and won the prize! Great Memories.
Click to expand...
Great story, Wayne! Since you said you were there in March 1976, I looked it up--the lake was at a steady 3665 through that whole month. So good to know that the lake reaches the Bridge at that lake level...
 
Okay, I did a little more digging through my library, and found some interesting stuff to help nail this down. I have two documents from 1989 that help: Steve and Gail Brown's Lake Powell Boating Charts, and "The Lake Powell Boaters Guide" by Netoff, Ladd, Lamb, Wood and Holland.

Seems clear that in 1989 Rainbow Bridge Marina was gone already--not shown on the boating charts or the guide, plus in each document, Dangling Rope Marina is already there. I also found a cool drawing of San Juan Marina, which had recently closed...

Here's some images from all that... very interesting...

DR 1989.jpgDR Chart 1989.jpgForbidding Chart 1989.jpgSJ Marina 1989.jpgBoaters Guide cover 1989.jpg
 
Trix said:
I'm surprised to read just now it was moved in 1993. I would have guessed the mid 80's.
Talk about bad memory. I went to LP (south end) several times a year during the 80's in our 21 Sea Ray Cuddy Cabin and I don't remember fueling at Rainbow Bridge. One of our regular camping spots was Llewellyn Gulch, so passed and visited Rainbow many times. After the oil embargo and gas crunch we packed gerry cans to minimize on lake purchases, so maybe we didn't fuel up much there.
Click to expand...

The Rainbow Bridge Marina was moved in 1983, and that's when Dangling Rope Marina opened. ;)

Tiff
 
JFRCalifornia said:
Okay, I did a little more digging through my library, and found some interesting stuff to help nail this down. I have two documents from 1989 that help: Steve and Gail Brown's Lake Powell Boating Charts, and "The Lake Powell Boaters Guide" by Netoff, Ladd, Lamb, Wood and Holland.

Seems clear that in 1989 Rainbow Bridge Marina was gone already--not shown on the boating charts or the guide, plus in each document, Dangling Rope Marina is already there. I also found a cool drawing of San Juan Marina, which had recently closed...

Here's some images from all that... very interesting...

View attachment 11181View attachment 11182View attachment 11183View attachment 11184View attachment 11185
Click to expand...
Tiff Mapel said:
The Rainbow Bridge Marina was moved in 1983, and that's when Dangling Rope Marina opened. ;)

Tiff
Click to expand...
This whole report on Rainbow Bridge (Rainbow Bridge NM: Administrative History (Chapter 7)) was really interesting, but it eluded to what @Tiff Mapel said, that Dangling Rope essentially replaced Rainbow Bridge.

On a side note, I really enjoyed a glimpse into Government/tribal relations between the 50’s and 70’s. Great background on the bridge itself. Thanks Tiff and JFR!
 
Only went there once in 1972. My grandfather took me, my dad and a cousin of mine in his cabin cruiser all the way up into the San Juan. We caught nice rainbows up there. Rainbow Bridge Marina had huge carp swimming around and the walk to the bridge wasn't far at all.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
This has been an interesting thread. I had been to rainbow marina a few times before it was moved but I was not the captain so it does not really stand out in my brain. I do remember the canyon got real rough if there was much traffic and we did not look forward to going in there on weekends. I remember getting water dogs there too. The tour boat almost wrecked a friend in the narrow passage that is still rough even with wakeless zones. Five boats loaded with many friends would make the annual trip to catch LM and sight see as the lake was filling. I remember not really wanting to get gas at that marina but we had to if you were going that far in those days. We carried 3 or 4 outboard metal gas cans and rainbow bridge was as far as we could go one way. One of our boats ran out of gas about 5 miles short of halls coming back. In those days we tried to travel in pairs because of the remoteness of the lake and especially in the middle portion. This has brought back some fun memories. Thanks again for all the input.
 
1981 was when I saw it. My first time on Powell and it was amazing. Caught all largemouth and walleye. We used water dogs and took 36 dozen and ended up using all the dead ones. I have been going back since then. Motored right below Rainbow.
 
JFRCalifornia said:
Okay, I did a little more digging through my library, and found some interesting stuff to help nail this down. I have two documents from 1989 that help: Steve and Gail Brown's Lake Powell Boating Charts, and "The Lake Powell Boaters Guide" by Netoff, Ladd, Lamb, Wood and Holland.

Seems clear that in 1989 Rainbow Bridge Marina was gone already--not shown on the boating charts or the guide, plus in each document, Dangling Rope Marina is already there. I also found a cool drawing of San Juan Marina, which had recently closed...

Here's some images from all that... very interesting...

View attachment 11181View attachment 11182View attachment 11183View attachment 11184View attachment 11185
Click to expand...
@JFRCalifornia I found a copy of Brown’s LP Boating Charts on Amazon. I think I’m going to try and import it into CAD and create a single 22x36 map for the boat.

I love it so far, though. Thanks for the recommendation.
 
SkibumUT said:
@JFRCalifornia I found a copy of Brown’s LP Boating Charts on Amazon. I think I’m going to try and import it into CAD and create a single 22x36 map for the boat.

I love it so far, though. Thanks for the recommendation.
Click to expand...
I’d love to see what you can do digitally with those charts.... are you going to try to stitch them together? I scanned each page individually, and it’s a lot of scans...
 
JFRCalifornia said:
I’d love to see what you can do digitally with those charts.... are you going to try to stitch them together? I scanned each page individually, and it’s a lot of scans...
Click to expand...
Exactly. Depending on how well I’m able to pull them out of the spiral and get good/straight high resolution .tiff scans, it could turn out well.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top