Lake Powell advice wanted

[Boschma]

My family is wanting to do a Houseboat trip in 2022.... wanted to start looking into it all. Never been before so the thought of renting one of those big houseboats and going to a lake I’ve never been before seems a little intimidating.

Any recommendations on who to rent from or not to?

Any must haves in a houseboat I’m looking at?

Where should we head to?

Any places we should try to check out?

Appreciate all the help guys!!

Any other advice or tips would be great!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Your ad here]

Do a trip this year with your boat. Rent a house in Page and launch at Wahwheap. Honestly it's not hard at all to get there from Southern California or Arizona. Dont give yourself a excuse not to go.

 

[Crazyhippy]

Only 2 "legal" places to rent from, Aramark, and Antelope Point. Can find rent by owner stuff advertised occasionally KSL (Utah based Craigslist type thing) seems to be a popular place for them.

My family have been going out of Wahweap the last few years.
Depending on your time, the further up lake, the better IMHO. Crowds get much smaller for sure. Last Year we set up on a private island (maybe 1 acre, 10' tall sand island) in the back of Rock Creek Bay. Year before we went all the way back in Last Chance. Sheltered from the wind is key. Plan on afternoon winds from 3-sunset.

Rainbow bridge is a must see.
Dangling Rope Ice Cream somehow hits harder than anywhere else.
Cathedral in the Desert is awe inspiring.

We have had a bunch of JPL nerds with us, so a telescope was a must have.
Paddle Boards were awesome too.
Big ass inflatable island was a much bigger success than anticipated. We floated an EZ up over it in 5 gal buckets. Worked bitchen!

 

[Tooms22]

I haven't been in about 10 years but if you pony up the money for a little faster houseboat, it makes a huge difference because "fast" is like 12-14 mph.

Also, bury the beach anchors deep. The side of a house boat is like a sail and the thunderstorms pack a punch.

Last, hold on if they send a guy to your houseboat to dock it at the end of the trip. Everyone left on our houseboat hit the floor when the driver rammed the dock.

I didn't plan that trip, so I don't have much info on the renting side of things.

 

[DarkHorseRacing]

If you're dead set on doing a house boat, the biggest pain in the ass is you don't know anything about it, where anything is or how anything works (and good luck driving it). Therefore, something I'd recommend is looking to rent a houseboat with a captain (that's usually the owner). Not only does he know how to use it, but he can drive it for you so you don't have to. And if you need something, he knows about it (or if it breaks, and you didn't break it, he can fix it).

We did several houseboat trips in Powell with a captained houseboat and its the only way to go. Just include the captain in the alcoholic drinks and meals and he (or she) will be happy to rent to you (and you buying the gas of course).

As for how do you find this? Honestly I have no idea. I was like 10, my parents figured it out, but I'm sure if you asked around you could find this option.

 

[Gramps]

Wahwheap has or had a "new to houseboating special" One or two nights in the hotel and a learner trip out on a house boat.

Lake Powell Vacations - Houseboating Resorts Marinas - Glen Canyon Recreation Area

Lake Powell vacations are fun for the whole family. Explore the waterways in a houseboat rental or enjoy fishing & camping, watercraft rentals & sports of all kinds.

www.lakepowell.com

 

[Crazyhippy]

 

[2Driver]

Killer pics

 

[Motor Boater]

Do it. Rent from antelope. They will load all your stuff in a golf cart and drive it to the boat. They will also provide a caption to pull the boat out of the marina and back in when you return. Go up lake. At least to last chance, rock creek or further. Lots of attractions to see around there and dangling rope has gas and some other supplies. It’s the best trip you’ll ever do. Plan out your meals, make sure every couple is in charge of certain dinners, lunches etc so you don’t end up having slackers that sit on their ass and piss everyone else off.

 

[Bpracing1127]

Time of year makes a huge difference in trip experience, what time were you thinking

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

Thousands of clueless foreign tourists with no grasp of the English language do this each summer and they all seem to survive. For the first trip stay at the hotel and rent a slip, figure it all out then before you go back in a houseboat. The biggest thing on a houseboat is meal prep and assigning nights for cooking and getting all the groceries you will need for a week or so on the lake. We go in September, best time of year IMO.

 

[floatn turd]

If you need a "Designated Driver" let me know.

I don't eat much, won't stink up your bathroom and can sleep on the beach.

You can get shit faced all day and i'll do the ski boat driven.

That's a win-win in my book.

 

[HBCraig]

Do what others have said here. Go up and explore places. Last chance and Escalante for sure

I have rented 3 , all from Wahweep. Antelope was another 30% more when I was booking. I don't know if it is part if the Indian tribe and they charge more or not.

 

[throttle]

Cancelled twice last year. Just rescheduled for July 2021 [emoji1690].

Can’t wait!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[LHC Kirby]

YouTube university is a great resource.... on how to tie up and how NOT to tie up.... videos typically don’t lie. Great trip, but a rock is a rock... beautiful rocks and we loved our trip.

Make sure you get along REALLY REALLY GOOD with other attendees..... have a detailed food plan and bring twice the alcohol and three times the ice... half the clothes.

 

[Desert Whaler]

They still sell Olympia beer in Utah . . . I'd stock-up on some serious 'Oly' !!!!

 

[Hardly Satisfied]

We had a trip planned last year till covid hit hope to go next year

 

[707dog]

we are going for our first time in august staying at the hotel in wahweap and slipping the boat. we really wanted to do the house boat deal but don't know jack about the lake or where to go so figure first trip will be the exploration adventure for the next one.

 

[Bpracing1127]

YouTube university is a great resource.... on how to tie up and how NOT to tie up.... videos typically don’t lie. Great trip, but a rock is a rock... beautiful rocks and we loved our trip.

Make sure you get along REALLY REALLY GOOD with other attendees..... have a detailed food plan and bring twice the alcohol and three times the ice... half the clothes.

The friends statement in this is 100% true. I went last year. Life long friends but it didn’t work out

 

[mesquito_creek]

we are going for our first time in august staying at the hotel in wahweap and slipping the boat. we really wanted to do the house boat deal but don't know jack about the lake or where to go so figure first trip will be the exploration adventure for the next one.

Tip of the day for what you are planning. Bring a handheld VHF marine radio so you can radio the golf carts to come pick you and your stuff up at the hotel parking lot each day to and from your boat. The walk from the wahweap resort down to the boat dock is crazy far away and steep! The golf carts are all kids who work on tips, so save some singles in cash. I think the carts monitor channel 78, but the people at the marina store can dial you in. What you are planning is really a good compromise in my opinion. We have done exactly what you are doing when we are not on a house boat.

 

[Crazyhippy]

Do not pass up a chance to fuel up! 150miles a day is very do-able staying @ wahweap.

 

[twocents]

Something you normally wouldn't think about on a houseboat vacation but it's a good idea to have an emergency safety plan in place in case someone onboard developes a serious medical problem. Help isn't just a phone call away.

 

[Boschma]

Time of year makes a huge difference in trip experience, what time were you thinking

Not sure.... pretty open from June to mid August


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Boschma]

Thanks for the help guys


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[2Driver]

So we hauled everythin, supplies and jet skis and stayed the night before boarding at the waweap lodge. Wasn’t worth it to stay on the boat imo. We went to the marina that afternoon and did paperwork then we’re first in line when they opened the next morning.

I hailed a porter with the golf cart train to load our stuff and snagged an instructor ( mandatory) to go over our boat. if you don’t do this you can sit around for a few hours waiting to get under way. Once loaded and ready I ran up to the ramp next to the rental marina ( not the main ramp there is one next to where you rent houseboats) and launched my kid and wife on the skis and they met me mid lake to tie off to tow the skis. I bet the whole process took, 2 hours max.

We made it to Rock Creek just before Dangling rope marina by 5pm. We lucked out and got a primo spot which we used as HQ the entire week. Waiting that long to get a beach was stupid as you can find yourself in a pickle if places to beach are gone and it’s getting dark. The best way to find a beach is to have 1 party in a boat or ski with a hand held marina radio to scout the arms and coves and radio back via handheld marine radio to the houseboat. You can cover a lot more ground that way.

Theres a ton to learn but here‘s some stuff to look into.

Take a second uhf handheld with marine band channels on it if you are taking other boats or skis.
Research packing food and planning. Ice management, what gets frozen what doesn’t calc drinks water etc...
Take a good 1st aid kit
Learn how to anchor and don’t short cut it. That goes for skis or other boats too, Over anchor. Learn how to use the engines when anchored during excessive winds if needed. I had to do that once and it saved our bacon.
The park service monitors channel 16 and will only respond if you are severely injured or sinking. They don’t care if you are out of gas, adrift dead in the water heading for rocks so figure that in. Leave the marine radio on channel 16 in the background so you can hear or help others.
Take lots of firewood.
During monsoons keep an ear to the weather band. You usually can’t see the storms coming. We sat under clear calm skies one late afternoon in June and heard about a severe storm warning in Kanab bearing down on Powell. 45 minutes later a glass lake turned into huge waves and anchor pulling winds and we were ready for it.
Check Wayne’s words website for snow pack and the water depth of the ”cut” if going out of waweap. If the cut is too shallow, the go around via Antelope Marina will make a big difference in your 1st and last day travels.

just some things that came to mind

 

[Happy Smitty]

Lake Powell is beautiful. Don't waste any time. Make a visit whatever the accommodations may be...

 

[24 Sleekenforcer]

The only problem coming out of Wahweap is if the cut is dry you will have to go through the narrows. It will add at least two hours to the start . The water is really low , cut is not usable now with a grim outlook for the upcoming season. Next year could be a different story. Antelope Marina gets you closer to your destination at lower water levels.

 

[QC22]

Learn how to anchor and don’t short cut it. That goes for skis or other boats too, Over anchor. Learn how to use the engines when anchored during excessive winds if needed. I had to do that once and it saved our bacon.

This! I've done houseboats on Shasta, Mohave, Mead (6 or 7 times) and Powell. I don't recall one trip without an "all hands on deck" moment. This is not to scare you away. We rented them in our 20's and my oldest son planned and managed one when he was 19. The point is these trips can be awesome, but there will be some situations where you all need to work as a team. You don't want any dud friends, and you need to be ready for weather. With that noted, the most memorable vacations we've ever had.

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

The only problem coming out of Wahweap is if the cut is dry you will have to go through the narrows. It will add at least two hours to the start . The water is really low , cut is not usable now with a grim outlook for the upcoming season. Next year could be a different story. Antelope Marina gets you closer to your destination at lower water levels.

It was open in September, is closed now?

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

Also, rangers will not navigate the lake at night, there is a reason for that, you shouldn’t either. If you get hurt at night you are on your own till sun up.

If it’s a big boat, 50 plus you want three anchors per side, if they don’t give you that many ask for more. If you go in July or August you will have storms and you will need all 6. Make the younger kids in your group dig the anchor holes, 6 feet at least. We give the kids $20 a hole and they go ape shit on it. Drop the anchors in and flood the holes with water as you fill them in.

Bring a fresh $100 bill for the porters, money well spent, they will carry everything down for you and they are grateful since they get fucked over on tips from the foreigners. Our guys carrier my stand up jet ski all the way down from the truck.

Make sure your boat has an inverter and if your truck does run a extension cord from the plug in the cab through the rear slider window and plug in a box freezer. We bring ours out of the garage and buy all the meat at Costco ahead of time. The porters will carry the freezer down if you bring the $100 and you can plug it in on the front deck of the boat to hold bags of ice.

If you can invite a doctor nurse or emt friend it could come in handy.

 

[24 Sleekenforcer]

It was open in September, is closed now?

Yes closed and most likely will not be open this year. They are predicting after run off a lake level of 3575. Sad

 

[Bpracing1127]

Not sure.... pretty open from June to mid August


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Mid June is a great weekend to go. Not too hot. Water is warning up and is very nice and not really monsoon season yet

 

[Bpracing1127]

Also, rangers will not navigate the lake at night, there is a reason for that, you shouldn’t either. If you get hurt at night you are on your own till sun up.

If it’s a big boat, 50 plus you want three anchors per side, if they don’t give you that many ask for more. If you go in July or August you will have storms and you will need all 6. Make the younger kids in your group dig the anchor holes, 6 feet at least. We give the kids $20 a hole and they go ape shit on it. Drop the anchors in and flood the holes with water as you fill them in.

Bring a fresh $100 bill for the porters, money well spent, they will carry everything down for you and they are grateful since they get fucked over on tips from the foreigners. Our guys carrier my stand up jet ski all the way down from the truck.

Make sure your boat has an inverter and if your truck does run a extension cord from the plug in the cab through the rear slider window and plug in a box freezer. We bring ours out of the garage and buy all the meat at Costco ahead of time. The porters will carry the freezer down if you bring the $100 and you can plug it in on the front deck of the boat to hold bags of ice.

If you can invite a doctor nurse or emt friend it could come in handy.

The last statement on this is 100% true. We invited an er nurse. She came in handy and actually put stitches in for one of us.

 

[SW_GLASS]

So far I agree with everyone's advice. I would just add that we will being adding a Satellite phone to our list for this next year after the incident we had. This past year we went out for a week and stayed in Last Chance Bay. Unfortunately on Monday midway through the trip we had a serious accident water skiing and need one of our group airlifted to the hospital in Flagstaff. Thankfully it turned out better than we could have expected because we were able to get the rangers on the phone which is normally impossible to get cell reception in last chance bay. we were able to coordinate with the rangers and medivac people and they actually met one of our boats in Padre Butte for a handover to the helicopter instead of having to drive all the way in to antelope point or walweap. Had it been any other day we would not have been able to call out using our cell phones and it would have been much worse. Thankfully the person made a full recovery and is doing fine. My group of friends has been going to Powell for over 13 years and has never had a serious injury until this last year so we all agreed to get atleast two satellite phones for the next trip so we can keep in communication at all times. And a plus would be you can rent them by the week so you dont have to buy one.

 

[Royally PO'd]

It will most likely be very hot, so freeze everything freezable , it thaws super fast for use . Don't try and refrigerate drinks, ice 'em... and have a good map, especially out of the south end. There are some confusing areas in the lower lake, and the marker nuns are not always accurate..map helps make sense of direction and bearing... I've had some of the most fantastic boating there and some of the scariest...Good luck !!

 

[Crazyhippy]

The last statement on this is 100% true. We invited an er nurse. She came in handy and actually put stitches in for one of us.

Solid advice. We had an EMT and an ER Nurse on board our last trip... I broke my foot night 2 at sunset in rock creek. EMT caught me when I passed out trying to get back on the houseboat, ER nurse patched me up for a very long night. Advil, tylenol and bourbon did a reasonable job of numbing the pain.

Page hospital was fantastic! Zero wait in the ER. Xrays, and out in under an hour.

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

Solid advice. We had an EMT and an ER Nurse on board our last trip... I broke my foot night 2 at sunset in rock creek. EMT caught me when I passed out trying to get back on the houseboat, ER nurse patched me up for a very long night. Advil, tylenol and bourbon did a reasonable job of numbing the pain. View attachment 964552 View attachment 964553 View attachment 964554 View attachment 964555 View attachment 964556

Page hospital was fantastic! Zero wait in the ER. Xrays, and out in under an hour.

Fak, that looks painful, one of the reasons I never travel without a nurse

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

So far I agree with everyone's advice. I would just add that we will being adding a Satellite phone to our list for this next year after the incident we had. This past year we went out for a week and stayed in Last Chance Bay. Unfortunately on Monday midway through the trip we had a serious accident water skiing and need one of our group airlifted to the hospital in Flagstaff. Thankfully it turned out better than we could have expected because we were able to get the rangers on the phone which is normally impossible to get cell reception in last chance bay. we were able to coordinate with the rangers and medivac people and they actually met one of our boats in Padre Butte for a handover to the helicopter instead of having to drive all the way in to antelope point or walweap. Had it been any other day we would not have been able to call out using our cell phones and it would have been much worse. Thankfully the person made a full recovery and is doing fine. My group of friends has been going to Powell for over 13 years and has never had a serious injury until this last year so we all agreed to get atleast two satellite phones for the next trip so we can keep in communication at all times. And a plus would be you can rent them by the week so you dont have to buy one.

Always wondered why the dont rent them out. What does a sat phone cost anyway? Once you buy it do you just add it to your cell service account or is it a stand alone service you pay for?

 

[Crazyhippy]

Fak, that looks painful, one of the reasons I never travel without a nurse

Lisfranc ligaments... tore all of them, and broke metatarsal 2 and 3. Sucks getting old and pretending to be young! Freak waterski crash. I've fallen harder, and hundreds of times on this ski. This one was just lucky!

 

[SW_GLASS]

Always wondered why the dont rent them out. What does a sat phone cost anyway? Once you buy it do you just add it to your cell service account or is it a stand alone service you pay for?

I havent done alot of research on them yet but the little I did do I saw that you can rent the phone from any major provider for like 200 bucks for the week and then you pay for how ever many minutes you want like a prepaid cell phone. When I looked briefly last year it was going to be like 600-700 dollars to rent the phone with 500 minutes for a week. Before our next houseboat trip in July I was going to do more research to find the best deal. Money well spent if there is an emergency in my opinion.

Our group was going to go in on two of them so we can leave one at the houseboat and take one on the play boats so if we have any issues we can call for help.

Maybe someone on here will have more info on current pricing.

 

[mesquito_creek]

I have hit the Navajo Mountain repeater all over the lake with a 5 watt handheld if you have your HAM ticket...

Downlink:	146.96000
Uplink:	146.36000
Offset:	-0.6 MHz
Uplink Tone:	100.0
County:	San Juan
Grid:	DM47NA
Call:	W7WAC
Use:	OPEN
Op Status:	On-Air
Coverage:	Wide area: Lake Powell area from Bullfrog to Wahweap and Hite, toward the south into Arizona and North as far as Boulder.
Sponsor:	KE7OZE

 

[J DUNN]

I have hit the Navajo Mountain repeater all over the lake with a 5 watt handheld if you have your HAM ticket...

Downlink:	146.96000
Uplink:	146.36000
Offset:	-0.6 MHz
Uplink Tone:	100.0
County:	San Juan
Grid:	DM47NA
Call:	W7WAC
Use:	OPEN
Op Status:	On-Air
Coverage:	Wide area: Lake Powell area from Bullfrog to Wahweap and Hite, toward the south into Arizona and North as far as Boulder.
Sponsor:	KE7OZE

Solid info. Sad reality is most don't have HAM. I'll have to try this for our 2021 trips and refresh my skills.

WB6OXI (took over from my Grandfather who used it since the 40's)

 

[mesquito_creek]

Solid info. Sad reality is most don't have HAM. I'll have to try this for our 2021 trips and refresh my skills.

WB6OXI (took over from my Grandfather who used it since the 40's)

Navajo is part of the Utah Intermountain Intertie if you use the UHF station (I will post it below) its linked all over Utah and can reach into Northern Flagstaff area. Next time I am up there I will see if there is a Cell Phone Patch, but in an emergency, probably easier to just open the link and let the HAMs make the calls...

Downlink:	448.60000
Uplink:	443.60000
Offset:	-5.0 MHz
Uplink Tone:	100.0

 

[2Driver]

I just might consider getting my nursing or EMT cert and renting myself out as a passenger to houseboaters.