Lake Powell has been part of Cary Hunter’s family tradition for as long as he can remember.
He went fishing and water skiing there every year growing up. And for the past 15 years or so, he’s taken his own children down to the lake on the Utah-Arizona border each summer for a week of camping or relaxing on their houseboat.
Until this year.
“It’s paradise on Earth,” Hunter, who lives in Salt Lake City, said. “It was so hard to see it last year because it took a lot of the magic out of it.”
Between a 20-year megadrought and the water drawn out for agriculture and growing cities, the lake dwindled until it was roughly a quarter-full in 2022.
For boating families like the Hunters, it became harder and harder just to get in and out of the water, as the lake’s surface dropped below where most boat ramps could reach. The Hunter’s usual access point — Bullfrog’s main ramp in Kane County — closed in 2021. By 2022, he said, there was only one option left for houseboats in that area, and they had to wait in line for more than an hour to use it.
Once they were in the water, his family couldn't navigate to some of their favorite spots after receding water cut off access to side canyons and beaches. It had become more of a hassle than a holiday.
“For the first time last year, my kids said, ‘Maybe we should try another vacation going forward,’” Hunter said, “because they really just didn't enjoy Lake Powell last year.”
So the Hunters made plans to go to Montana this summer instead. But the short-term outlook for Lake Powell this summer isn’t quite as dire as they and many others had feared.
Epic snowpack across Utah and the upper basin of the Colorado River this year has saved the lake from calamity — at least temporarily.
Its water levels have steadily climbed more than 25 feet since they hit rock bottom this spring — the lake’s lowest point since it was first filled in the 1960s. The water is now roughly 20 feet higher than it was at this time last year.
Mary Plumb, spokesperson for the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area that encompasses the lake, said the park expects big crowds this season starting Memorial Day weekend.
“Lake levels are rising at least a foot a day,” Plumb said. “So we're really in the spring runoff mode right now.”
The water’s rising so quickly, Plumb said, that she’s warning boaters not to leave their cars and trucks close to the shoreline. After a week out on the lake, they might return to find their beach parking spot underwater.
As the busy summer boating season draws closer, the countdown is on to see if and when more ramps will reopen.
Before the north ramp at Bullfrog reopened in early May, Lake Powell was down to just one ramp — out of 11 total — that could handle houseboats. That ramp was renovated just last year to help it remain open all the way down to 3,525 feet above sea level. It closed, however, when water levels dipped below that threshold late last year.
Plumb expects the Wahweap main ramp, which she described as one of the lake’s two most popular ramps historically, to open for motorized boats as early as this week as levels pass 3,546 feet above sea level. That’ll be the first time houseboats can launch from there in nearly two years.
Next up would be Halls Crossing, just south of Bullfrog in San Juan County, once the water level reaches 3,556 feet. Then the Stateline ramp at 3,564 feet. If levels get up to 3,578 feet, the main Bullfrog ramp — the one the Hunter family traditionally used — would finally reopen.
Plumb recommends that everyone who plans to visit Lake Powell check the National Park Service website to make sure they’re prepared for the current conditions and know which park services are open.
“This is all affected by weather, which obviously no one can predict,” Plumb said. “But we're really excited.”
More boat ramps opening is good news for the local economy, too. Judy Franz lives in Kane County, Utah, and works as executive director of the Lake Powell area chamber of commerce in neighboring Page, Arizona.
The past couple of years have been difficult for businesses around Lake Powell, she said, as many of them either directly or indirectly depend on travelers dropping in for recreation. Between the low water levels and pandemic rules that kept some international travelers away, she estimates the area got roughly half as many tourists last year as it did in 2019, when it attracted 4.4 million people.
But now, she sees the signs of Lake Powell coming back to life everywhere she goes.
Hotel parking lots are filled with boat trailers. Local grocery stores are packed with people stocking up coolers for a week on the water. The phone at her husband’s fishing guide business is ringing off the hook.
“People are wanting to get out,” Franz said. “We're seeing the tourists come back, and that's a really good thing.”
The Bureau of Reclamation says it’s probable Lake Powell will gain another 40 or so feet by this summer, but even then the levels would still be short of where they were just three years ago in the summer of 2020.
In the long term, the risk of Powell regressing to its historic lows still hangs heavy over the region.
Arizona, Nevada and California recently agreed on a plan to reduce their water use by 3 million acre-feet over the next three years. That would add up to nearly 1 trillion gallons saved. But those cuts still likely wouldn’t be enough to stabilize the long-term future of the river — and therefore Lake Powell — as climate change continues its aridification of the West.
Cary Hunter, the Salt Lake City boater, said it’s hard to think about his kids or grandkids not being able to enjoy the version of Lake Powell that he grew up with. He worries that in another two or three years, the lake might be right back where it was in 2022.
But now that his family is watching Powell start to fill back up, his children are bugging him about trying to squeeze in a camping trip to the lake this summer. And, he said, they just might.
After all, who knows when the lake will get another summer like this.
“This is only one year,” Hunter said. “But hopefully they're able to maintain it. It's definitely paradise.”
