So we get to Lake Powell Friday evening. All is well. The weather is great and we have tons of fun playing games and meeting new people. Taylor brought a friend, Paul, and Trevor Debenham rode with us too. We hooked up with the Debenham family at their houseboat. Krissy had a few friends there also. We played games until late, even Guy enjoyed it! 
Silly Sadie playing in the water, it is nice and warm...
Taylor likes diving off of the boat....
Chrystal, Guy, Susan and Dave. Playing four people on the couch. That was a riot. The guys ultimately won but the girl's came back before the weekend was over!
The water weenie wasn't enough, we had to blow up the three man tube so we could all jump back and forth from one to another. That was fun. I played it safe and stayed in the corner of the tube. My body is still sore from being jerked around so much. 
Krissy, Sierra, Sadie, Taylor, Paul, Chrystal
The tube kept loosing air so we went as long as we could then pumped it up for another ride.
(Chrystal, Guy, Taylor, Krissy)
A boat load of fun!
Sadie and I
Paul, cute smile!
Here is where the adventure really begins. Guy, Dave, Krissy, Sierra, Lynn, Eliza and myself decide to go up Navajo Canyon for a SHORT exploration. We left the houseboat around 2:30p.m. and told the kids we would only be an hour or so. When we got to the top of the canyon as far as we could we parked the boat and decided to walk up to the opening of Butterfly Canyon. We had to walk 30 minutes through the thick brush. The photo above gives you an idea of how thick it was. We had to walk low to the ground to get through and the ground was covered in dry horse crap. 
Hence, the wild horses! They were cool to see. There was another group of four further up the canyon.
After we got out of the thick bushes, we had to walk upstream in the water/mud. The canyon had flooded earlier that week so the stream was saturated and there was a lot of quicksand. Guy seemed to be into it up to his knees most of the time. We all struggled and had to walk bear foot the whole way. If you put your shoes on you couldn't pull them out of the mud.
When we reached Butterfly Canyon the majority of the group wanted to go all the way to Kaibito Falls. We walked a total of 2 1/2 hours to reach the falls. We were there by 6p.m. We were going to turn around at 6p.m. if we hadn't already reached the falls so that we could return to the boat before dark. But we made it just in time. Below is a photo of Eliza and Lynn swimming to the bottom of the falls. We didn't see the upper falls because we had to get back to camp.
The water was mucky and thick like chocolate milk. Sierra and I are looking at the lower falls in this photo. My photos of the falls are blurry and did not turn out good.
We hiked back to the boat in just under two hours. Instead of walking through the thick bushes, we walked through the thick, sloppy, stinky, decomposing horse crap mud. It was warm and bubbling. Sometimes it was thigh deep, but mostly knee deep. When you stepped into an air pocket it smelled horrid. Then we skirted the bushes and swam to the boat when the water wasn't as murky. 
We did not get to the boat until 8:15p.m. It was getting dark and it takes 30 minutes just to get out of the canyon to the channel. We were camped at warm creek so it is about a 45-50 minute drive. We were nervous about driving in the dark but we had to get back. We had a small emergency spot light. We were able to spot the boey at the end of the canyon, it was close and Guy swerved out of the way. He was driving mostly by reflection at this point. From the channel back into Warm Creek he did good but it was turning very black in the sky. The floating bathroom is on the right side of the canyon so we stayed on the left side. I was freezing so I was hovered under the windshield in a towel sitting backwards. Krissy and Eliza were also sitting on the floor. My eyes were closed and I was starting to drift to sleep. All of a sudden the boat whipped around hard and bounced a few times. I was stunned. I didn't know what to think and then the boat came to a complete stop. We were perched on land in about 1 foot of water. Guy saw the tamarasks 20 feet ahead and turned the boat sideways then cut the power and lifted the trim as fast as he could. It was surreal. We couldn't believe what happened. We were all safe, the boat was ok too. The engine was fine and there were no holes. We landed on sand but 10 feet away from us was rock land. What a miracle! (Our family was praying for us from camp. We were only 6 hours late!) It took all of our might but we rocked, tilted and lifted the boat back to the water. It was insane and so dark. You feel so alone on the water in the dark and your sense of direction is skewed. Below is a photo of where we landed. It is not a good one but you get the idea. We landed in the tamarasks on the far right. There were campers on the other side (as you see in the photo) but we couldn't see them. We returned to camp around 9:30p.m. Susan and Sadie were worried, especially because it was very windy.
Sunday we all loaded up in both boats and went to Rainbow Bridge. We were going to try to go to Hole in the Rock but the weather was chilly. We didn't get rained on until just before we got to Rainbow Bridge. The rain was pouring off the slickrock and there were magnificent waterfalls pouring over the towering walls. 
The rangers highly recommended us not to hike to the Bridge because there was a flash flood warning. Of course, Dave and Guy headed towards the canyon. Sierra and Dave made it to the Bridge. This was Sierra's first time at Lake Powell and she was anxious to see all that she could. Krissy, Sadie, Guy and Taylor were turned around by a ranger towards the top. 
Taylor, Guy, Chrystal, Sadie & Paul at the dock @ Rainbow Bridge
It is usually so hot this time of year that it is difficult to sleep at night. We were lucky to have the houseboat for cover when we needed it but it was nice to have a cold front come through while we were there. It was very mellow, the air was pleasant and the water was warm. The nights were cool and we were comfortable sleeping on the top deck under the stars with the cool breeze. We had to sleep in the boat only one night because it was raining. It was a chilly boat ride on Sunday to Rainbow Bridge but we were prepared with wet suits to keep us warm. By the end of the day the weather was clear again. We did a lot of wakeboarding and surfing Monday before we left. 
We are so grateful the boat is not damaged but mostly that we are all safe. (above) Guy driving the boat back to the marina. It was very windy. We had to dock the houseboat on an abandoned dock and let the executive services put it in the slip after we all left. 
There's no place like LAKE POWELL. Good friends, good scenery, good times......
Taylor, Krissy, Lynn, Eliza, Sadie, Sierra, and Paul
work hard, play hard, rider harder.
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