Lake Powell Houseboat Adventure in Review - South OC Moms

If you haven’t been to Lake Powell with your kids or if you have never been at all, now is the time to book a trip. I know all you are hearing right now about Lake Powell is about the unfortunate water levels. And that is 100% completely true and so very sad indeed. But if you don’t go soon and the water levels continue to recede, you might not get a chance to enjoy Lake Powell in the near future. So figure out a time to take your family on the adventure of a lifetime. I am sure there are many different ways to see Lake Powell. Read on to hear how our family chose to see Lake Powell this summer. Lake Powell Houseboat

 

Lake Powell

 

Where We Stayed at Lake Powell

So unfortunately getting to Lake Powell isn’t the easiest, let me start with that. So if you are heading to Lake Powel from Southern California, you can stop in Las Vegas for one night like we did on our way to Page, Arizona. If you choose to drive straight through from Orange County to Page, Arizona it will take you about 8 1/2 hours. That is a little long for our kids so we choose to make an overnight stop. Note, that the houseboats leave everyday from the marina at 10am. So doing a straight shot from OC to Page, Arizona would be very difficult to accomplish early in the morning. We choose to drive into Page and stay a night at the Lake Powell Resort and Marina in the Wahweap Marina(100 Lakeshore Drive, Page, AZ 86040). You can drive in to Page and have dinner there, we choose to have dinner at the resort with what seemed like the rest of the resort. Make sure to make dinner reservations, as the place was packed. The next morning, my husband and I got up and went to the local Walmart right when it opened, to stock up for our trip. In the next section I will cover everything we choose to bring on the trip with us. Note, you have to return the houseboats at 3pm on your return date, so we stayed at the Lake Powell Marina and Resort again for one more night, instead of driving home. You are beat when you return home and we didn’t want to spend another 4 hours on the road heading back to Las Vegas.

 

 

What We Brought With Us To  Lake Powell

Things we brought with us for the trip:

  • Reusable cups for everyone, like a Yeti
  • Games to play on the beach
  • Sunscreen
  • Life Vests
  • Tubes to pull behind the ski boats
  • Tube inflator
  • Floaties for lounging in the water
  • Waterproof map of Lake Powell
  • Downloaded Lake Powell maps on our phone

Things we bought at Walmart for the trip:

  • Food ( I did a meal plan for breakfast(eggs, pancakes), lunch(sandwiches, hamburgers, left-overs)  and dinner(tacos, spaghetti, steak & potatoes, hamburgers & hot dogs each day of the trip.))
  • Lot’s of snacks, the kids will be exhausted each day
  • Dish Soap (there is none on your boat!)
  • Foil, zip lock bags, storage containers for left-overs
  • Beach Towels
  • Beach Chairs
  • Fishing pole
  • Booze
  • Firewood
  • LOTS OF WATER
  • Smores
  • Lots of Ice(we bought this at the marina market)
  • cooler(note there were 2 coolers on our houseboats)

Note, there is also a small market at the marina. So if you forget something or still need additional supplies like ice cream bars, they will have it!

Lake Powell

 

What We Rented at  Lake Powell

We did our adventure with 3 other families.  They always say, make sure you like who you are traveling with, because you will certainly encounter stressful moments out on the Lake. We put two families on each boat. One boat  was 59 feet and the second boat was 75 feet long. In addition to the houseboats we also rented from the marina 2 ski boats, 2 jet skis, 1 paddle board and 1 wake board. The ski boats are key for many reasons. One, we were able to take one out on the lake ahead of the houseboats and scout locations where we wanted to dock for 5 days. Two, you can also pull many more kids on two ski boats than just one. And three, if you want to go on any excursions on the lake, you will want to take the ski boats. The houseboats are slow and take a lot of gas, so we scouted out our location prior to actually docking our 2 houseboats.

 

Lake Powell

Lake Powell

 

 

What We Did During Our Time On Lake Powell

The majority of our days were spent pulling the kids on the different tubes on the water. We also used the awesome slides on our boats and swam in the warm clear water. At night we would have campfires on the sand and enjoy smores and conversations with our friends.

We did take both of our ski boats and went out on the lake to find Rainbow bridge. It isn’t exactly close so be sure to prepare your family wisely. Make sure you have enough gas, water, sunscreen, hiking shoes, snacks and a downloaded GPS map of the Lake. Thankfully when you get to the front of the Rainbow Bridge waterway, there is a large National Park sign(shown below) letting you know that you are indeed in the right area. Until then you are just hoping that you are going in the right direction. You will follow the tiny water way until you can pull your ski boat up on some sand. You will pass by old dock areas that were used for tours that are no longer accessible due to the water levels. We only saw one other group while we were there and saw one more group coming in when we were leaving. Once you tie up your boat, it is a good 35 to 40 min hike to the bridge. The trail is very well marked and it will take you straight to the largest free standing arch in the world. It is absolutely stunning once you arrive. You will run into a covered seating area first where you can stop and take in the arch from afar. You can continue up the trail to get a much closer look at the beautiful arch. I does take some time and work to get there, but it was absolutely worth it!

 

Lake Powell

 

Lake Powell

 

Lake Powell

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