Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

GLEN CANYON NATIONAL REC

The National Park Service expects a total of one-half million visitors to the Glen Canyon Recreation Area this year, one million in 1966. Plans are under way to provide for their enjoyment and protection at Arizona's newest playground, Lake Powell, with its hundreds of miles of scenic shoreline.

In 1959 the National Park Service established its headquarters office at Wahweap, seven miles from Glen Canyon Dam, and began the tremendous task of developing the primitive and little-known area. James Eden became its first superintendent.

In the spring of 1963 the reservoir began to fill behind Glen Canyon Dam.

Development sites on the shores of Lake Powell were chosen according to accessibility, adaptability for construction and spacing of adequate facilities. Arnold Gustavson, landscape architect, has been in charge of the plans and program direction for Glen Canyon.

In general the park service will provide at each site: roads, parking areas, boat launching ramps, campgrounds, picnic areas, water supply and waste disposal systems. Other visitor services will be supplied by concessioners on a contract basis. These will include marina facilities and snack bars at all sites, restaurants, motels, air strips and access roads at some locations.

The entire development project by 1970, excluding concession costs, is estimated at $36,000,000.

Potential development sites are Wahweap Basin, Lees Ferry, Warm Creek Basin, Rainbow Bridge Landing, Hole-in-the-Rock, Oil Seep Bar, Hall's Crossing and Castle Butte. A temporary facility will be developed at Hite for use until Castle Butte is completed.

At Wahweap, the nearest lakeside access to Page, the park service has constructed a large campground and picnic area. The public boat launching ramp is completed. It is asphalt-surfaced, 1,100 feet long with a 500-foot extension at the lower end for launching when the reservoir is low. Two temporary ramps nearby are now in use as the lake fills.

The contract for the Wahweap Basin concession has been awarded to Canyon Tours, Inc. Work has begun for a 320room motel, a restaurant, marina and beach facilities here. WahWahweap has an airstrip and easy access from U. S. 89.

Lees Ferry is located at the lower end of the recreation area, 14 miles downstream from Glen Canyon Dam and is the only development on the Colorado River.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department last spring planted rainbow trout below the dam. Fine trout fishing is anticipated at Lees Ferry this year. There is a good access road from U. S. 89A to the site, and an airstrip is located beside the highway.

Ranger and maintenance personnel are on duty at Lees Ferry with temporary facilities, including drinking water, provided.

Warm Creek Basin is about five miles from Wahweap and is intended primarily as an overflow area for the Wahweap Basin development. Warm Creek will provide essentially the same facilities. In 1911 and 1912 Warm Creek served as a way station for a coal mining operation.

Rainbow Bridge Landing will be located within a short walk from world-famous Rainbow Bridge National Monument. Its entire development will be a unique floating facility, a system of barges and houseboats designed specifically for this use. All the components are being assembled at Wahweap to be floated and towed to Rainbow Bridge when the lake waters reach the desired elevation. Because of its situation, Rainbow Bridge will have no access road, airstrip, campground, launching ramp or restaurant. It will provide a snack bar, marina and other essential facilities.

An historic Mormon river crossing from western Utah to the San Juan country is located near Hole-in-the-Rock. A large exhibit is planned as one of the features of this development site. In addition, Hole-in-the-Rock commands a splendid view of outstanding rock formations on the lake shore.

The approach to Bullfrog Landing is spectacular. It is located between the Henry Mountains and the Water Pocket Fold area. There is air access adjacent to both Bullfrog and Hole-inthe-Rock.

Oil Seep Bar and Castle Butte are the two smallest sites. No motel is planned for Oil Seep Bar and it will have no access road. Hall's Crossing is located at an old approach point to the Colorado River used by early-day travelers and explorers.

RAINBOW BRIDGE IS NOT FALLING DOWN REATION AREA

While no one seems to have adapted the old song "London Bridge Is Falling Down" to Rainbow Natural Bridge the rumor has been widespread that it is in imminent danger of being flooded by the new Lake Powell. Perhaps this stone span, largest natural stone one in the world, is the greatest single attraction which the magnificent new water playground has to offer. Be assured that as the waters of the Colorado River fill up behind Glen Canyon Dam in Northern Arizona and extend into a body of water 186 miles into Southeastern Utah the lovely "Rainbow of the Desert" will still stand in its rocky fastness, waiting for you.In the fifty-seven years since white men first turned a corner along the rugged trail and beheld the graceful shape, only a few thousand more have visited it. Thousands of others have come to knowing its shape and setting through published pictures. Millions, however, seem to have heard the story that it is in imminent danger of being flooded or washed away. This would be tragedy, indeed, for nature spent millions of years carving the sandstone opening with waters brought down the slopes of Navajo Mountain. Until you yourself get around to seeing the bridge, perhaps a few facts will set your mind at rest.

A United States Geodetic Survey benchmark close to one of the sturdy legs of Rainbow Bridge shows that it stands 3,732 feet above sea level. Some sixty water-miles away is the dam, with its crest at 3,715 feet above sea level. Engineers of the Reclamation Bureau say the optimum lake level of 3,700 feet altitude may sometime be reached but not exceeded. The lake then can, quite obviously, never flood the arch which rises 378 feet above the creek bed. Even when convinced of this, many people seem to fear that flood waters from above or lake water playing in the creekbed below, may undermine the foundations. Engineers say no. Their considered opinion, arrived at after more than one survey, has quite evidently influenced Congress in the refusal to appropriate about twenty-five million dollars to build a suggested dam above the bridge, one below, and a diversionary tunnel to re-route the water of Aztec Creek on its way down to Lake Powell. The decision to wait and see seems a most sensible one.

Water fingering back up Forbidden Canyon, shortening the access trail so that boats can get closer and closer, will permit the floating of materials, equipment, and workmen if any such construction should prove necessary. It will eliminate the building of roads, which would certainly deface the country as well as being very expensive in this inaccessible and rocky terrain.

Conservationists, engineers, and Congressional spenders are happily unanimous on this much to be desired outcome; to preserve not alone the structure of the Bridge but to keep inviolate its silence and wild serenity. The existing land trails around the flanks of Navajo Mountain will be unaffected by Lake Powell. They are reached by road off Arizona 64, the Navajo Trail, between Tuba City and Kayenta on the Indian Reservation.

From a floating facility at the Narrows in Forbidden Canyon boat passengers will have a mile or less of leisurely walk to the national monument's prized feature. Instead of the strenuous four-day trip of the past, visitors will be able to include it in a single day's excursion on Lake Powell.

Wordy descriptions and even the finest of pictures fall short in giving the impact of even a half-hour personal visit. Go and see for yourself that Rainbow Bridge is not falling down!

J.R.M.

Wahweap will continue to be the center of administration and maintenance for the Glen Canyon Recreation Area. Eventually the staff will include 80 permanent plus 50 seasonal employees.

New buildings have been constructed along the future lake shore providing administration headquarters, housing and equipment storage and repair. A fleet of nine boats, two self-propelled barges and a 34-foot diesel cruiser will be on hand for lake patrol.

Of the 130 employees of the National Park Service at Wahweap, nearly one-third will be functioning in the ranger division, headed by John Mulladay, ranger chief.

The primary duty of the ranger force is the protection of visitors to the area. Rangers will be stationed in permanent homes at each development site where they will perform a wide variety of jobs. They will administer all boat operations as well as patrol by plane, land vehicle and, occasionally, horseback. Glen Canyon area rangers are trained in all forms of search activity and land and water rescue, including rope climbing, life saving and first aid. They are deputized as Arizona and federal law enforcement officers.

The biggest ranger problem anticipated in the future is that of search and rescue. The Glen Canyon Recreation Area will eventually take in 1,800 miles of lake shore with many narrow, twisting canyons.

Wayne Alcorn, the area naturalist, is presently building up a botanical collection. Under his direction exhibits will be arranged at development sites displaying information on the animal and plant life, the geology and history of the region.

A variety of self-guided boat tours is planned for Lake Powell. These will be adventure trips, each with a marked route to spots of particular interest and beauty. Nature walks will be laid out at development sites and campfire circle talks will be scheduled. An outdoor amphitheater for interpretive talks will be built beside the campground at Wahweap.

A 24-page booklet, its first published brochure containing pictures and information on the Glen Canyon Recreation Area, will be available from the National Park Service in the spring.