Event of the Month

EVENT OF THE MONTH Lake Powell's Festival of Lights Fills Folks with the Spirit of the Season

Page, Arizona, hosts the finest traffic jams in the state. They happen exactly twice a year along Lake Powell's Lake Shore Drive. Yet not a driver leans on the horn or clenches a fist.

The first jam always occurs on a warm evening in early July (Independence Day fireworks). The second jam invariably occurs at nightfall on a nippy Saturday in early December. The holidays are coming, and it's time for the annual Festival of Lights Boat Parade, a procession of watercrafts of all description, bedecked in all manner of tinsel and light.

I join Festival of Lights coordinator Steve Ward on a houseboat to watch the annual event. Above us, all along Lake Shore Drive from Carl Hayden Visitor Center to Wahweap Marina, motorists park and unload lawn chairs, blankets, gloves, and gallons of hot chocolate. Hundreds of cars carrying thousands of spectators gather to watch.

It's sunset. Off in the distance, a great metropolis of rock and stone dominated by Tower Butte, Navajo Mountain, and the Kaiparowits Plateau turns crimson, fades to umber, then melts into indigo dusk.

A mile-wide circle of 30 patioboats, speedboats, and houseboats slowly rotates counterclockwise just this side of Castle Rock. On board, all hands run a final check of generators, electrical connections, lights, and trimmings. When the Canyon King, Lake Powell's stern-wheeler, gives the signal, the circle ruptures and begins to snake downlake. The Canyon King is decorated to look like a locomotive.

It's a bit of a stretch with its two towering stacks and all, but okay, it's a good faith effort. The Canyon King leads the way toward Glen Canyon Dam, pushing aside both water and the gathering darkness.

I climb to the roof of the houseboat. There are no obstructions here to block the view. The Christmas train rumbles across our bow. Each boat is a car on the track, and each is a wonder. There is a floating manger scene, a Santa Claus with tripod and camera, a brilliant star in the east, and a frontier town complete with a "Last Chance Church." Reflections dance across the lake, doubling the number of lights.

But that's not the half of it: behind me, up along Lake Shore Drive, there's another gala in progress. Scores of car lights flicker up on the hill. Hundreds of people sit in their lawn chairs, and thousands more watch from their cozy vehicles. Flashlight beams play across the slick-rock terraces searching out the best vantage.

The sound of "Jingle Bells" wanders across the lake from the direction of Antelope Island. Campfires blaze on the shoreline where boats snuggle up to sandy beaches. Applause breaks out now and again from the darkened craft when each floating Christmas display drifts by. Noisy parties are in progress on some of the boats, and it's clearly best that they're well off the right-of-way. There are nearly as many glittering lights behind us as there are aboard the train. That fact suggests a question: doesn't anyone decorate their vehicle in fair and friendly exchange with the hardworking boaters? It seems like an opportunity lost.

Steve tells me that awards are presented to the best daytime and nighttime entrants in each of several divisions. Originality counts, too. A few years back, one boat featured a maritime version of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles piloting an entry titled "Christmas in the Sewers." All entrance fees are donated to the American Cancer Society.

Eventually 30 boats motor on by. Just so there's no mistake, the last one helpfully flashes "The End."

We're on our way back to the marina when I see it, a single "enlightened" RV parked far above us. Two giant electric candles stand on the roof, and a wreath hangs from the windshield. Now those people have the holiday spirit, and I'm confident that they're anxiously anticipating the massive traffic snarl that follows... it's a holiday tradition eagerly awaited in Page.

The 1995 Festival of Lights Boat Parade at Lake Powell will take place December 2. The boats start lining up near Wahweap Marina around 3:30 P.M., and about 5:30P.M. the parade begins, heading past the Wahweap Lodge and down the Wahweap channel to Glen Canyon Dam then back to the marina, lasting two to two and a half hours. For more information, contact the Page/Lake Powell Chamber of Commerce, P.O. Box 727, Page, AZ 86040; (520) 645-2741.