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Published: April 7th 2021
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This blog is about crossing Utah Hwy 95 through Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, part of the USA National Parks. The park crosses the lower White Canyon draining into the Colorado River (and the smaller Dirty Devil River) then up to a great scenic overlook; then up the lower North Wash (draining down into the Colorado River) where the park ends and the BLM land takes you to Hanksville, Utah. Now that park used to have free dispersed camping, but times have changed and camping is not legal.
I drove across White Canyon then over the White Canyon bridge. Then I drove across several other small canyons (including the canyon with the de-funked Hite Marina with its now dry boat launch). Then I drove over the Colorado River and the Dirty Devil River. Then the highway took me up a large hill and on to the neat scenic overlook, with a historic Marker for the early explorer John Wesley Powell. I spent an hour taking a nice walk down river and to a distant view of North Wash.
I drove a short distance on Utah Hwy 95 to a dirt access to see North Wash in the park. Then
I drove up the North Wash into the BLM land, but many of the dirt turnoffs (legal Camps) take four wheel drive to get back to Utah Hwy 95. From there I drove on to Hanksville, Utah.
Note: From the 1985 pic you can see that Lake Powell was much deeper then now, with the Hite Marina fully functional and doing a lot of business most of the year. With much of Western USA in a long term drying event, Lake Powell will not soon fill up.
Commentary: This area, in Utah and Arizona, was the last blank spot in what we now call the "lower 48 states" until the 1869 expedition by John Wesley Powell. John discovered and named the Henry Mountains; the last mountains discovered in our lower 48 states.
According to Wikipedia, Powell (1834-1902) was born in Illinois. On 1861 John enlisted as a private in the Illinois Infantry. Later that year Powell became a captain in the Illinois light artillery. At the Battle of Shiloh Powell was hit by a mini ball and lost his right arm, causing him pain for the rest of his life. John later fought other battles for the
Yankee cause. John finished his military career as a major. John Wesley Powell then became a professor of geology at an Illinois University. Powell departed from the university to become an explorer of the West, especially the Rocky Mountains around the Green and Colorado Rivers. In 1869 he led a boating expedition of ten men starting on the Green River (at Green River, Wyoming) to the confluence with the Colorado River (then known as the Grand River) at what now is Canyonlands N Park in Utah; then on through the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The small wooden boats were not a match for the major rapids in Utah and Arizona, that had to be terrorizing for the men. The Englishman left the expedition early. Near the end of the voyage three of his men quit the expedition at what they named Separation Canyon, where they tried to walk out, but were probably murdered. Powell and five men finished the expedition while Powell kept very detailed scientific diary. John Wesley Powell made a second river expedition in 1871 where they shot photos also. As a result of Powell's expeditions the blank spot on the map was filled in. Later Powell became
a director of the US Geological Survey and the Smithsonian Institution; and was a strong champion of land preservation and conservation.
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