Glen Canyon Dam

Today is Sunday September 1st, Labor Day Weekend, so we decided to stay off the highways and hang around the campground. As I was sitting under the awning drinking a beer I realized I should be writing a blog instead of just sitting there. After all I didn't want to drink too much beer and be face down on the patio.

The last couple of evenings there was entertainment at our Rec. Center which was a lot more fun than watching TV. Friday was a country singer and Saturday was a country band. They were pretty good and Bev was happy because she Line Danced her little heart out. Line Dancing is the greatest invention, Bev can dance all night without bothering me. I use to like to dance but not so much anymore.

A number of years ago Bev and I took Ballroom Dancing Classes and while we were there we thought we were hot stuff. We felt like Fred and Ginger, really suave, that is until we danced by a mirror and saw our reflection. OH NO - it was Fred and Ethel Murtz! I never wanted to dance again. Well, every once and a while she gets me onto the dance floor and I try not to see our reflection.

OK lets continue on with our travels in Glen Canyon.

Tuesday August 20th we took a tour of the Glen Canyon Dam. It's always interesting to see the inner workings and the view from below. This is the Visitor Center.

A Norman Rockwell painting of the dam is inside the visitor center.

Bev and I hiked to this overlook but we didn't climb on the rocks and get this close to the edge.

The dam was proposed in the 1950's as part of the Colorado River Storage Project, a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation federal water project that would develop reservoir storage on the upper Colorado River and several of its major tributaries. The project's main purpose was to allow the upper basin to better utilize its allocation of river flow and a second purpose was to provide water storage to ensure the delivery of sufficient water to the lower basin during years of drought. However, problems arose when the USBR proposed to build dams in the federally protected Echo Park canyon in Utah. After a long series of legal battles with environmentalist organizations such as the Sierra Club, they settled for a high dam at Glen Canyon.

Construction of Glen Canyon Dam started in 1956 and was not finished until 1966. When the reservoir filled, the dam began to deliver a steady, regulated flow of water downstream and a supply of electricity to the region.

The Glen Canyon Dam is a concrete arch dam and is named for Glen Canyon, a colorful series of gorges, most of which now lies under Lake Powell. Lake Powell is the second largest artificial lake in the country, extending upriver well into Utah.

Glen Canyon's design was based on that of Hoover Dam, a massive concrete arch-gravity structure anchored in solid bedrock, with several changes. The engineers wanted the dam to rely predominantly on its arch shape to carry the tremendous pressure of the impounded water into the canyon walls instead of depending on the sheer weight of the structure to hold the reservoir back, as had been done at Hoover. However, most of the rock in the region consisted of porous and relatively weak "Navajo Sandstone" in contrast to the stronger rock at the Hoover Dam site. This forced the Glen Canyon design to follow more conservative lines by greatly thickening the abutments, thus increasing the surface area through which the weight of dam and reservoir would be transmitted to the rock.

This is what you see looking over the edge at the Visitor Center. The green area on the left is grass.

This is a nice view of the bridge. The bridge was built before the dam so they could get the supplies across the gorge. The town of Page wasn't there either, it was built so the construction crews had a place to live. This area was in the middle of the wilderness.

This is the top of the dam and when the bridge was being repaired it was used for a road across the river. If you look closely you can see where there were double lines on the roadway.

This is a view from the dam looking back up Lake Powell. It is not very wide at this point.

This is a closer look at the grass at the bottom of the dam. The grass gets it's water from the seepage through the dam and surrounding porous Navajo Sandstone of the side walls. I don't know why they planted grass here but they must have had a reason. The covers in the grass can be opened to ladders providing access to the inner structures of the dam for maintenance.

This is a nice view of the surrounding Navajo Sandstone walls that the dam is anchored into.

What a great view of the visitor center on the edge of the cliff.

The walkway leads to the interior of the dam.

This is what it's all about, generating electricity.

Another look at the visitor center.

If you look closely you can see boats on the left side. They give boat trips down the river from here. Bev and I did not ride the boats down the river. (Remember to click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

This is an actual bucket that was used to haul the concrete to the site. This dam was build in square sections like the Hoover Dam was.

They also left this section of reinforcing bars sticking out of the concrete to show how it was constructed.

After we left the Glen Canyon Dam visitor center we checked out the overlook just below the dam. Someone was nice enough to build stairs over the slick rock.

The rocks on the right is where Norman Rockwell painted his picture.

A nice view of the canyon looking down stream. It must be a great sight from below while riding a boat down the Colorado.

At least this overlook had a guard rail. The ground is covered with a beach-like sand.

That was it for the day so we headed back to the campground. I had to take photos of the Prickly Pear Cactus near our Winnebago. The cactus plants are very happy here and doing well.

On one of the last blogs I mentioned how the rear fender of our car got zinged in a parking lot. I figured you'd like to see what the right rear fender looked like before we had it repaired.

We had the car repaired at the Larry Green Collision Center in Cottonwood, AZ. when we arrived here. They did a fantastic job, I brought the car in for an estimate on Monday August 26th, dropped it off for repair on Tuesday August 27th, and picked it up on Wednesday August 28th.

Now that's what I call excellent service. The cost was very - very reasonable and the car looks bran new again. They even dropped me off back at the campground and picked me up when it was done.

That's it for today, its time for supper and I'm hungry. I will continue on with our trek in the next blog.

Tom & Bev Livin and Lovin the RV lifestyle.