Grandboys on Tube
Lake Powell is one of our family’s favorite getaways. We began coming to the lake about 30 years ago, when our oldest daughter was around three years old, and our youngest daughter was only months old. There we have spent hours of camping, boating, water sports, swimming, fishing, hiking, and exploring. At Lake Powell, we have experienced everything from frigid snow storms, fierce winds, high seas, to searing hot breezeless days. Actually, our favorite time is early fall, when the air temperature is in the mid-80’s, yet the water temperature is still in the high 70’s.
A lot of things have changed at Lake Powell over the years. Many people have discovered the beauty of the place and it has become very populated. With more and more people visiting, the National Park Service has had to begin charging fees to help belay the increased costs of park maintenance. Access that was once free is long gone. Today it costs $15 to get in the park, with an additional cost of $16 if you have a boat. Primitive camping now costs $6/day per person or $12 per family.
More people also means more we have to put up with what was rare only 15 years ago – loud music at night, illegal fireworks, generators putting away into the wee hours, increased lake traffic, and more abandoned fire pits (everybody seems to want to make their own and leave them for others). We still enjoy Lake Powell and try to visit every other year (takes a year to save enough money) with the family, only now it also includes the son-in-laws and the grandkids. By the way, we are still using the same old boat (35+ years old).
Silas Fishing
Thad Fishing
Other things have also changed. When I first began coming to Lake Powell, I was an atheistic evolutionist. All the wonderful geology surrounding the area I attributed to vast ages of oceans advancing and retreating, laying down layer upon layer of different rocks – things I had been taught as a geologist in college. Today, as a believer in Jesus Christ as my Creator and Savior, I see the geology surrounding Lake Powell in a totally different light … I see overwhelming evidences of a global flood, just as that taught in the Scriptures.
Looking upon the massive layers of beautifully sculptured buff and reddish sandstones of this area, I see more than just fantastic geology – I see tombstones, a reminder of God’s past judgment against man’s sin. Yet even in a sinful fallen world, we see how God can take what was the result of man’s evil and turn it into a thing of beauty. I am encouraged … He can take my sinful nature and change it too! “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.” (Phillipians 3: 20-21)
Lanny Johnson
