Plan B

 

The winds were still strong the next day when we got up, so it was decided to skip the boat trip on Lake Powell and continue to explore the desert wilds of SE Utah.  Fine by me, as I am not much of a boat person.  Since Darrell was driving, he was in charge of the route.   I just sat back and enjoyed the marvelous scenery!  Our route took us through the Henry Mountains, which are north of Lake Powell.  

Below is a very old pictograph called the Moqui Queen.  She is estimated to be from 1500 to 4000 years old according to the style of the rock art, which is the Barrier Canyon style.  She is located on a wall in a deep alcove near the Hog Spring Rest Area where we stopped to have lunch.  Below is the huge alcove.  It is hard to tell, but she is located in the far lower left of the photo.

 

We then drove to an area where one could look down from an overlook to see where the northern end of Lake Powell used to be when it was first flooded.  The Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1963, and the flooding of Lake Powell was complete in 1980.  Water levels have gone down considerably since then. 

There is even the abandoned Hite Marina there, now totally on dry land.  The light diagonal stripe in the photo below was once the boat ramp.  The lake would have come part way up the ramp.  The Colorado River now flows quite a distance away from the marina. 

Here is the Hite Bridge that spans the Colorado River further upstream. 

The Colorado River flows under the bridge.  Keep in mind that at full capacity, Lake Powell would be flowing beneath this bridge instead and the water would cover most of the lower land in the photos below.

Towards the end of the day on our way to Hanksville to spend the night, we stopped to view Factory Butte, which is located in the Utah Badlands east of Capitol Reef National Park. 

The scenery was pretty stark, but it was a great place to wander and linger to do some rock hounding.  Glittering flat pieces of mica littered the ground. 

I had seen this interesting lizard only twice before in my travels.   It is a long-nosed leopard lizard.  Cute!