Travelogue

Captain Herb entering Reflection CanyonNot knowing yet that this would be our last day on the lake, we decided to try to catch the morning light in Reflection Canyon. Surprisingly, it was not as good as it had been at noon time when we were here a few days ago. Much of the canyon walls were still in the shade. Still, it was quite beautiful.

We cruised back out to the main channel and thought about where to go. It was 60 miles back to Wahweap, so we figured we would head south covering some of that distance today and the rest tomorrow morning.

There was definitely a shift in the weather. Every day so far had been still, with clear blue cloudless skies. Today the wind was picking up and there was sort of a gray haze blocking out that bright sun we had gotten used to.

Then we realized that it wasn’t smoke, but smoke from one of the many fires in California, and that wind was blowing it right to us.

One last cruise into Reflection CanyonAs we continued down the lake, the water was getting really choppy, both from the increasing winds, as well as from the greatly increased boat traffic - it was Labor Day Weekend. This was not good - crowds, winds, and smoke. We decided to pull the boat today.

The roughest part of our 70-mile cruise back to Wahweap was going through the narrows by Antelope Island, where the wakes from all the boats were bouncing off the canyon walls, churning up the water. We later learned that two boats actually capsized going through this section.

The boats lingering around the Stateline Ramp to pull their boats was fairly sizable, but it went pretty efficiently. The way it worked was, someone from a boat would get off at the dock and go retrieve their truck and trailer from the parking lot up the hill. Whoever got down to the water first with their trailer would get to pull out next. It probably took us less than a half hour.

Back to Wahweap Campground before the long drive homeFortunately, we got a campsite at the Wahweap Resort and Marina Campground, so we didn’t have to start driving home tonight. It was really, really windy now and getting to be quite unpleasant.

I am so glad we pulled today.

It took the next two days to drive the long 900 miles back to Santa Rosa. The drive was surreal. When we stopped in Barstow to get sandwiches, we couldn't open our doors because the wind was blowing so hard. We didn't feel comfortable driving through the Tehachapi Pass with these winds, so we just sat in the truck and waited for awhile for it to die down a little.

As if that wasn't crazy enough, our entire drive the following day up I5 felt like we were on Mars. It seemed like most of California was on fire and the winds were blowing ash and coloring the sky with a dark orange haze. Our son said that in San Francisco, it was completely dark (orange) at noon. It was both beautiful and frightening.

It was so good to be back home, even if everything was orange and smoky. Hopefully, the fires would stay away from us.

P.S. The fires did come to us and we were evacuated from our home for 10 days just 3 weeks later. Three homes in our development burnt down, but our house was unscathed.