Hiking in Lake Powell: trails, map and practical info

Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona (most of it, along with Rainbow Bridge, is in Utah). It is a major vacation spot that around 2 million people visit every year. It is the second largest man-made reservoir by maximum water capacity in the United States behind Lake Mead, storing 24,322,000 acre feet (3.0001×1010 m3) of water when full. However, due to high water withdrawals for human and agricultural consumption, and because of subsequent droughts in the area, Lake Powell is currently larger than Mead in terms of volume of water currently held, depth and surface area. Lake Powell was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a popular summer destination. The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell, a one-armed American Civil War veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869.
In 1972, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was established. It is public land managed by the National Park Service, and available to the public for recreational purposes. It lies in parts of Garfield, Kane, and San Juan counties in southern Utah, and Coconino County in northern Arizona. The northern limits of the lake extend at least as far as the Hite Crossing Bridge. A map centered at the confluence of the Escalante River 37°17′22″N 110°52′20″W with the Colorado River gives a good view of the extent of the lake.
Lake Powell is a water storage facility for the Upper Basin states of the Colorado River Compact (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico). The Compact specifies that the Upper Basin states are to provide a minimum annual flow of 7,500,000 acre feet (9.3 km3) to the Lower Basin states (Arizona, Nevada, and California).

In winter

According to the NPS, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Lake Powell are open to visitors 24 hours a day. The NPS describes the area's winters as moderately cold, with night time lows often below freezing, and gives a temperature range from 110°F (38°C) in June and July to 0°F (-16°C) in December and January. At Bullfrog, the average minimum is 17°F (-8.3°C) in December and in January; the average maximum is 60°F (15.5°C) in December and 57°F (13.9°C) in January. The NPS recommends layers of clothing for the times of year other than summer. On its Seasonal Hours page (last updated November 5, 2026, and subject to change), the NPS lists the Bullfrog Visitor Center as closed for winter, the Carl Hayden Visitor Center as open daily from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the Wahweap launch ramp as closed to motorized vessels (operable above a lake elevation of 3,548 feet). As of that date, the Bullfrog main launch ramp was also listed as closed and the Bullfrog North ramp as open. The NPS adds that changing lake levels may affect the services available.