The only hard part is narrowing your choices!
Ice cream and Hot Dogs at Dangling Rope
Dangling Rope Marina is like a modern-day frontier trading post. Situated mid-lake, it’s only accessible by water (the people who live and work there must come and go by boat) and is completely solar powered. If you are crossing Lake Powell, this is the must-stop midpoint and a storied tradition, too. It features a fuel dock, a store, and plenty of ice. But it’s best known for its great soft-serve ice cream and hot dogs, which taste infinitely better after a long sunny boat cruise. Kids also love the friendly schools of carp and striped bass that greet the visitors. Don’t miss it! Perfect for those hot summer days.
Visit and hike up to Hole In The Rock
Back around 1880, a group of Mormon pioneers sought a route south from Escalante to Montezuma, Utah. To help the 233 men, women, and children (plus 83 horses) get through, they spent 45 days blasting through a rock wall to make a path wide enough for their wagons. That path—the Hole In The Rock Trail—is still there today. It’s a good 90-minute hike, with thousand-foot cliffs on either side, and it rewards you at its summit with spectacular views of Lake Powell, the Henry Mountains, and a plaque honoring the hard work and sacrifice of the hearty pioneers who carved out this piece of history.
Cathedral Canyon
Cathedral Canyon delivers the ultimate “wow” factor. This narrow slot canyon—only 12 feet wide in some places—features sandstone walls that soar upward hundreds of feet, and that you can reach out and touch as you explore by kayak, paddleboard, personal watercraft, or powerboat. Bring your camera and try and capture its inspiring majesty. (And be sure to shut off your engine and listen to its awesome silence.) Right across the bay from Cathedral Canyon, you’ll discover the vestiges of gold mines dating back to the 1880s. You can still see, and climb, the steps carved into the side of the wall, not for the miners, but for their donkeys. Their quest for gold didn’t pan out—but your quest for adventure certainly will.
Annie’s Crack
This feature is straight out of an Indiana Jones movie. Annie’s Crack isn’t on any map—but the friendly staff at Lake Powell Resorts will show you how to get there. As its name implies, Annie’s Crack is a narrow break in a solid rock wall that you can actually walk through. Only about four feet wide, it almost never receives direct sunlight, but it’s light enough for you to make this fascinating 200-yard hike through an entire rock wall, where you can actually peer out the other side from a high cliff to see the canyon walls and boaters below you on Lake Powell. Annie’s Crack is only accessible by boat.