Boat Day! – Not The Painter

April 29, 2026 — Day 36

Lone Rock Beach Campground, Glen Canyon Recreation Area, Big Water, UT

Boat day!

Our guide left the marina and made a quick stop at the dam since it was on the way. But better, Paul got to see the spillway doors! Achievement unlocked! (susan here: it was kind of cool seeing the dam from the other side down at water level.)

We didn’t get any closer than this. Like all dams it had floating string of buoys to keep you from getting too close to keep you from being sucked into the power turbine tubes. Lance assured us, even though we couldn’t hurt the dam with explosives, they would shoot us anyways and that would be the preferable option over going thru the turbines.

We got to see people making the scramble at The Chains, still don’t see the chains though.

As you might remember, The Chains is a popular swimming spot. I guess not this year, no water! We made it to the entrance to Antelope Canyon.

It is amazing to think that something this wide can just barely fit a person a few miles in. We have a different boat today.

This is a nice trick shot that Captain Lance taught us. Use pano mode on your phone but use it vertically!

We kept on meeting kayakers. There was one other pontoon boat with quite a party going on. We had feared there would be loud “boom boom” music from other boats on the trip. Thankfully that didn’t happen!

These lines are old sand dunes. Over time the sand compacts forming sandstone. Sometimes the dunes would change direction so it makes an interesting pattern in the sandstone.

Sometimes the rock made a shelf and the water was really shallow, you could see how green it was in many places.

Speaking of green… There is a boundary where the water splashes and where algae grows. Flies come to feed on algae. Lizards walk down to eat the flies. But, not too close! Fish will jump out and eat the lizards!

Remember the water level board from yesterday? Captain Lance told us that it has fallen, 2 feet, 1 foot, and 3 feet over the past three days!

This is the end of the line. You can see all the kayakers beached, they are hiking into the canyon, how far? I guess as far as they want. We’re left wondering how they know which rental boat is theirs when they get back!