Page Lake Powell has a new police chief, Charles Dennis. Chief Dennis is coming to Page from Idaho where he has held two different positions as Deputy Sheriff. Chief Dennis and his wife have four children, one who just joined the Army. Apparently none of them are going to miss the snow in this move to the high, wind-blown desert of Northern Arizona.He feels it is going to take him 3 to 4 months to get caught up with everything here, but that there are no large problems looming in the city right now that require immediate attention.Page is a community of about 8,000 residents but we will see about 1 million less tourists here a year than at the Grand Canyon. Some years that can be 2 million folks, other times 4. Page police have a unique responsibility to keep the residents and visitors ... 05/07/2008

This area was pretty well teaming with human life since about the year 400. There was no lake but the Colorado River was nearby. The bay in the photo is Wahweap Bay. Wahweap means "bitter water". The Colorado, before the dams, was either raging in the spring with the snow melt, or 90 degrees and a wall of moving mud in the late summer, early fall. The native Americans built some villages on the shores of tributaries of the Colorado, but not on the river itself. Wahweap only had water flowing in it during spring run off, or during the monsoon season in the summer. The water would stagnate in pools and become unsafe to use. It is thought they named it Wahweap as a warning to their own children and to other's passing through of the danger of the stagnant water.The Mormon Pioneers got to th... 05/04/2008

The main hospital serving the Page Hospital first opened it's doors in the late 1950's to service the then government town, of Page, Arizona. It's goal was care for the construction workers and their families who were part of the Glen Canyon Dam  project which ran from 1956 to 1966. The roads to Page were not even paved until the early 1960's to give you an idea of how remote it was.Things have changed... We have several million tourists each year visit this area from all over the world. Lake Powell is a major attraction, as are the slot canyons so prominent in this area. With the tourists come medical needs of all varieties. The ER at Page Hospital has averaged a 6% to 7 % growth rate each year in amount of patients it handles. Growth, real estate and medical care are all tied together... 04/01/2008

Page, Arizona placed in the top ten of Outdoor Life's April 2008 cover story, "Best Places to Live - Top 200 Towns For Hunters & Anglers" Page placed as one of the lists "Supertowns"Outdoor Life has 5 million readers and was started in the late 1800's. So, how did Page make this list? Simple - it's an awesome place!!According to the article ~ “Once a gritty company town whose fortunes were tied to dam construction and power production, Page has diversified into a tourist Mecca. Good food, interesting stores and stunning viewsheds,”"Homes are expensive here, but this is one of the most diverse fishing towns in America, and if you can ever draw a tag, it’s a great base to experience epic big-game hunting.” Page was picked for several reasons - The fishing experience and opportunities belo... 03/24/2008

On Friday the good news started hitting the papers. It was a SUCCESS!! For background on the March 2008 flood please seeFLOOD BACKGROUNDThe general thought is that this flood is all about the endangered fishies. It is, no doubt, but in my book it is also about the sustainable habitat downstream that has been created by the dam, as well as us wee humans enjoyment of the resource.Before I get to the news, it is somewhat fascinating that the Salt Lake Tribune's lead story on the flood was "Dam Test Revives Beaches, Gulps $4 million in electricty" while the Arizona Daily Sun out of Flagstaff "Big sandbars from big flood".There are two distinct camps in this story, and several arms (no - not adjustable rate mortgages) to each camp. Camp Environmental dislikes everything to do with the dam an... 03/18/2008

Please see the blog here Lake Powell Water Releasefor background on flood. I was going to add the photos to the previous blog, but after being there for several hours today, decided they needed their own space!The jet tubes are releasing 300,000 gallons of water a second. Yup, a second. The first one is from a Glen Canyon Dam downstream viewpoint called "The Whitehouse" by the locals. Getting there is half the fun ~ it's a wee bit of a walk down steep rock steps, but beautiful. The image is HDR. This picture was taken behind the Carl Hayden Visitors Center at Glen Canyon Dam looking @ 700 feet down to the bottom of the river. The workers are monitoring the flows. Each hollow jet tube is 15 feet in diameter.   Close up of the 15 foot hollow jet tubes ~ yes this is what 300,000 gallons of... 03/06/2008

Once again the world wide media has descended on Page, Arizona, and Glen Canyon Dam to watch and record a spectacular release of water and witness environmental history. Starting yesterday and running until March 10, 2008, a high flow water release from Glen Canyon Dam is rushing down Glen Canyon and into the Grand Canyon. This test is identical to the one performed in November of 2004. The idea behind releasing greater than normal quantities of water, quickly, is to stir up the sediment in the Colorado River beyond Glen Canyon Dam, float the sediment in the water for a short period of time, then slowly bring the water levels back down. The sediment will then settle out onto the beaches and in the backwater areas of Marble Canyon and Grand Canyon. The release of extra water is accomplis... 03/05/2008