Lake Powell 2023: How To Plan The Perfect Houseboat Trip

Do you want to plan a Lake Powell houseboat trip? We go to Lake Powell as a large family every year. I'll share with you how we caravan, load the boat, cook, play. Plus the question I get asked every year, do we rent our houseboat? Welcome to Lake Powell 2023. This is our family's Lake Powell houseboat trip. Take away the pain, we can go insane. Trust me, I won't let you down. I won't let you down. We live in Northern California, so our trip to Lake Powell begins a few days before we actually get to the lake. Typically we caravan with five to six big trucks pulling a lot of trailers. But this year, we had a few new babies added in the spring, so not everyone was able to attend. On the first day, we leave in the afternoon and drive from Sacramento to Tehachapi. We do this to have ample time to stop at the Moapa Cayute Travel Plaza. This is where we pick up our aerial fireworks. For years, they have restricted filming in this building. However, this year, nobody said anything. I don't know if it was like a free-for-all, but I got a lot of footage this year. Typically, they're really crazy about being able to film in here, but today they haven't confiscated my phone yet. This is where we come to the Valley of Fire to get our fireworks every year for Lake Powell. I'm so happy we can film. Remember when I couldn't film? Well, I don't think you can. Oh, what? Oh, maybe I'm not allowed to film. Maybe I've just been super lucky and covert today. Once loaded with around $3,000 worth of aerial pyrotechnics, we continue our drive into the desert, spending our second night outside St. George in Washington, Utah. On morning two, we make our last push from Washington, Utah to Page, Arizona. We spend this night in Page, Arizona picking up last-minute items and getting the two other jet skis that we rent from Page. We rent them from H2O Zone, and I'll link to them below because they're great. Lake Powell is a long canyon lake in the middle of the desert with few access points. At the top of the lake, there's Bullfrog Marina. When I was a child, this is where our first houseboat was located, and people who live in Utah typically use this end of the lake. In the early 2000s, we switched to the south end of the lake. There are two marinas in Page, Arizona. There's Wall Weep, which is the original public marina, and that's down by the Glen Canyon Dam. And then in 2004, a second launch ramp opened located at Antelope Point Marina. This is a private marina on the Navajo Nation Reservation and is where our houseboat is kept. On morning three, we drive down to Antelope Point Marina. We head to Boat Valet since only Antelope Point Marina employees can launch boats down the launch ramp. Odyssey has its own cart, but with lots of people and cargo, we also utilize the marina's cart service to get everything to the boat. All right, I'm driving a cart. So, we're heading down to our houseboat, Odyssey. Our Lake Powell trip is the same week every year. It's always on the 4th of July, which is why we need so many aerial demonstrations. Odyssey has a Super Aeronautique G25 maintained with the houseboat, so owners don't need to pull as many toys to the lake. Altogether, we take a Cobalt R7 Surf, which is excellent for cruising the lake because it has a deep V, which cuts through the chop better than a traditional ski boat. The Cobalt is fun for wakeboarding and tubing. However, we prefer the Super Aeronautique G25 for surfing. We have four Wave Runners. These are everyone's favorites, of course, plus other toys such as paddle boards, the hydrofoils, and the slide. Typically, we stay our first night in the slip and we eat at the Marina Cafe. They also have really yummy soft serve in there. The following day, we are off. Our houseboat requires a pilot to maneuver the boat in and out of the marina. Once outside the buoy, the pilot disembarks and we cruise north, snaking up the narrow cliffs passing Navajo Canyon on our way up the lake. We tend to anchor in either Face Canyon or West Canyon. This year, we are in Face Canyon again. Check out last year's Lake Powell 2022 video to see the drastic difference in water level. I'll link here. And this is what we did this year. Today was our first day on the lake and obviously the boys are exhausted. They did so much work from doing the ropes and anchoring to blowing up all the toys. Obviously, they went jet skiing. This has been a big day and they are beat. Tired? Exhausted. How's your body feeling? Burnt? Not enough sunscreen. Tonight, my sister's doing one of our favorite dinners. Fenny Hanna is here at Lake Powell, so we're really excited. It's a lot of work and she does a fabulous job of putting it all together. Let's get dinner. Thank you, Christy. It's time to go wakeboarding, so I think everyone's getting prepared. Are you taking us wakeboarding? Yes, can we? Yes, please. Let's go. Are you going wakeboarding with us? Okay. Hey, good morning. Ready to go. Yeehaw. Hey, Stuart. Yeah? Are you excited? Yeah. Gathering up our stuff because we're going to go family tubing behind the boat. We've been doing tubing with the jet skis and stuff, but setting it up behind the boat is more fun and we're all going to go together, which makes it even more fun. Okay, we're going tubing. Hold on tight. Yeah. Dinner number three. Tonight, we're having our favorite pulled pork sandwiches that Christy makes. And we have it with a spicy coleslaw and corn, so it's really yummy. Definitely a staple dinner. Stuart, are you excited for tonight's dinner? Yum. You like the pork sandwiches, don't you? It's so yummy. And the salad that goes with them? Coleslaw? Oh, yeah. Oh, wait, wait, wait. Not the coleslaw. The sandwich. Oh, and we can make oatmeal cookies tonight. Talk to your cookies. I made this cookie dough for my dad because he loves oatmeal raisin. Awesome. Get the cookies for me. I'm going to make cookies for you. Make my cookies. I'm making them. Hey, Dad, what do you think of your cookie? Amazing. Really good. The texture is right on. The white in areas of it adds to its complexity. You like the golden in it, right? The golden raisins add just that extra flavor. I told you, if you keep going to the bottom with it, people escape. I'm going to picture you with it. That's awesome. Okay, we're out here. We're about to do surfing. Emmett's going to go first and then I'm going to try my hand at it. You're in the water, right? Don't roll. Ready to go out and go wake surfing. I'm not good at it. I haven't had much practice, but we'll try. Wakeboarding is definitely more my thing. Oh, man. It's my turn. I'm going to do the slide. This should be good. Yeah, it's going to stick. There's no way it's going on you guys. Yeah. It's going to stick on that one corner. Oh, shoot. I'm trying to get my butt really wet. I don't want to stick. That'll hurt. Okay, you ready? I think I lost my top. Well, so the first two boxes I went, they were triangle-shaped. And when it started rocking back and forth, so I turned around to watch it. Because if it fell over, I didn't think I was going to be able to yell at it enough. Uh-huh. But it all worked out. No burns. Yeah. I mean. You guys, it's like you're resting. It stings here and there. Yeah, look at Miles. Oh, Miles. Is your face okay? Don't worry. We quickly realized this was chocolate. All right, time for cookies and ice cream. Holy crap. Stuart's doing the slide. Night sliding. My mom's filming. One second. Yep. Oh. Three, two, one. It's that time. We are headed to Rainbow Bridge as a family. So we're going to all load into the Cobalt and drive up the lake. It takes about an hour to get there. And then it's kind of like a half-mile walk. You guys ready? Yeah. Let's hit it. So I just jumped off the boat onto the jet ski with Emmett. So we're going to ride the rest of the way to Rainbow Bridge. Let's go, Emmett. So we might not be able to hike to the bridge because there's no way to park the boat anymore. They've moved the docks off. So you have to beach the boat and that's not what we're going to do because that would injure it. So we're just taking a quick swim in the canyon to Rainbow Bridge now. The water actually feels really good right here. Yeah? Yeah. It's much warmer in here. Yeah, that's what I think. The water's warmer here. So we're having a plumbing issue up here. And these are actually two plumbers. They're like professional plumbers. Legit professional plumbers who are going to fix this. I'm not a professional plumber. So they're taking a shop vac and they're going to shove it down the toilet. But we're going to put it on blow, not suck. Oh, you're going to try to blow the line, not suck it. We're going to suck first. Ew, gross. Yeah, I think I fixed it. Aww. Don't go to the bathroom in that toilet anymore. You clogged it. It was not me. Everyone says it wasn't them. You guys, that is seriously like such a fun trip as a family. In case you're curious on the houseboat layout and the floor plan and how everything is, I actually did a tour last year. And I'll link to that video up here as well. Because I show you the floor plan and how everything fits together. One of our favorite things on the houseboat is our soft serve ice cream machine. The soft serve machine was like the best idea ever for the houseboat. My sister learning to use it was also a massive plus. It's just dangerous. Now, my sister Christy, who lives in Utah, she hauls this thing back and forth. We don't keep it on the houseboat because there are six other families and we don't want to take up space. We got it from Amazon, you guys. I will link to it. I will tell you guys it is super dangerous, super addictive. And I'm glad that I only have to face that soft serve ice cream machine once a year. This is how organized my sister Christy is every year at Costco. And she does pre-ordering from Safeway and Walmart. Or Safeway. And then they deliver down to the houseboat. But look at this. She's the best. Speaking of food, I received some questions from you guys on our meals or the menus and the shopping list and the recipes. We do have it. We're going to scan it for you guys and put it on the Spa and Tell website. Now, we do hire a service there that does the shopping for us or a majority of it. So you'll see those lists in there. You'll also see that we do go to Costco and pick up meats. The rental question, you guys. Do we rent our houseboat out? Our houseboat is owned by my dad and a few other partners. I get asked every year if it's for rent. It's not. And I'm sorry about that. But I will link to Antelope Point Marina so that you guys can go check out the houseboats they do rent. It's a different type of houseboat than the ones you see me on. But they're still really great. They typically have AC, a TV, a slide. If you are interested in a houseboat like the one that you see us on, the houseboats are built by Adonia Yachts in St. George, Utah. And I'll link to their site down below. And then to purchase one of these houseboats or be in a group that's buying them, that's actually managed and done by Sunrise Peaks Houseboats. I'll link to them below, too. And you can go to their site and see what future boats are coming and what you could buy into. I try my best to give you as much information as possible. I do link to things in the description box. And I'll also put it in the first pinned comment just to make it as easy as possible. If you have questions about Lake Powell, about our houseboat, about the experiences, about anything that you think I might be able to answer, please leave it below. I'll do my best. And I'll see you guys on the next video. Bye, you guys. I'm super excited about those shots. Thank you. Let's out of the road. I'll let you down.