Rainbow Bridge Lake Powell Celebrates its Centennial
For Immediate Release
January 27, 2010
Contact: Mike Finney
Phone: 480.897.3331
mike@azcomgroup.com
Rainbow Bridge Lake Powell Celebrates its Centennial
Page/Lake Powell, AZ- An arching stone bridge higher than the nation's capitol and nearly as long as a football field - Rainbow Bridge, a natural phenomenon spanning 275 feet across Aztec Creek in an almost perfect parabolic arch. The top of the stone arch is 42 feet thick and 33 feet wide. The world’s largest known natural bridge is celebrating 100 years of being a National Monument this May 30th. What better time is there than during the centennial celebrations and events to visit this natural wonder on the shore of beautiful lake Powell in the red rock desert of northern Arizona?
Centennial activities including guest speakers on select dates from February to May are planned by the National Park Service and can be found online at www.pagelakepowelltourism.com. Tour boats operating from Wahweap Marina take lake cruises every day to the Rainbow Bridge area where visitors take an easy hike of about a half mile overland right to the bridge itself. Antelope Point Marina is offering special 4 and 7 day houseboat packages with a private guided tour to Rainbow Bridge and a slot canyon, a group photo at Rainbow Bridge, and a keepsake Rainbow Bridge coin and book.
More adventurous visitors can hike with an authorized Navajo guide from Navajo Mountain to Rainbow Bridge. This 16 mile two day experience begins at the base of Navajo Mountain, one of the mountains that is sacred in the Navajo culture. Years before it was designated as a National Monument, Rainbow Bridge was a sacred symbol to the Navajo. Rainbow Bridge, or “Nonnoshoshi" in the Navajo language meaning rainbow turned to stone, is a sacred place with a deep spiritual significance as guardian of the universe. It symbolizes deities responsible for the creation of the clouds, rainbows, and rains that are essential for life in the desert. Rainbow Bridge has been millions of years in the making; from the buildup of sand dunes to extreme climate changes that hardened the rock, to the landscape lifting upwards, to the erosion by the streams and washes flowing from Navajo Mountain to the Colorado River. The land that surrounds Rainbow Bridge was traditionally used by Navajo, Paiute, Ute and Hopi peoples. Before that, Ancestral Puebloans and earlier indigenous people lived in and used the area.
August 14th, 1909 was the day that Rainbow Bridge was officially “discovered” and publicized to the outside world by a dozen men from University of Utah, a federal survey group, and local guides. When John Wetherill, Bryon Cummings, William Douglas, and their discovery team arrived, they didn’t just want to prove its existence, they also wanted it preserved as a national monument. Other significant findings that were discovered at Rainbow Bridge was a fossilized dinosaur footprint which is still preserved at the viewing area of the bridge, ancient rocks, and charred wood from a fire pit carbon dated to AD 540. Less than a year later, President William Howard Taft established Rainbow Bridge as a national monument on May 30th 1910.
Lake Powell is an enormous body of water over 500 feet deep and 186 miles long with 1,960 miles of shoreline. If you drew a line along the shore of the lake, then pulled it straight, it would be longer than the distance from Canada to Mexico. The shoreline is made up of 96 major canyons and countless smaller ones that can be explored by powerboat and kayak. Information is available at www.pagelakepowelltourism.com or by calling the Page Lake Powell Tourism Bureau at 1-888-261-7243.
SIDE BAR INFORMATION
Rainbow Bridge Tour Boat
Wahweap Marina
1-888-896-3829
www.LakePowell.com
Houseboat Rentals
Antelope Point Marina
480 998 7199, ext. 7127
www.foreverhouseboats.com
Navajo Mountain – Rainbow Bridge Hike
Antelope Slot Canyon Tours
928-645-5594
www.antelopeslotcanyon.com
National Park Service Glenn Canyon
928-608-6200
www.nps.gov/glca/index.htm
Page Lake Powell Tourism Office
1-888-261-7243
www.pagelakepowelltourism.com
Image Bank Available: www.arizonatravelnews.org/page-lakepowellimagebank.html
4701 S. Lakeshore 1-A
Tempe, AZ 85282