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20 BACKPACKER 03.2014 Basecamp / June 2013 xxxxx xxxxxx Basecamp P H O T O B Y J A M E S K A Y Low water Lake Powell will drop to 45 percent capacity in spring 2014—more than 110 feet below full pool. Life List: Twilight Canyon, UT Trips  In Twilight Canyon, timing is everything. My partners and I scramble in at noon, the ideal hour when the sun shines overhead and provides a whisper of light at the bottom of this 400-foot-deep slot. It’s the best month (April), warm enough for swimming the icy pools but not too hot for hiking the waterless, 9-mile ridge approach. Most importantly, though, we are arriving during the right year, in the right decade. Since the late 1990s, record drought in the Colorado River Basin has pulled the stopper on Lake Powell. Water levels have fluctuated, but the trend is unmistakable: The reservoir, which once covered 250 square miles, is nearing half its former size, and more than 100 side canyons that were buried for 40 years behind Glen Canyon Dam have emerged from the depths, first in 2005, and now again this year. Twilight is legendary for being among the deepest and darkest, and one of the few that you can reach on foot rather than by motorboat. On day two of our four-day trek, we drop into Twilight’s cavernous narrows. The 40-foot crux (rated 5.4; bring climbing gear, including two 60-foot ropes) is marked with Moqui steps that were carved into the sand- stone by ancient Puebloans who traveled this route perhaps a thousand years ago. After Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1963, the area was submerged under the nation’s second-largest reservoir. Now climate change has turned back the clock. Just downcanyon from the Moqui steps, we gaze up 100 feet at the creamiscle canyon wall to see Lake Powell’s high water mark—last reached in 2000. We amble another mile downstream and witness a canyon being reborn: Cottonwood saplings rise from the floor, moss and monkey flower cling to ledges above, and a chorus of tree frogs echoes off the walls. When Lake Powell was full, I floated in a motorboat atop narrow canyons like this. They all looked the same—featureless lagoons of trapped water and barren rock. Now, about a half-mile from the reservoir’s current shoreline, we venture into a tunnel-like side drainage. The walls pinch down to only 3 feet apart and shimmer silver with lake water that oozes out of the porous sandstone. A faint hint of afternoon sun bathes the slot in a luminous golden glow and I see how this canyon got its name. The magic is back. Timing is everything when experiencing Glen Canyon’s storied beauty. And there’s no time like right now. –Annette McGivney DO IT Plan three days for this 25-mile out-and-back. TRAIL- HEAD 37.252347, -110.974134*; 175 miles east of Cedar City, at the Davis Wash pull- out off Hole in the Rock Rd. SEASON Spring and fall for mildest weather CONTACT (928) 608- 6200; nps.gov/glca INTERACTIVE ONLINE MAP backpacker.com/ twilight Deep in Glen Canyon, explore lost slots restored by receding waters. NARROWS EXPOSED: WHEN LAKE POWELL IS FULL, THIS SIDE SLOT OFF TWILIGHT CANYON IS SUBMERGED UNDER 110 FEET OF WATER. *Plug these lat/long coordinates into Google Maps for turn-by-turn driving directions.
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