plans for a trip to lake powell

just wondering if someone could tell me how much gas i should expect to use for a week of house boating,i plan on only running it a few hours a day....also which marina should i go out of...bullfrog or whaweap. is one part of the lake better than the other. thank for any input

Jim,

What time of year are you going? If you plan on spending time in/at the Marina....Wahweap is much more user friendly & you have Page, Az a very short drive away if you need anything.

If you are planning on getting far away from the marina, I guess it doesn't matter much where you are launching out of.... Whichever is closer is probably the better destination. We always stay fairly close(a canyon or 2 away) because we gas the tow boats at the marina.

I do not think that there is a noticable difference between the sides. Though now that you cannot shoot right across at Wahweap, I feel it takes a little longer to get away. Then again, if you go out of Antelope Point....you avoid some of that....and they rent houseboats not....so that is an option.

As far as how much gas, do you mean with the houseboat or tow boats? The houseboat is going to use a lot of gas. Depending on what time of year you go & if you are using central air....it could use a ton. Also, depending on how far you take the houseboat up/down the lake....bla...bla...bla....

For reference:

Last Summer we rented a 70' houseboat from Antelope Point for a week and took it approximately 38 miles uplake to Dry Rock Creek.

We ran the generator a good deal, but our anchorage was in the shade until around 8am and after 5:30 pm which really reduced the AC load.

We took it all of the way back in without refueling and got back with around 20 gallons to spare out of a 270 gallon tank.

We refueled the wake boats a number of times since we were only a fifteen minute blast from Dangling Rope.

We left out of Wahweap on the 59' houseboat the same week last summer. We went as far as Oak Canyon (mile 51) in the Houseboat.

On day 3 we stopped at Dangling Rope and put 110 gallons of gas in the houseboat and 70 in the Toy tank and 35 in the tow boat. We also had the waste tanks pumped (no charge) to keep things decent (14 people) the rest of the trip.

We made it back to Wahweap from Oak Bay even after taking the houseboat all the way back into West Canyon on the last night.

Fill up at Wahweap Marina was 160 gallons for the houseboat. That makes the total 270 gallons for the hoseboat. Approx. 165+ gallons in the tow boat.

Our gas useage has been about the same over the last 8 years. We'll use about 80-150 for the houseboat, 100 out of the toy tank, and easily 80-120+ in fill-ups at the Marinas. We normally move around somewhere between Padre Bay and Mt. Sheep Canyon, so we're not too far from Dangling Rope. The toy tank is also filling up a few Sea Doos. The last few years going around Antelope Island adds an hour (say 15 gal) each way.

You asked where to leave from - in part it depends on where you are starting. If you are in southern california, bullfrog is another 7 hours of driving compared to Wahweap.