Lake Powell is a man-made reservoir on the Colorado River, straddling the border between Utah and Arizona. It was created by the flooding of Glen Canyon by the controversial Glen Canyon Dam, which also led to the creation of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a popular summer destination. The reservoir is named for explorer John Wesley Powell, a one-armed American Civil War veteran who explored the river via three wooden boats in 1869. In 1972, Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was established. It is public land managed by the National Park Service, and available to the public for recreational purposes. Lake Powell is arguably one of the most scenic lakes in America, situated in some of Southern Utah's finest red-rock desert country. It is second in size only to Lake Mead downstream. With both lakes storing about 25,000,000 acre-feet (31 km3) of water each when full, the water is a valuable resource for the western U.S.
Lake Powell boasts over 1,900 miles (3100 km) of shoreline, more than the entire coast of the western U.S. and has 96 major side canyons. (Full article...)