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Cathedral in the Desert
Cathedral in the Desert is a stunning monument located in the heart of one of the most beautiful places on earth, the Escalante arm of Glen Canyon. Originally named for its natural resemblance to a cathedral, it is currently buried nearly 100 feet under the flood-waters of Lake Powell reservoir. In 1963, Glen Canyon Dam was completed causing the flooding of 186 miles of the Colorado River’s main channel. With that flooding, however, also came the loss of 125 major side canyons of Glen Canyon, including the drowning of the spectacular monument, Cathedral in the Desert. David Brower, then head of the Sierra Club, referred to this event as “America’s most regretted environmental mistake.”
Cathedral in the Desert was originally named by two modern explorers on a quest to find geologic features outstanding enough to name and include in an environmental article. In the summer of 1954, Burnett Hendrix and Harlon Beamont were on their burros, slowly making their way up Clear Creek, a small canyon just off of the incredible Escalante River Canyon. Not many had preceded them here, yet they had been told that one of the most beautiful places on earth existed at the end of this canyon. They soon found that to be true.
After years of the reservoir hovering around half full, in 2019 the elevation of Powell began a precipitous drop. By 2023, the reservoir had dropped to a historic low of elevation 3,520, down from 3,600 in 2019. At 180 feet below full pool, Cathedral was able to begin its return in earnest.
At water level 3,520 not only is the whole chamber revealed, a hiker hears the water before they see it. More important still, after two years of low water and monsoonal cycles in the region, 20 feet of sediment was scoured away from the floor of the chamber, further revealing a more naturalized Cathedral in the Desert. With just a few years of being out of water, we are seeing what those traveling in the area before the reservoir would have seen.
Furthermore, as of 2023, maidenhair ferns, cottonwood, grasses, and willow have begun to return to Cathedral in the Desert.
Cathedral in the Desert quite literally mimics a common cathedral, with finger-like projections in the sandstone varnish that stretch upward on the narrow canyon walls like spires reaching into heaven. The spires are complimented by a 60 foot waterfall pouring into the giant natural amphitheater of sandstone and slivers of sunlight. In his film, Let the River Run, David Brower said that, “Cathedral in the Desert was the ultimate magical place in Glen Canyon. And it didn’t take you very long to get into the side canyon. And then when you walked into that it was so much like a cathedral that you felt you better be quiet there – and we were.”
With what we know now is possible with restoration in Cathedral, it seems asinine to let the reservoir to re-drown this amazing natural feature.