Padre Bay

Located at mile 19 of Lake Powell, Padre Bay is the largest expanse of open water on the man made lake. Padre Bay is connected to Gunsight Butte and Cookie Jar Butte during high water periods. Nearby hiking attractions are the "weathering pits," perfectly round depressions that range between 10 to 50 feet (3 to 15 m) in diameter and are between 20 and 70 feet (6 to 21 m) deep. Padre Bay is named for a famous low water crossing of the Colorado River, now under several hundred feet of water. A group of ten men, led by the priests Silvestre Vélez de Escalante and his superior Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, were en route home from a failed attempt to find an overland trail to Monterey, California. They first attempted to cross the Colorado River at Lee's Ferry in Arizona.