My fiance and I recently purchased and Oru Kayak, the Bay ST which is a folding kayak. We can fit two of them in my jeep wrangler and tested them out briefly on Mission Bay San Diego before deciding to jump to a bigger trip and test them out kayaking.

I took notes and started my planning after reading a great blog post written over at Bearfoot Theory.

Planning

Usually I plan my bigger trips a little further out but this one was planned pretty quickly, less than a week before we would leave. I originally wanted to depart from Antelope Point Launch Ramp because it would be a little closer than the other two boat launches but State Line Boat Ramp was the only one actually open.

By using State Line boat ramp it would add on a few extra miles and we would have to cross Wahweap Bay which was a bit more open water travel than if we left from Antelope Point Launch Ramp.

Our goal for this trip was to kaya all the way to Labyrinth Canyon, kayak through it, and take a short hike through part of it. By leaving from State Line Boat Ramp, this would be around 32 miles of kayaking in order to get there and get back.

We did not plan out each night's campsite, we just studied the map and decided on general areas that we could camp on and played each day out.

Maps

The Caltopo may and GPX files can be found here. I marked out the two campsites we ended up stopping at each night on this map.

One thing to note while reading this guide is that sometimes our Kayak path may look like it crosses land or maybe it looks like we are camping in the water. This is because the water level in Lake Powell can change drastically from year to year. I am pointing this out not only because it may look odd on some of my maps but this is a good thing to keep in mind while traveling in Lake Powell. The coastline depicted on your map will most likely not match exactly what you see in person while navigating this body of water.

Part 1: State Line Boat Ramp

Living in San Diego we ended up both taking Friday off from work and woke up around 1:30 am to make the almost ten-hour drive Lake Powell.

When we got to the Lake Powell State Line Boat Ramp, we immediately asked if this was the right place to launch kayaks and we were told to drive right around the corner to State Line Marina Boat Docks and Launch from there.

I drove my jeep as close as I could get to the water's edge and we carried both our Oru Bay ST kayaks down to the water along with all our gear.

We unloaded and launched our Kayaks form the yellow area highlighted below:

When you are done unloading make sure you read all the signs and park in the right location. When we were there the upper part of the lot highlighted in yellow below was marked for overnight parking:

Part 2: Wahweap Bay

Wahweap Bay was the first part of Lake Powell we had to paddle through. Wahweap bay is a larger body of water, with a lot of boat traffic from State Line Boat Ramp and Wahweap Boat Ramp. We traveled across Wahweap Bay towards Castle Rock Cut, this was around 2.5 miles

When we departed the State Line Marina Boat docks the water was nice and calm in the Marina, but once we turned out there was some nice wind we were fighting all the way towards Castle Rock Cut.

The wind didn't bother us too much at this point since we were filled with the adrenaline of just starting off on a new adventure, and the views were pretty terrific distractions.

Part 3: Castle Rock Cut

Castle Rock Cut is a small canal type water feature. If you plan on paddling through it make sure it actually exists! There are some years that the water level is so low that the canal is not there. You would then have to travel a much farther route south from Wahweap Bay to get into the rest of Lake Powell.

When we got to Castle Rock cut it was a nice reward for paddling across the bay. Immediately the water became super calm and the wind almost pushed us right through the canal! It felt almost effortless!

One thing to note is that Castle Rock Cut can get pretty busy with powerboat traffic. On the way out it was pretty nice and mostly empty for us, but on our final day on our way back to the Marina it was pretty packed with boats coming out into the Lake. It almost looked like a long parade of boats.

Part 4: North East Antelope Island to Camp

Once through Castle Rock Cut, we continued to follow the coast of antelope Island which was to our south.

As we approached the northern tip of Antelope Island we were getting ready to be in a larger body of water and decided to stop for a quick snack and regain some energy before the choppier larger body of water.

The northern part of Antelope Island is pretty flat and desolate. It was a lot hotter here than it was sitting on the kayaks on the water but it was nice to rest our arms and have a quick bite to eat.

After getting back in our Kayaks, the paddling got a little more rough and choppy as we rounded the northern tip of Antelope Island and started heading south to get into a somewhat wide canyon to look for a place to camp.

On the map above you can see we took a bit of an odd turn and not a direct path into the next canyon that our campsite is located in. I got a little distracted by a cool looking cliff face and just kept paddling towards it before realizing what we did.

Eventually, we got back on course and we were back in another canyon and starting to look for a place to camp.

Part 5: First Nights Camp

At this point the sun was getting a bit lower in the sky but we could have maybe paddled for another hour, but we started looking for a place to land and set up camp. This part of Lake Powell had some high cliffs so we wanted to find a place we could beach kayaks and get into a spot to set up camp. We didn't want to push a little further and then not be able to beach the kayaks and then have to continue in the dark.

Our "beach" landing was less than a beach and more just some smooth rock. It was a small opening we could fit both kayaks into off the main body of water but it was a tad steep getting the kayaks out of the water.

Once the kayaks were out of the water we took our gear out and carried it just under a hundred meters inland to find some shelter from the wind to set up camp.

After enjoying the sunset, we ate dinner and filtered water for the next day of paddling.

We also re-purposed my camera tripod to aide us in filtering our water, it worked fantastically:

Lastly a quick video timelapse of the area:

Part 6: Kayaking Towards Labyrinth Bay

Day one ended up being a total of 9.02 miles before we ended up at camp. Day 2 would start off with a little over 4-mile paddle towards Labyrinth Bay at the mouth of Labyrinth Canyon.

Once we got in the water it seemed a little bit calmer than it was the day before and we were excited to be heading towards Labyrinth Canyon, I was super stoked to get there!

Despite the water being calm, the wind was still stronger than I would have liked while we traveled through the main canyon towards Labyrinth Bay.

This section of Lake Powell was only .2 to .3 miles wide on average. It was a lot wider than the Castle Rock CUt we traveled through the day prior but unlike Castle Rock Cut, powerboats could travel at a speed to make a wake in here.

At first, I wanted to travel pretty close to the walls of the canyon to try and avoid the wind, but this proved interesting as the boat traffic picked up. The waves would hit the canyon walls and bounce back, which created some pretty interesting wave patterns. It wasn't too crowded on the lake, so it wasn't too bad for us but definitely something to be aware of when traveling through waterways such as this.

Paddling along this part of the canyon we did see a couple of other spots we could have easily camped at, but you never know what will be accessible depending on the water level in Lake Powell so I am glad we stopped when we did.

As the canyon widened the southern part started to reveal some really nice sandy beaches. These beaches would be prime for camping on a non-windy day and a lot of boats seemed to claim these spots early.

As you follow this sandy beach it wraps around towards the entrance of Labyrinth Bay. RIght, where the bay starts we beached our Kayaks on the soft sand to take a short break, eat some snacks and take in the wonderful views. Labyrinth Bay is absolutely beautiful!

Part 7: Finding Labyrinth Canyon

As we finally made it to Labyrinth Bay, we were pumped to finally be arriving at the canyon!

In the map above you can see we made a very small detour into what we thought was the canyon. From across Labyrinth Bay we could see a small looking slot canyon and paddled hard towards that. It was a super small thin canyon we fit into, and was actually kind of cool but you could not get through it when we were there.

We ended up having to paddle out backwards because it was so thin, but it was a cool side adventure.

After the short mini wrong slot canyon we ended up going into the actual Labyrinth Canyon which started out much wider. There were some very large houseboats camped out at the start of Labyrinth Canyon, and one even had a helicopter on it which took off right in front of me! I thought he was going to crash into me...

The entire paddle down Labyrinth Canyon was worth all the paddling we had to do to get there, through the winds and choppy water.

I was surprised at first how wide Labyrinth Canyon actually was but it ever so slightly got narrower and narrower as you went further and further down it.

Towards the end of the canyon, the watercolor drastically changes and becomes very silty. At this point we rounded one last corner and we were able to beach our kayaks and get off onto dry land!

Part 8: Hiking Labyrinth Canyon

Having finally paddled through Labyrinth Canyon, it was time to beach the kayaks and go for a hike through the canyon. I didn't bring a GPS to mark how far we hiked up it, but we went a little way and it got really narrow.

The first thing I noticed when I got off the water and into Labyrinth Canyon was how hot it was. We were on the water for the past two days, so the temperature was bearable but it was significantly hotter in the canyon. The canyon also has some soft sand to walk through to its a little bit more effort than hiking on a normal trail.

Rachel found a nice cool shaded spot for us to sit down and have a well-deserved snack.

Part 8: Departing Labyrinth Canyon and Fighting the Wind

When we got back to our Kayaks after hiking through the canyon we noticed the water had come in quite a bit since we had left. Our kayaks were still on dry land but the water was definitely a noticeable amount more into the canyon.

When we departed we noticed there was much more of a current in the water pushing into the canyon. As we rounded the first bend in the canyon on our kayaks we immediately felt the gust of wind in our faces. I didn't take any pictures or videos of our trip out, if we stopped paddling we moved backward at a pretty fast rate...

It was steady strong work to padel out of the canyon in the wind and we tried to hug the sides of the canyon where we could to try and stay out of the wind as much as possible, but every new bend in the canyon we took we were met with a blast of wind to the face.

We eventually made it out to Labyrinth Bay which was pretty choppy and there was no break from the wind out there. We pushed to the first somewhat sandy beach we could find and stopped to assess for a camping spot. There was unfortunately not much shelter from the wind here so we decided to hug the coast and press on. It was Saturday and we planned to spend one more night and then paddle back to State Line Marina and head home on Sunday.

At this point I decided to take out my Delorme InReach (Now owned by Garmin), and use it to check the weather via Satellite.

Here is the weather report I got back:

We continued to push and hug the coast, moving forward looking for spots to jump off and camp. At one point the wind was blowing off the coast, we were getting hit by water from the bow of our kayaks slapping down in between waves and also blasted by sand blowing off the coast. We just gritted our teeth and continued paddling.

I forget how many times we stopped but it was 2 or 3 times we just hit the shore and rested up and catch out breaths and let our arms rest. I ended up taking out my beanie to put on my head because I was starting to get cold from being blasted by water and wind.

We eventually made it to a place where we could camp after a full day of 12.2 miles of kayaking. We were exhausted but still had an amazing day exploring Labyrinth Canyon!

Part 9: Final Night and kayak Home

Our campsite was just outside of Labyrinth Bay and set us up for an 11-mile day of kayaking the next morning.

It was still pretty windy when we got to camp, but we had to get warm dry clothes on and prep for a long final day back to the Marina. I knew the wind was supposed to end around 9 pm based on the weather report so at least we could still get a decent night's sleep.

After prepping camp, easting some dinner, we drank some wine and I did a little photography before we went to sleep for the final night along the coast of Lake Powell.

We woke up early the final morning, to calm waters and almost no wind. We paddled swiftly back to the Marina making only one stop on Antelope Island for some snacks. Castle Rock Cut was packed with small powerboats coming out for the day. We were exhausted but we had a fantastic trip and I can not wait to come back and visit Lake Powell again someday!

I have a lot of GoPro video footage that I still have to go through, so follow this discussion if you want to be notified when I post the video of our trip.