Great Sand Dunes National Park

Lake Powell & Glen Canyon Dam
A four-day tour of the Southwest was the educational backdrop for learning for third and fourth graders in March 2005. The excursion took students to Northern Arizona and Southern Utah to study the Colorado River and water use in the Southwestern United States. Students were treated to a boat ride through the narrow and beautiful Antelope Canyon on Lake Powell. They then observed water levels below 50% capacity as the boat captain cleverly maneuvered through narrow canyon walls.

A tour of the Glen Canyon Dam, just recently reopened to visitors following a post-9/11 closure, took students further into the field where they learned about the production and distribution of hydroelectricity as well as water distribution via the Colorado River Compact. Third and fourth graders participated in a hands-on demonstration that explained how electricity is produced by the dam's enormous generators. A trip to Lake Powell would not be complete without a visit to the John Wesley Powell Museum, where students studied photographs, journal entries and maps from Powell's heroic 99-day boat trip down the Colorado River.

Students continued their studies of the Colorado River Watershed with a rafting trip on the San Juan River, a tributary of the Colorado River. A five-mile journey beginning and ending near Mexican Hat, Utah kept students busy, as they took turns rowing the eighteen-person raft and playing in some of the finest mud in the Southwest!