Lake Powell Crisis: Is Bullfrog Marina Still Usable?

Added: 2026-05-29

[00:00:01]Welcome back to Lake Powell. Well, I'm sitting here at the bottom of the main Bullfrog ramp and as you can see, boy, the water, it is a long ways down there.

[00:00:09]The National Park Service and Aramark are doing a lot down here to try and keep the services open, trying to keep access open here at Bullfrog. Uh but it's going to be a different year for those that boat down here at Lake Powell.

[00:00:23]Right now, the only launch option for boaters coming to Bullfrog is the small Bullfrog North ramp, often called the executive ramp. As of Wednesday, the National Park Service recommended that boats 25 ft and under launch here.

[00:00:35]Larger boats were warned to launch at their own risk. The NPS a few years ago put steel plates below the concrete ramp to allow boats to launch at these lower levels, but how far out did they go? I didn't know and decided to find out. So, here's where the concrete ends at the Bullfrog North ramp executive launch where we've been using for the past couple years. Um there's a boiler plate right here where the concrete ends.

[00:00:59]There is a gap about a foot between the boiler plate the concrete. Let's go see how far the boiler plate goes out.

[00:01:05]So, I'm 6-ft tall and that boiler plate is still coming out here. So, we still got 6 ft or so of boiler plate to launch boats on.

[00:01:16]I would think you could launch a big boat on this, no problem.

[00:01:19]Since we shot this, Lake Powell has risen a little over a foot, mostly because the Bureau of Reclamation started to release 1 million acre-feet from Flaming Gorge, something they'll continue to do from now until April of next year. The plan is to prevent Lake Powell from dropping below its minimum power pool, which is 3,490 ft above sea level. Right now, the level sits at 3,527 ft in elevation and because of this winter's past snowfall in the Colorado drainage, the lack of it, I should say, we won't see much if any runoff coming into Lake Powell and raising the elevation. The result, Lake Powell levels this year are going to drop.

[00:01:55]Eventually, this North Bullfrog ramp won't be usable. So, then what?

[00:02:01]The NPS is currently preparing a temporary primitive launch ramp below the main Bullfrog ramp that will support launching and retrieval through the rest of the summer. The ramp is being built to accommodate a range of vessel sizes, including houseboats. So, we came to the other side of this what was an island and is now a peninsula since they put some fill over there. And we're over in the main channel of Bullfrog Bay and looks like they've got about 40 50 ft out here. So, there is there is a grade.

[00:02:29]Hopefully, they can they can find a way to make this ramp work for a lot lower elevation. The Park Service has long-term plans of putting a new ramp in Stanton Creek just off the main channel. They plan to award a contract this December for a design and construction of the new ramp and marina, but this Stanton ramp may take a few years to complete. It will eventually be the new home of Bullfrog Marina.

[00:02:52]Speaking of Bullfrog Marina, it's no longer in Bullfrog Bay. The marina store, the rental boats, the fuel pumps, even many of the slips are now located just south of Hall's Crossing Marina.

[00:03:03]The Nelson family has a houseboat in the Bullfrog slips that were just moved to Hall's Crossing. For them, the whole situation is just downright concerning.

[00:03:12]Has your family had any concerns with the the lowering of with the water going down? Of course, yeah.

[00:03:17]>> What are they? All of them.

[00:03:19]From having to pull the houseboat, deciding if we're selling the houseboat, deciding if we're selling our speedboats. Um then just the current state of our water situation that happens to deal with so many states. The people that manage you are kind of in a rock and a hard place, aren't they? Totally, but they're doing a great job and there's nothing that I would complain about. They're being very open and honest and letting us know where everything's going.

[00:03:45]Well, the National Park Service is sure working hard to try and give us North Lake power some access here by extending this ramp. I sure hope it's successful.

[00:03:53]I hope we get more water next year. We need to start all start doing some snow dances.