Today was the day I went to see one of the natural wonders of the world - Rainbow Bridge, the longest natural arch in the world. It started with a narrated early-morning boat ride 50 miles up Lake Powell. Just the very southern tip of the lake is in Arizona, so most of today I spent in Utah. I learned that Lake Powell is 186 miles long and has more coastline - 1963 miles - than the East Coast!! Lake Powell is a man-made lake formed when a dam was built across the deep Glen Canyon of the Colorado River. After the Glen Canyon Dam was finished, it took the lake 17 years to fill up! It's hard to describe the beauty of this lake. 
Think of the beautiful multi-colored rock of Sedona, or the Painted Desert, then fill the canyon with the bluest of blue water. Besides appreciating the beauty of the lake this morning, I also appreciated how the wind and the spray of the water kept us cool. :-)
It took us two hours by boat to get to the Arch, then we had a short hike to where we could see the arch. Impressive. Amazingly, it's so tall that the Statue of Liberty would almost fit beneath it! [The people at the base of the arch are so tiny in this photo that you can hardly see them at all.] I enjoyed the short hike. I kept looking up at the 900-foot tall red sandstone walls [see those tiny people on the trail at the bottom of the photo on the right?]; they reminded me very much of Zion National Park.
As you know, if you’ve ever googled the “Seven Natural Wonders of the World”, there is no consensus on what those seven wonders are; there are several lists. There are a few things, like the Grand Canyon, that make everyone’s list. According to the people in Page, AZ, the Rainbow Bridge, makes somebody’s list. Or, some prefer to call it the "eighth natural wonder of the world".
I spent the afternoon swimming in the lake, on the Utah side. It got hot today - 102 degrees - so that cool water really felt good. This was my view as I sat on the shore, in my lawn chair, in the shade of my RV. :-) In the distance is Navajo Mountain.
There are 14 spectacular places called the "Grand Circle" at the junction of Utah, Arizona, and Colorado. With this visit to Lake Powell/Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Rainbow Bridge National Monument, I have now seen all of them. The Utah ones are: Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Capitol Reef National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, Zion National Park, Natural Bridges National Monument, and Valley of the Gods. The Colorado park is Mesa Verde National Park. The Arizona Parks are: Grand Canyon National Park, Monument Valley, Navajo National Monument, and Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Every single one is worth seeing and an amazing place in its own right. I hope you get to see all of them too! (Chaco Culture National Historic Park is sometimes considered part of the "Grand Circle"; I haven't visited it yet.)
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