About Kane County, UT

As of April 9, 2008 ~ homes, businesses and properties available on the Utah side of lake Powell. These are listings for Church Wells, Big Water and Clark Bench.

1 Commercial Building (boat storage)

5 Commercial Building Lots

2 Manufactured Homes

4 Homes

19 Residential Lots

1 Subdivision (Powell Springs)

There have been a couple of new listings this week so hopefully our inventory will keep going up!

Heather Rankin, ERA Utah Properties

Lake Powell Real Estate Blog

No pun intended. Driving though Big Water has changed notably in the last few months. The new 55 mile per hour signs up are a welcome relief to many people on both sides of the Utah/Arizona border.

This is a story with a long history of local residents and elected officials attempting to have the speed limit reduced through Big Water. It is an idea whose time has come.

In April of last year, a local resident and business owner, Mike Miller, was injured and his car totaled while attempting to turn left off Highway 89. Thankfully, Mike survived but sustained serious injuries.

For years, city officials have been attempting to figure out how to have UDOT lower the speed limit through Big Water. Thankfully, the first step in the process has occurred and the limit is now 55 mph instead of 65.

Rick Parsons, Big Water Mayor, has been to numerous UDOT meetings trying to raise the warning flag of impending disaster. The flag got real with Mike’s accident.

Wayne Chapman, a Big Water resident, wrote an open letter to Governor Huntsman in July pleading the case for the lowering of the speed limit before a child is injured or killed.

Not to write my own editorial here but UDOT indicates the speed limit revolves around Big Water’s master plan. However, after 17 years of living here, there have been many people on town council and planning and zoning, who have tried to get this problem addressed to no avail. The traffic on Highway 89, especially in summer months with tourists and visitors to Lake Powell, increases dramatically over winter months. The vehicle that plowed into Mike’s car was a 22 wheeler semi-truck.

The new lower limit hopefully will become permanent and the first in a series of steps to make Big Water’s highway access safer and more visitor friendly.

To view the map of sign changes please click here: 55 Map Change

Seven of the last eight years the water flowing into Lake Powell from the Colorado River, and upper basin tributaries, has been in the state of drought. 2002 saw only 25% of average inflow in to the lake. Average is such a misleading word when used in describing events in the desert. Not much average happens here.

This year looks like, while not the end of the drought, to at least be a good water year. As of March 2, 2008 snowpack conditions above Lake Powell are at 124% of normal.

Lake Powell is a huge water storage tank. After all of these years of drought, it is low. That means the lake has been doing it’s job providing water to millions of people and agricultural uses downstream. The lake is currently 110 feet below full and is storing 45% of it’s overall capacity.

A wet spring could see an increase of 50 or more feet of water hit Lake Powell during our spring runoff time. Increase in lake elevation usually begins the end of April and winds up the first week of July. 50 feet would help the lake not only in storage capacity, but in recreational opportunities.

There are plenty of areas to “recreate” on at Lake Powell even with the lower water levels. However, tourism has been down here for several years due to a variety of reasons (another blog). The public perception that Lake Powell is empty, or gone, is but one of them. Maybe, as the lake begins to rise and with the media attention just having been focused here with the floods, we will see more tourists visiting.

Astronomy was never one of my strong suits. We had a telescope many years ago but sold it. Recently my son has gotten seriously interested in astronomy, and some of the pictures he is getting using a realtively inexpensive telescope and his Canon XTI are pretty astounding. Technology has certainly changed the accessibility to do things like this.

One of the great things about living in Big Water is the lack of light pollution. The stars really shine here. Some of the photos he is taking are using exposures of up to 4 minutes. A laptop, a webcam, a small motor for the telescope, a tracking program and the result are some breath-taking photos.

Big Water, in fact, Kane County, is pretty quiet at night. You hear the coyotes yipping at each other and trying to stir up the local dogs, but not much in the way of traffic. The 71 miles of Highway 89 running from Kanab, Utah to Page, Arizona has the occassional semi truck whiz by, but even that is off in the distance. One of my next posts will delve into the wild life of this area but for now, the idea that it is quiet is what I am going for.

Sitting in the front yard, telescope set up, watching the images on the laptop and enjoying good conversation has got to be a highlight in my life. Knowing summer is around the corner and conversations will turn to Lake Powell, boating, fishing, swimming, and torusim it's nice to enjoy this chilly part of spring, the stillness of it all and ponder what's out there.

Posted by Heather Rankin, Realtor

Lake Powell Real Estate Blog

To Kane County, Utah….. Big Water in particular.

Singapore-based luxury brand Amanresorts has chosen the high, wind-blown deserts of Southern Utah for its latest development. According to the developer, Canyon Equity Group, the resort will have 34 luxury rooms for nightly rental and 28 villas which will sell for approximately 6.5 million dollars a piece and should create 200 full-time jobs. All of this in a town of less than 500 people, my home.

As a local it can be difficult to wrap the mind around what is going to happen to Big Water in the next couple of years. For the past 17 years that this piece of desert has been my home, it has retained a steady population, with very little growth or development.

Amanresorts arrival is surely set to change all that. While some local residents feel the resort-goers will never see Big Water as they will be flown in and tucked away in their comfy, if not unusual, lodgings, I beg to differ. This area is all about the outdoor activities.

The resort will, from all accounts, be pretty well self contained. However, with Lake Powell only ten miles away the Aman guests will surely want to go swim in her deep blue water, take a boat ride to Rainbow Bridge, or float around on a luxury houseboat. The many day hikes in Big Water, even the small slot canyons, will call as well. 4-wheeling on ATV’s or riding horseback across the desert seems plausible. Some may also be interested in seeing where the remains of the 93 million year old plesiosaurs and dinosaurs have been found. Yes, right here in Big Water.

This is business, but it is also personal. I’ve worked in the tourism industry and as a musician locally for almost 20 years and now as a Realtor®. My son found several plesiosaurs and had one named after him this past March. My children have been raised here. The growth is coming. The homeland, as my daughter calls it, is changing and we are not only along for the ride but excited for the potential it brings.

For any questions regarding real estate in Big Water, Page, Greenehaven or AmanResorts new offering, the Amangiri Resort and Spa at Lake Powell, please call me 928-691-6444.

See Also
Rankin Studio and Dinosaurs

Aman Resorts

Update 5-18-08

I've written a couple of more pieces on Amangiri at my Lake Powell Real Estate Blog.

Amanresorts Worldwide

Amangiri at Lake Powell Makes the New York Times

Amangiri Villas at Lake Powell Update

Posted by Heather Rankin, Realtor

Lake Powell Real Estate Blog

For current Lake Powell Real Estate For Sale Search

Page Arizona MLS for Lake Powell Real Estate
Big Water Utah MLS for Lake Powell Real Estate