Saturday, March 16

3:00 – 5:30

In partnership with Grand Canyon Trust

Location: Museum’s Branigar Chase Discovery Center Auditorium

Join an artist and advocacy tour with writers, musicians, and filmmakers for an intimate, inspirational look at the remarkable ecological recovery that’s currently underway in Glen Canyon, even as climate change and drought drain Lake Powell to record lows.

When Lake Powell began to fill in 1963, Glen Canyon became famous among river runners as “the place no one knew,” a canyon paradise that was thought to be drowned forever. Over the last two decades, however, climate change and drought have substantially drained Lake Powell. The drought has escalated a water crisis for the 40 million people who rely on the Colorado River, but in Glen Canyon there is an unexpected ecological recovery already unfolding in the once-flooded landscape. 

The Glen Canyon Rises tour brings together film, discussion, photography, and music to showcase Lake Powell’s complex and surprising transformation. Journalist and author Zak Podmore will draw from his forthcoming book Life After Dead Pool: Lake Powell’s Last Days and the Rebirth of the Colorado River to put the Colorado’s disappearing water into context, while explaining how the Glen Canyon Dam has become central to water management negotiations in the basin. Photographer and filmmaker Dawn Kish will present on her project to document Glen Canyon with a 4×5 Crown Graphic camera that belonged to legendary photographer Tad Nichols. She will also screen her acclaimed short film, Tad’s Emerging World: Glen Canyon Exposed. Finally, award-winning songwriters Jackson Emmer and Peter McLaughlin will play a set of original Colorado River songs, some of which were written on a trip to Lake Powell in 2023. 

Join the Glen Canyon Rises tour for an intimate and inspiring exploration of the future of water in the West.

MNA and Grand Canyon Trust members attend free of charge.

Non-members pay general museum admission.

Photo credit: Dawn Kish