As of January 2005, water levels at Lake Powell Reservoir are down below 37% of full, exposing forty miles of the Cataract Canyon, nearly a dozen new rapids, and hundreds of miles of side canyons all the way down to the dam. The recovery of these emerging canyons is occurring at an astonishing rate. Five years ago, significant skepticism was voiced regarding the Glen’s capacity for restoration and the legendary canyons were thought to be lost forever.

Recent evidence has shown this to be false. For example, the Lower Escalante near its confluence with Coyote Gulch, which was previously under water as recently as 1999, is now lined with 20-foot tall vegetation and exhibits little evidence of its recent submersion. Farther downstream, the evidence of submersion is more pronounced, yet disappearing quickly. Two miles downstream, 10-foot high vegetation (native and non-native alike) lines the sediment banks the Escalante River is steadily cutting through. Further downstream the river has cut down through twenty feet of sediment deposited just a few years previously.