Nature's Eye Candy, a return to Antelope Canyon

Nature's Eye Candy

Long-time readers may remember that we visited Lower Antelope Canyon in October of 2013.  We were on a trip to Zion National Park, and because of the government shutdown were not able to hike there. We knew that Antelope Canyon was about a hundred miles away in Page, and since it too was on our "bucket list" we drove over and toured the lower canyon. Now, on our return to Page, we decided to visit the upper canyon. 

I sometimes forget that not everyone who sees my blog posts has been a reader for a long time, and may not know the names and locations of the places I mention. Five years ago if someone mentioned Page, Arizona, I would not have known were it was either.  So, here is a little map. 



Some places deserve more than one stop!

In 2013 at the lower canyon, we just showed up, paid our fee, and waited for the next tour group of about 20 people plus a guide. This time we choose to make a reservation for an 11AM "prime light time" tour of the upper canyon. Two hour "Photography" tours are also offered for which everyone must have a DSLR and a tripod, and your guide will show you where the best shots are, and keep the crowds from passing in front of you.

We arrived at the parking area, signed in and paid our fees, waited for a little while, and boarded our assigned truck along with 14 other people. Our guide was the driver, and along with a number of other open trucks, we were given a dusty, bumpy ride to the canyon entrance.

A word about the crowds: you cannot go into either Upper or Lower Antelope Canyons without a Navajo guide. You can only get a Navajo guide through one of five companies. Because the canyons have been featured in ads on the Super Bowl and in every guide book and magazine about this area, the demand is very high.  In other words, you are shoulder to shoulder with other people most of the time.

But as you can see from this picture of Craig leaving the canyon, it is a lot taller than a person, so even if you are jammed in on all sides by other photographers, the beauty above is not compromised, and you can get some great images by shooting over everyone's head.

There are a number of other slot canyons in Arizona and Utah, and we hope to be able to explore one that is not as busy as Antelope in the upcoming month. I did consider a day trip to Buckskin Gulch, but even the easiest way in involved a two mile hike (one way) and rock climbing down an 8-10 foot drop-off to get into the canyon. It seemed a little more than I am up to at this point in my life. It is also on the list of the ten most dangerous hikes in the US, because of the danger of flash flooding.

Enough about a hike we didn't do. On this day, we took over two hundred pictures.  Here are a few we have chosen to share:

When the wind blows, sand filters down from above, and during "prime time" the sun shines down to create a number of spotlight effects.

You can easily imagine the swirling water as it carved through the sandstone canyon.

Looking Up

Later in the day these beams of sunlight will be gone.

If you Google "Antelope Canyon" and choose "Images" from the top bar, you can see hundreds of pictures of the canyon walls. But if you can, go see it yourself. Just ignore the crowd and look up!

Antelope Canyon (Wednesday October 2.)

Antelope Canyon has always been on my list of places I've wanted to see in person.  We have had a wonderful large photograph from there on our living room wall for many years.  But I had not planned on going there from our Zion Campground location.  We chose to stay here so we could just hop on the shuttle and explore Zion. However since the park is closed, we decided to drive to Arizona in our car and visit Antelope Canyon because it is on Indian land and not closed.

The 120 mile (one way) drive to the canyon was itself quite impressive.  The road thru Zion National Park was open to traffic, so we were able to see more of it than we had from the shuttle bus on Monday.  We went thru a tunnel to the Eastern entrance of Zion National park. It was built in the 30's and under normal conditions large RVs can go thru with special arrangements.  (They close it from on coming traffic and the large vehicle drives down the middle.) But even that would not be a possibility for us because the Alfa is 13' 1" tall and the limit is 13' 1".  Hit a bump and we would hit our satellite dome!

So because of the closure, we took the drive in the car.

When I include pictures in my posts I try to select ones that help illustrate or tell my story.  They are usually not what one would select for a postcard or calendar.  Between the two of us we took several hundred pictures in our tour through the canyon!  So I have divided this post into two parts. First a little about the canyon, and second a gallery of some of the images we captured.

Antelope Canyon is on Navaho land, and visitors have to pay $6 per person plus are required to have a guide.  The cost of the guide ranges from $20 per person (cash only) for a one hour group tour of the lower canyon, to multiple hour tours that include several areas for almost $200.  We opted for the one hour tour which was no reservation, first come first served. These tours leave every 20 minutes. Even though it was very busy due to the closures, we only waited about a half hour before beginning our tour.

As we waited we looked out over the plateau and wondered where the canyon was.  Everything look very flat.  We did see people coming up a path who were returning from the canyon and wondered how far we would have to walk!

Our guide started the group down a path, and stopped to wait for everyone to gather round.  We noticed a crack in the ground and figured he was going to explain that this is how a slot canyon starts.

But no, instead he said: "follow me."

This is the lady who was in front of us...


The way down was a bit narrow. A wide person might have difficulty.  The first challenge of our descent was a couple of sets of steep metal steps that did not have railings.  

Later steps and ladders had hand holds and were much easier. 

In some places the walls were just wide enough to get through.

The floor of the canyon was sandy.  At all times there was light from above.

This picture of Merikay demonstrates the size of some of the larger spaces we passed thru. No, we don't know whose hand that was!

Photos seem to give the canyon a glow from the sunlight that filters in from above.  This seems to be the case for the pictures we shot as well as most of the professional images I have seen.

This image is a close up of a section of the wall that I think shows the actual color and texture.

We shot a couple hundred images.  Here are five.  Many of the others are just as interesting and it was very hard to choose which ones to share!

We will go back to see the upper canyon someday, but this was a fantastic experience.