Antelope Canyon

The Corkscrew, Antelope Canyon

Our destination today is the Northern Rim of the Grand Canyon. Over half of the day we spent on the Hopi Reservation. Our key stop in route was Antelope Canyon. This is probably the most popular and photographed slot canyons in the world. Our guide is a nephew of the owner of this land, he had taken both geology and digital photography in college. Of course, he’s been giving tours of this canyon for years. So he knew just where to take the most interesting photos as well giving us the geology and history. Ahead of us was a group of 12, behind us another 12, and when we left a group of 30, yet we often had sections of the canyon all to ourselves. It is a dry stream bed most of the time, but floods sometimes after it rains. Depending upon the amount of rain, the sand is either swept completely out of this canyon or deposits itself there. The sand level was about 6 feet above the base rock when we went through. At times, the water will rise the entire 120 feet above the base. We felt very lucky because we ended up with just a group of four people touring this 400 foot canyon. It was just as wondrous as the photos I had seen of it with whirling bands of sandstone lit by the sun in places and completely dark in other. Some of the chambers were 20 feet wide, but the narrows were only 4-5 feet wide. Our guide knew the exact spot to take the most fascinating pictures, being sure to avoid getting any of the sky in the pictures, since that will ruin the color balance. Several shots have names like the corkscrew (yes, it look like one) and Monument valley (which looks like a dark butte in the bright colored sand. This was well worth the $31/person we paid for the tour.

John and Mary in Antelope Canyon

We headed on toward the Grand Canyon, getting over 6000 feet above sea level than plunging to the crossing of the Colorado river at Lee’s ferry at 3500 feet, and then back up to 6000 feet to get to our campsite. The Park’s campsite was full, so we’re staying at a forest campground just outside the park. We tried to take some sunset pictures of the canyon, but there wasn’t much of a sunset with too many clouds.