Our tour of Lower Antelope Canyon was canceled on Sunday due to flooding, but we were able to reschedule for Monday.
We had an amazing time. Our guide, a young Native American woman named Jo, was wonderful. She was cheery, relaxed, patient, and everything you could want in a guide. Informative, too.
Entering the canyon.
Lower Antelope Canyon is quite different from Upper Antelope Canyon.
First of all, we walked to the entrance of Lower Antelope Canyon rather than drove. Second, Lower Antelope Canyon involved climbing up and down ladders, both to get into and out of the canyon as well as while we were walking through it. And whereas the floor of Upper Antelope Canyon was fairly wide, the passageways of Lower Antelope Canyon were much tighter.
The toe holes in the rock face on the left are how people used to climb this wall. They would use the toe holes and pull themselves up with a rope.The man and child in the photo above were foreign tourists. Greg and I never did figure out what language they were speaking.Can you see the face of the Indian woman with her hair blowing back in the photo above?None of these photos were edited. I don’t know how we got such beautiful colors.This photo (above) shows how narrow and maze-like much of the canyon was.Can you see the face of the Indian chieftain in the rock on the left?To get out of the canyon, we had to climb a set of stairs. This is what the slot canyon looked like from outside.
After our tour of Lower Antelope Canyon, we headed back to the campground and relaxed for the rest of the day. (Well, aside from one quick trip to the grocery store.)
There is so much more we could have done while we were staying in Page, but it was really nice to just relax around our campsite much of the time.
We have really lucked out with the weather on this trip. The forecast called for showers the morning of our Navajo Canyon boat tour, but the sun was out, and the temperature was perfect.
That is Tower Butte in the distance. You can take a helicopter ride and land on the top, which gives you a 360° view of the surrounding area.Navajo Canyon The Navajo Tapestry. If you look carefully, you can see animals and Native American chieftains in the patterns on the rock face.We were told that the white rock and the red rock are the same type of rock. However, the white rock has been calcified by the water. Where white changes over to red is the demarcation line of where the water level used to be.Heading back to Wahweap Marina, which you can see in the distance.
Lunch at Wahweap Resort and Marina
After returning from our tour of Navajo Canyon, we had lunch at the resort. It was very good!
Wahweap Overlook
On our way back to the campground after lunch, we stopped at the Wahweap Overlook.
Other scenic overlooks
Since we had the time, we stopped at the other overlooks along the way. Lake Powell is basically a wide section of the Colorado River created by the Glen Canyon Dam. It has more than 96 water-filled side canyons, of which Navajo Canyon and Antelope Canyon are two.
Scenic Drive
Next, we took the short Scenic Drive, which provided an overlook of the Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River.
Despite cloudy skies, the rain held off the morning of our tour of Upper Antelope Canyon.
I can’t say that I particularly enjoyed the tour. I didn’t expect so many people to be there, and our tour guide was rather grumpy.
All of the tours in this area are run by Native Americans.
I’m coming to the conclusion that Native Americans are a taciturn bunch in general. I don’t know whether it is a cultural thing (similar to how Rhode Islanders feel about outsiders) or whether it is bitterness over how they have been treated historically by white people.
Either way, I get the distinct impression that they hold tourists in poorly contained contempt. In all fairness to them, though, whenever someone showed interest in their culture and history, they became much more friendly and open.
It was virtually impossible to get photos without other people in them during our tour.
Since we were hurried through the canyon like an assembly line, and our guide got annoyed when people held up the line to take photos, I gave up worrying about photos shortly after the tour started.
The tour guide took this photo for another one of the tourists. I asked her if she could share it with me, which she happily agreed to do. Notice the heart shape that the rock makes.
At first, our tour guide did not want to take photos for people. He said that he was technically not allowed to touch other people’s cameras. Eventually, he relented and began acting as group photographer.
Upper Antelope Slot Canyon was truly beautiful. The flow of the rock face was unlike anything I’ve ever seen before.
Powell Museum and Archives
Since the weather forecast predicted rain, we headed to Powell Museum and Archives next.
The docent was a native of Page and clearly enjoyed sharing his knowledge with visitors. I enjoyed talking to him.
Horseshoe Bend…again!
Since it was a cloudy day, we decided to stop by Horseshoe Bend again and see if we could get better pictures than we had the day before.
I would love to take a boat ride through Horseshoe Bend before we head to the Grand Canyon, but I don’t know if it will happen.
Our next stop after Arches and Canyonlands was supposed to be Mesa Verde. We even had a tour of the Cliff House scheduled.
Sadly, the government shutdown nixed those plans. Mesa Verde is closed.
We decided to drop Mesa Verde and Monument Valley off of our itinerary and head straight to Page, Arizona.
Of course, that meant that the tours of Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon had to be rescheduled.
The only time we were able to schedule a tour of Upper Antelope Canyon was Friday morning, when the weather forecast was predicting that we would be experiencing the height of Tropical Storm Priscilla. We went ahead and booked the tour anyway. Time will tell whether we get to go on it.
Horseshoe Bend
We decided to visit Horseshoe Bend early this morning. What we didn’t realize is that the sun rises an hour earlier in Page than it did in Moab, so by the time we arrived at the parking lot for Horseshoe Bend, the sun was annoyingly high in the sky.
Oh, well. We will have other opportunities to visit it at better times of the day. We are only 15 minutes away.
This was the best photo I could get, considering the position of the sun.
Glen Canyon Dam
Next up was a stop at Glen Canyon Dam.
Once again, the government shutdown interfered with our plans. The Carl Hayden Visitor Center was closed.
However, we were able to access the overlook behind the visitor center. We were not able to walk across the dam, which I had been hoping we could do.
Antelope Canyon boat tour
Today was the last hot day we will have in Page, so I was eager to get on the water and experience Lake Powell.
The marina where we are staying offers boat tours, so after visiting Glen Canyon Dam, we headed over there to book one for the afternoon.
We had been told by someone who lives in Page that the storm was due to arrive around 5:00 p.m., so we figured we would be safe as long as we got our boat tour in before then.
Wrong!
No sooner had the boat left the dock than the heavens opened up.
Lightning flashed. Thunder cracked. We were hit by a deluge of rain.
I was sure the tour boat captain would immediately turn around and head back to the dock, but all she did was advise us not to touch the metal railings on the boat.
It turned out to be a great tour, despite the fact that our tour guide wasn’t able to deliver her spiel because the sound of the rain hitting the metal roof of the boat was too loud.
Look at those waterfalls! They are solely due to the amount of rain that was falling.
When we got back to the marina, we had to wait about half an hour for maintenance workers to clear the rocks and debris off the road from the flooding before we were able to head back to the parking lot.
I feel like we made the most of the day, in spite of the impediments put in our way.
Meanderings & Mind Munchies 