Road Trippin' - Part 3: Antelope Canyon

Day 5 Antelope Canyon

The next morning I had us scheduled to do a tour of Lower Antelope Canyon.  This was the other reason we came to Page.  There’s Upper and Lower Antelope.  I had a hard time deciding between the two.  Upper Antelope has the light beams, even though they aren’t present in the winter the canyon is still beautiful.  Lower Antelope is narrower and more open at the top so the light reflects off the upper walls giving the canyon a beautiful glow and light and shadow play.   

When I was checking into each one, I found out Lower had some tight spots and ladders you had to climb up and down to get through the canyon.  Because of this I originally, I decided on Upper, but something kept drawing me back to Lower.  I was worried about the tight spots, because we both are large people and I wondered if we would even be able to make all the way through, and I knew Hubby wouldn’t like the ladders.  As it got closer to our trip I started to waffle between the two and even asked Hubby what his preference was.  I started to look at photos online and read other people's accounts of each and finally decided I wanted to do the Lower canyon tour, but there was a problem.  In my research I ran across a photo of the entrance.  It was basically a crack in the ground about 2 1/2 feet wide.  I couldn't find any real answers as to how wide it was and really started to wonder if we would be able to fit.  I emailed the tour company asking about the entrance and they told me it was very wide and they've never had a problem with anyone getting stuck.  The more I looked at that the photo and thought about the email, I thought something was wrong, so I emailed them again explaining in more detail my concerns and again they assured me they never had a problem before.  I thought well maybe we'll give it a try, but then again I thought that maybe other people were just smart enough to know better. 

I had told Jim, our guide from the other day, that we were planning on doing Lower Antelope and asked if he thought it would be a problem and if he had any advice on shooting in the canyon since I didn't know what the light was going to be like and I knew I couldn't take a tripod.  All he said was that the lower canyon was more V shaped, to start with ISO at 400 and to lean into the wall for the longer exposures.  

Our tour was scheduled for 11, but we had to be there and checked in by 10:30 so we had time to sit around and watch the other tourists.  There was a bus load of Asian tourists there and they were all taking selfies or group shots in front of the tour company sign with funny poses.  It was kind of comical to watch.

Finally our tour group was called up.  I had read that at Lower Antelope they do smaller tours, so I was surprised when we seemed to be in a fairly large group of 15 people.   But they split us up into two groups so our group consisted of us, three German tourist and our tour guide.  This helped keep things moving because guides didn't have to corral 15 people in one spot, which would of been very hard to do, due the the narrow nature of the canyon.

Stairway into Lower Antelope Canyon

To get to the canyon entrance, our guide lead us down a short trail which led down a steep hill to the first set of stairs.  Looking down from the top, it was a little intimidating, but he said we could go down backwards like climbing down a ladder and that made it easier.  We climbed down 5 flights of stairs to the bottom.  The canyon was beautiful with its smooth curving walls and interesting lines.  It's amazing what the power of water can carve.   I would of loved to do the photography tour they offer but it was more expensive and they only allow serious photographers (meaning anybody with a SLR camera) on those tours, so Hubby wouldn't of been able to come with.

The narrow path

I did the best I could and my pics aren’t professional by any means but they turned out pretty good, and I only had to throw away 2 that were out of focus that the guide had taken.  We wound our way through the canyon, listening to our guide point out the different structures in the canyon walls.  Some of them were clear as day and others you really needed to use your imagination to see them.  We were able to make it up and

 http://www.wildnatureimages.com

down the ladders and through the narrow spots.  The worst was the exit. This was the photo I was obsessing over online.   We had to climb up a few short flights of stairs and then squeeze ourselves out of this tiny crack in the ground.  When I was looking online they showed people entering the canyon at this point, but I think they switched it around because it was easier to climb down all those steeps stairs on the other side, rather than up to get out.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the exit, so I had to steal one online.

The tour was only about an hour and we had nothing else planned for the day, so we drove around stopping at the scenic overlooks over Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Dam and visiting gift shops.  By the time we left Page, we had crossed the Glen Canyon Bridge at least 6 times, and it got a littler easier each time.

Us in Lower Antelope Canyon

Page is a cute little town, but it’s not the place for the out of shape.  My shins, knees, and back hurt so bad it was difficult to walk.  I had big plans for the Grand Canyon, thinking we could hike ½ mile into the canyon to Ooh Aah Point, but after all the walking up and down the hills and ladders in  Page, I decided to stick to flat ground for a while.

Road Trippin' - Part 1; Minnesota to Arizona
Road Trippin' - Part 2: White Pocket 

Road Trippin' - Part 2; White Pocket

Day 4 White Pocket

I had a photo tour planned for White Pocket, which was going to take all day and we had to meet our guide in Utah at 8 am.  They told me it was only a half hour from Page, so we got up about 6 to shower, eat breakfast and actually find our meeting spot.  

Glen Canyon bridge & dam

Crossing into Utah meant we had to cross the Glenn Canyon bridge.  Now Hubby isn't fond of high places and I have a irrational fear of extremely high or long bridges, so crossing this bridge wasn't really something either of us wanted to do.  As we approached the bridge I could sense Hubby tense up and I held my breath, like that was going to save us should we plummet it over the side.  As much as I wanted to I couldn't close my eyes and for the life of me I couldn't help but look down and see the dam workers' tiny cars and trucks  parked on the dam.  From were we were they looked like toys.  We made it across just fine.

We got to our meeting spot a little early and I have been txting with our tour organizer, who told me our guide's name was Jim and he would be driving a white suburban.  He wasn't hard to spot because he was the only other vehicle besides ours in the parking lot.

When we first met Jim.  I wasn't sure what to think.  He was is his late 60's and looked kind of like a wild mountain man, with a long white beard.  I thought this is the guy who's going to take us out in the middle of nowhere?  What are we getting ourselves into?  Turned out he was a pretty cool guy.  We followed Jim in our car to where we would start our tour, and met Chris the tour company's owner.  After signing some release papers for liability purposes, Hubby, Jim and I climbed into the suburban and headed for White Pocket.

White Pocket isn't that far from Page, but because of the condition of the roads it takes about 2 hours to get there.  It's all dirt and clay and Jim told us they only blade it twice a year, so if you go in there when it's wet and rut it up, those ruts stay, making it hard for everybody else to drive through there.  We had arrived 2 days after it rained, the ruts were deep and there were still some wet spots that you did not want to attempt to drive through.  There was one spot where we had to pass through a gate and the wet spot was right in the middle of the gate, so we had no choice.  Jim kicked it into 4-wheel drive and was able to maneuver his way through, but he said every summer there's at least one person who gets stuck in that spot and nobody moves until they're pushed out

On the way out to White Pocket, Jim explained the geography of the area, how the mountains were formed, and showed us the trail heads that would take us to different places within the Vermilion Cliffs area. We passed by an old wagon trail called the Winter Road and Jim explained that the winter road was used by young Mormons on their honeymoon, who were on their way to be sealed in the temple, and they had to use this road because the Honeymoon Trail wasn't accessible in the winter.  Of course this was back before there were modern roads and vehicles.  We passed by a working cattle ranch out in the middle of nowhere.  Jim told us he was the real deal, rifle toting, cow chasing, living off the grid, rancher.  I would of liked to get some photos of his place but figured he lived way out there because he liked his privacy and I respected that.

When we arrived at White Pocket we had the whole place to ourselves.  We were going to be there most of the day, so Jim loaded up his backpack with water, snacks and sandwiches for lunch and off we went.  It's a fairly easy hike or would of been if I wasn't lugging around a 25 lb backpack with camera gear I thought I needed, but never used.  First we had to walk about a 1/4 of a mile from the parking lot in deep sand.  Jim said this was the worst part and it would get easier once we reached the rocky area.  We got to the top of a small hill and there it was.  White Pocket. 

Swirls and lines carved into the rocks by wind erosion

It's an interesting place.  Jim explained that Arizona was once an ancient seabed and this particular area of Arizona when the water receded the mud flats dried, leaving a white crust on top of the rock and interesting cracks in the crust that made the rocks look like brains.  Hence the name brain rock.   In the brain rock, there were also fossils of some sort of ancient sea worm.  I suppose when the mud flats dried the sea worms became trapped and turned to these weird little fossils embedded in the rock.  Where the wind had eroded away the white crust, it left red swirls and curving lines in the limestone, which made for some interesting photos.  But something in my brain stopped working and I completely forgot everything I knew about photography and I just snapped away at anything and everything, not bothering to took to for good compositions or figure out what the best settings were.  At one point I know I set the camera into aperture mode, set it to f8 or f16 and let the camera

Seaworm fossils

figure the rest out.  I'm kicking myself now for that, because I know my photos don't do the place any justice.  I was free to walk pretty much where ever I wanted to go while Jim and Hubby explored on their own or just sat and talked.  Jim was a photographer too, so he was able to point out different area I might want to look at.  It was a beautiful day, with nice blue skys and puffy clouds and no wind in the early part of the day, so I was able to get some nice reflection shots in the little pools of water that collected here and there.

Reflecting pool in the middle of the desert

We stopped to have lunch, which consited of turkey or ham sandwiches, chips and cookies.  Jim wanted to show us another part of the area, but he could see I was getting tired and the wind was starting to pick up so he decided we should head back to the truck.  It was about this time that other people started to show up too, and the peaceful quite was broken by the wind carrying their voices.


Because we were at such a high elevation, but mostly because neither one of us is in shape by any means, the walk back to the truck was a tough one.  Jim made us stop every so often to sit and  catch our breath telling us nobody was allowed to die on this trip.  Jim had no problems with the hiking, but then again he's been been living in Page since the 70's and he's used to it. 

Us at White Pocket

On the way back, we talked a little bit about photography.  He told me about the camera he shoots with, the lenses he has, and that it was his former boss who got him into photography.  We also talked about our kids, and the sod farm we run back home.  We had a great time with him and he thanked us for allowing him to come to work that day.

We got back to Page about 3:30 and I was so exhausted I just wanted to lay down until supper and then crawl in bed for the night. 

Road Trippin' - Part 1 Minnesota to Arizona
Road Trippin' - Part 3: Antelope Canyon