Saturday, April
9
It was a day of
sightseeing while heading in the direction of home. We still have over 1,800
miles to go, so it’ll take a few days. J
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Time continues
to be confusing. The Navajo Reservation
observes Daylight Saving Time, the rest of Arizona does not. So the Navajo Nation is an hour ahead of the
rest of the state. We had a reservation
for a canyon tour today at 12:00 pm. MST.
I received a reminder email which contained this caution: **PLEASE arrive early. Due to
high demands for tours, we ask all guests to arrive 1 hour early during the
months of October to March and 1.5 hours early during the months April to
September. If you have not checked in 30
mins prior to your scheduled tour, you will be scheduled for the next available
tour**
So, we stay in
Page which did not spring ahead as it is not located on the reservation. However, the people at the hotel tell us that
all tours run on the current Arizona time, not reservation time. What?
So, our tour was at noon, we needed to be there 1 ½ hours early, we had
no idea where we were going….so to be safe we left our hotel at 9:30, figuring
better to arrive way too early than too late.
Since the tour location was about 10 minutes from our hotel, we were
over 2 hours early, which was okay but now we needed to kill a couple of hours. Might as well check in while we’re here. Wait a minute! They have room for more people on the 10 o’clock
tour...Hey, Kim, would you be game to go on an earlier tour? Sure, why not? So confusion and a slight paranoia about being late worked out in our favor.J
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Antelope Canyon is a busy place! There is a 15 minute ride out to the mouth of
the canyon, which is really a wide crack in the sandstone wall. This is what the Navajo Tour site has to say
about the canyon:
Formed
over hundreds of years of water running through sandstone, Antelope Canyon is
both a sacred site for the Navajo and a favorite destination for tourists from
all over the world.
Upper
Antelope is at about 4,000 feet elevation, and the canyon walls rise 120 feet
above the streambed. The rocks that make
up Antelope Canyon are the petrified remains of prehistoric sand dunes formed
by erosion of the sandstone by flash flooding. Rainwater, especially heavy
during the monsoon season, runs into the extensive basin above the slot canyon,
picking up speed and sand as it rushes into the narrow passageways. Over time
the passageways erode, making the corridors deeper and smoothing hard edges
that form the characteristic ‘flowing’ shapes in the rocks. At times the water
cut its way into this sandstone with such tremendous force that it created
eddies and whirlpools, which formed spiraling walls referred to as the
Corkscrew formation. Looming overhead at almost every turn are many large
overhangs with spiraling grooves carved into the sandstone creating
breathtaking sites and images.
The sights are indeed
breathtaking! There are openings
overhead and how much sunlight reaches down into the canyon plays a huge part
in the color intensity of the canyon walls….various shades of orange when we
were there. Our guide said that the color
constantly changes…that what you see at any given minute would not look the
same in the next minute because of the variables of the angle and intensity of
the sunlight and the shadows that are caused by the overhangs. I saw this in action…I was standing in a spot
that really wasn’t lit up enough to get a picture, then as the sun came from
behind a cloud, it was as if someone suddenly turned a spot light on from above; but the light
was turned off quickly as the sun went behind another cloud. The walls and overhangs have swirly patterns
which seemed to really pop when the sunlight plays over the surface. Words really don’t describe it adequately…photos
say it best.
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Each tour had 10-13 people on it
and there were several tours in the canyon at any given point. Seems nowadays everybody has the ability to
take pictures because of smart phones and there was a lot of picture taking in
the canyon. In fact, before the tour
started, our guide gave pointers on the best settings for camera and phones to
get optimal results. When we got to the
canyon, she took pictures with her phone so she could show us how and where to
get the best shots and most of those were taken with head tipped back (like a
Pez dispenser) and camera/phone pointed overhead. (It was interesting to me that she was confused as to how to use the zoom and take a picture with my camera, a basic point and shoot.) We stayed within our groups
as we walked the ‘hallway’ through the canyon.
And because the exit was the same as the entrance, there were groups
coming at us from the other direction on their way out. With all this activity, it took patience to
get a picture without the top of someone’s head or their hands holding a phone
up to take their picture. **I would have
paid extra to have been able to go there by myself for ½ hour.**
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After the canyon tour, we headed
over to where the Colorado River sweeps around a big chunk of sandstone. It looks like a big lasso around the rock to
me, but is called Horseshoe Bend because all you can see of the river is a
horseshoe shaped chunk of it. It’s about
a mile walk round trip but worth every step, even if you’re wearing a black
shirt and the sun suddenly turns on the heat. J To actually take in the entirety of the
scene, you have to go up to the edge of the canyon rim….very cautiously, in my
case. There was a cautionary sign on the
way to the overlook that warned of standing near the edge of what you think is
solid rock but in reality could just be an overhang with nothing but air
beneath it…and which could itself weaken over time and be a hazard. I took that sign very seriously. But we found a vantage point that was solid
underneath and from which we could see the entire view below. Saw some parents getting after their children
for presumably getting too close to the edge.
Again, I didn’t understand the language but I understood the anxiety
behind the reprimand.
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Headed to a
hotel in Kayenta, AZ, which is about 20 miles from the Utah border and about 25
miles from Monument Valley. Incredible
sights the whole way from Page to Kayenta.
After checking into the hotel, we unloaded the bikes and took a ride out
Hwy 163, the road to Utah and Monument Valley.
Rode about 50 miles and saw lots of rock formations along the way and
from where we stopped by the Utah sign, I think we saw a lot of the ‘monuments’,
too. It’s not like they can hide. J
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