Wednesday 15 May 2013

Rest Day.



Today was my first “rest” day in two weeks.  I think I spent a total of a half an hour on my bike.  To make up for that I spent 6 hours hiking!!!  Coming back to my previous comment about using Google to check the place you are going to visit, when I used Google Images for Arizona one set of photos stood out from all the rest.  A place called Antelope Canyon.  Actually there are two, Upper and Lower Antelope.  The ironic thing is when Matthew and I rode from The North Rim north, he back to central BC, and me on to Moab, we rode within 50 miles of here, and never knew it existed.  It is a slot canyon, formed in the sandstone by high speed water runoff causing fantastic abstract shapes in the reddish hued rock.

When I rode out to Monument Valley yesterday I rode right by the entrance to the Antelope Canyons.  Then further on up the road I rode by the entrance to a touring company called Adventurous Antelope Photo Tours.  So last night I looked them up on the internet, then called and made a suggested reservation for this morning.   It is not cheap, just under $200 gets you a 6 hour 4 Canyon tour.  Obviously just doing Antelope Canyon would be cheaper.

So after meeting my tour guide Nate, and my four fellow tourers we set off for Owl Canyon, Rattle Snake Canyon, Upper Antelope Canyon, then after a delicious Pizza Hut lunch our final stop Sheep’s Head Canyon.   Upper Antelope was crazy busy as there is a VERY small window when light beams stream into the canyon, so ALL the tour groups arrive at the one canyon from 10:30 – 12-:30.  The rest of the canyons we had to ourselves for the time we were there. 

Nate was fabulous, as he knew when each sun beam would be where and had our small group at each one about 15 minutes early so we all had front row seats for photo taking.  The tour guides toss sand into the air so you can see the sun beams more clearly.  Over the course of the day I took about 300 photos!  So to narrow it down to submit here was tough!!!  These are all exactly as were taken with the camera, not a single one has been “Photoshopped” in any way.  They are in order of the day:





 









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