Antelope Canyon--One of God's Masterpieces!

The main reason we came to Page, Arizona, was to see Antelope Canyon.  Years ago Denisa had seen pictures taken here, and it has been on her bucket list ever since.  So be warned, there will be way too many pictures in the blog today! 
 
Antelope Canyon is an underground canyon that was carved by water and wind to form sweeping curves and tunnels out of the red sandstone. There's just enough light coming into the tunnels to give the sandstone different colors and shadows.

It was an expensive outing by our standards, but it was a beautiful place to be!  On Navajo land, we had to first pay an entrance fee, and then a ticket for a guided tour. 

Then we headed into the canyon with 15 other people (right behind a group of 15, with another group of 15 right behind us).  It's obviously a very popular place.  So it was sometimes hard to get a picture without other people in it.

The first part of our tour included climbing down several sets of ladders into the underground canyon.  These metal ladders are new since 1999.  Before that there were ropes and wooden ladders to navigate the canyon.  The better ladders were installed after 12 tourists died in a flash flood while on a tour in this canyon in 1997.

 


It was great fun walking through the curving tunnels.  We never knew what we would see around the next curve.  Mark took a picture of Denisa taking pictures, because there weren't many times that she wasn't.

Mark was using his camera phone, while Denisa was armed with our old Cannon camera.  Our tour guide made suggestions for settings that would provide the best pictures in the low light of the canyon.  We think the camera in the phone did a better job in the canyon, but Denisa still got some pictures of Mark.

Occasionally there were openings in the canyon to the sky, but most of the time we hiked with a ceiling overhead.  Those windows of light, however, provided just the right shadows and highlights to turn the red sandstone into shades that ranged from yellow to purple.

Among our group of 15 people were two young women that were a joy to watch just because they were having so much fun.  Neither spoke much English, but we knew they were from Asia. 

They were right in front of us, and they would sometimes grab one of our cameras, point to where we should pose, and then start taking pictures of us with our camera.

After we left the canyon, we had a short conversation with them.  We didn't have many words that we all understood, but we were delighted to find they were from South Korea.  We'll be flying to Korea next month, and we hope we'll meet more citizens there as friendly as these two.  When we told them we would be visiting their country, they immediately hugged us.  We already feel welcome!

Here's another picture of our Korean friends, busy taking pictures.  If we took 400 pictures in the canyon, they took 800.

 Our tour through the canyon took close to an hour and a half.  It was cool inside, which was a nice change from the temperatures in the 90's the desert outside is enjoying.

Most of the time the ceilings were quite high.  But there were a few places where we had to duck to avoid low walls.  Mark obviously had to do more ducking than Denisa.

Our tour guide found that trying to keep 15 people together and moving through this canyon was like herding cats.  Actually, we were worse than cats because everyone had a camera, concentrating on getting the perfect picture.  With swirling walkways, his group was out of eye sight every time a person rounded another curve.  He did try to point out a few rock formations that resembled things like the shark from "Finding Nemo,"
 





or a woman with flowing hair.

He also tried to pose us in picturesque places in the canyon, and snap pictures with our cameras.

When visiting Page, there are actually two different canyons to explore.  The most well-known is the Upper Canyon, and there are tour buses that leave from town to transport visitors there.

Before we got to Page, we talked to two different hikers that went to both Upper and Lower Antelope canyons.  Both of them agreed that the lower canyon was a better experience.  They told us that it was longer, less crowded, and it was cheaper as well.

The main disadvantages to the lower canyon was that it required climbing up and down ladders several times, and the floor was less level.  It was also more narrow, and a longer walk to get all the way through.  None of those things were inconveniences for experienced hikers like us, and we were glad we chose the lower canyon.  Most of all, we were glad that we had another opportunity to experience another of God's wonders!