Page, Arizona is a little one-horse town established back in 1955 to support the building of the Glen Canyon Dam.  There is nothing much here but a lot of budget motels and fast food restaurants, with one lone Walmart for shopping.  But the abundance of beauty on all sides is what caused me to choose Page over Kanab, UT, the equidistant town from the Wave hike.

“Sandfall” in Upper Antelope Canyon

One of the main attractions was my desire to explore the Antelope Slot Canyon.   A “slot” canyon is an extremely narrow, deep, fissure that has been cut through the sandstone by rushing water, typically in the form of flash floods, wearing away the rock to form picturesque sculptures with dramatic lighting seeping through the narrow crack overhead.

Antelope Canyon in Page has two sections — The Upper and Lower, both located on Navajo land, but accessed on different sides of the highway, managed by two different Navajo families.  As usual, the Libra in me could not decide between the two, so I did as I have been known to do when faced with a tough decision, I did both!

Taller, darker Upper Antelope

I found the two canyons to be as different as night and day.  The Upper Antelope Canyon seemed colder, darker, taller, more formal, angular, compact, and a much more commercialized operation.   There were ten of us on the photographer’s tour, and we were the smallest group in the canyon.  It was full of Asian tourist crowds that did not understand “Please wait until my exposure finishes before you walk right in front of my lens, thank you!”    Whereas the Lower Antelope Canyon just right across the road seemed warmer, lighter, softer in curvature, with brilliant colors, fun twists, turns, and ladders.  There were six of us total in the lower canyon, including the guide!   I was glad I did both, but my favorite was the lower canyon by far.  Much cheaper as well!  And if you do both in one day, you can save a whole six bucks on a second Navajo Land Permit Fee!

“Oh, you wanted me OUT of the photo?”

Antelope Canyon Tours at Upper Antelope Entrance

The Upper Canyon needs to be booked in advance through one of the tour companies in Page.  I paid $70 for a “Photographer’s Tour” and a tripod rental.  It was twice the price of the regular tour, but it was also twice as long–two hours to give photographic enthusiasts time to get the right shots while there weren’t 30 Chinese and Japanese heads in the way.   It was a 4WD jeep ride way out in the middle of the desert.   Since we were riding 10 people in the back of a converted pick-up, then walking through a narrow canyon, I brought the least amount of stuff with me….just my camera and my purse.   I got out of the back of the pick-up truck, and went to snap my first picture of the entrance of the canyon before anyone else got in my way, when the camera beeped, and it said, “No Memory Card.”     Oh.  Right.  That is because my memory card was five miles back up a sand road inside my laptop, after having backed up my photos last night!! (Insert string of really bad words here…)

I asked everyone on the tour if anyone had a spare SD Card, but no one admitted to it.  I found this hard to believe, because they were all way more experienced photographers with much longer lenses than me.  One nice man did offer, but his format would not fit my camera.  Then, it was like some kind of “divine intervention” came over me when a voice in my head said “Look in your purse.”   I do not remember putting an SD card in there.  I don’t remember where it came from, when, or even how it got into that “safe” side zippered pocket where I keep things of value.   Anyway, who am I to question, when it literally saved the day.

I was a walking disaster on this tour…being relatively new to the SLR world, I am still stuck in the automatic mode like a kid with a pair of training wheels.  However, in this very low light, no automatic settings would work, as it kept flashing, “Subject too dark.”  I had to keep taking it off automatic focus, but could not see well enough to find the manual focus button in the dark.   I could not figure out how to get the rental tripod to rotate easily. the legs kept collapsing in the sand. I could not see the viewfinder with or without my glasses at an angle of the tripod, yet the “live view” was eating my battery up one bar at a time.  I could not get anything in focus.    All turned out okay, but I could almost hear the other tour participants sighing, “there’s one in every crowd!!”

Entry into Lower Antelope

The Lower Canyon was an altogether different experience, with so few people in the canyon.  The two canyons are right across the road from one another, but managed by two separate Navajo families.   The Lower Antelope family seems much more laid back, and more interested in the art formations, Native American history, and geological history of the canyon than loading up people for an “adventure.”

To enter the Lower Antelope, you literally just park, pay your $26 fee, and follow the guide down into the crack in the earth…

Whereas the upper canyon floor is level, the lower canyon “corkscrews” further down into the earth via a series of staircases.   Once one quarter mile down into the canyon, the exit is via a multilevel set of stairs.

Our Navajo Guide plays the Native American flute for us

Our sweet little Navajo guide brought along his flute and played haunting melodies that echoed through the stone walls.  The sandstone shapes were more rounded, more windswept, more “feminine,” with a beautiful rosy, warm light shining casting soft shadows and shapes.  I was able to ditch the tripod and shoot straight automatic, my comfort zone!

Many of the angles and shapes of the sandstone take on a personality, like that of the “windswept woman…

Whereas the upper Canyon seems to have more angular shapes, the lower canyon has more rounded sculpture where you can actually visualize the flow of the water, for example, water-worn arches and holes…There is also lots of talk about timing the visit so you get to see a “light beam,” or a shaft of light that rains down through one of the small holes in the canyon opening.   They are harder to catch during the winter when the sun stays low in the sky, but I was lucky enough to see a small one…
Welp…tomorrow is finally it….the moment I have been waiting for, and my raison d’etre for my Thanksgiving trip out West.   Tomorrow, I hike The Wave.  (“Insha’Allah” as my Middle Eastern friends would say….”God willing.”)  I would be lying if I didn’t admit to being a little apprehensive about this hike.   I have done many solo hikes all over the four corners of the globe, but always on well defined, marked trails.   This is my first “wilderness hike.”  All I have to go by are some GPS coordinates (for which I have only an auto GPS) and a map provided by the BLM Paria Canyon office with a bunch of postage stamp-sized photos noting significant landmarks like “The Notch,” “Small Saddle,” and “Sandstone Ridge.”   How many sandstone ridges can there be out here, do you think???

I have plenty of water, three days worth of protein bars, sunscreen, a compass, a flashlight with fresh batteries.  I even bought a new neon green shirt in case I get lost out there, the helicopter pilot can easily find me.  I am all packed up, and plan to get a very early start.  That way, if I get confused, I can always sit myself down in the desert and wait for better skilled navigators to come walking by.   After all, there is safely in numbers.    If this turns out to be the last post in ye ole blog, you will know I died happy…..Lost, yes, but happy.

If you blur your eyes a bit, can you make out the “rose?”