Lower Antelope Canyon

Saturday morning I collected all my gear and headed out to Ken's Tours and my Photographers Tour of the Lower Antelope Canyon.  Felt a bit strange to be leaving Lori behind but the rules for the Photographers tour were that each person had to have their own DSLR and Tripod.

I arrived an hour early for my 12:30 tour and good thing cause there was a long lineup.  I got in line and waited and waited and waited some more.  The line just didn't move.  Finally the young fella handling the registrations came out of his booth to ask that everybody with a confirmed reservation get in one line and the walkups, without reservations, form another line.  He also explained that the Credit Card machine was not working and it would be cash only.  I quickly checked my wallet as I'm not in the habit of carrying a lot of cash.  Breathed easier when I spotted a $50 in my wallet.  Not everyone was so fortunate.  They definitely needed more help taking registrations.

When I finally got to the front of the line I told him that I was on the 12:30 Photographers tour and he suggested that I might not want to take the Photographers tour.  I gave him a perplexed look and he explained that due to the large number of people I would have difficulty setting up with my tripod to take pictures.  Since that tour was double the price of the regular tour he got me in to the 12:20 tour for $28. instead of $50.  I was thankful for his honesty.

I was not very impressed with Ken's Tours.  The lack of organization, credit card system going down (ok, perhaps not their fault) and the fact that they seriously overbooked their tours.  It was apparent to me that their main priority was to squeeze as much money out of the tourists as possible and not to ensure a quality experience.

I figured that, since the handheld pics from the previous day had turned out ok I would be able to get some good pictures here as well.   We had to climb down some steep steps and ladders to get down into the canyon.  A fact that was well advertised on their website.  There were a number of families on the tour and some had children as young as 3 or 4 years old.  Far to small to be climbing the ladders.  There was a father in front of me with a camera in one hand and his young son in the other and trying to negotiate the stairs without pitching forward and falling 30 feet to the canyon floor.  I think some rules about the ages of children should be implemented before someone gets seriously injured.

The entrance to the canyon and below the some of the stairs we had to navigate to get down the 30-40 feet to the canyon floor.

This canyon is much narrower than the Upper with more openings to the sky.  The additional light meant for faster shutter speeds (a good thing) but there was less variation in the colours and I found it difficult to get an even exposure.   As you will see most of the pictures are shades of the same colour.  Still dramatic but I think I preferred the Upper Antelope Canyon.

After our experience here, at the GC and Sedona we definitely need to be somewhere else when spring break is happening.  The problem is that the States in the area (Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah) seem to stagger their spring breaks so it is crazy busy with families from early March till mid April.  Combine the families with the foreign tourists (ok I'm a foreigner here but I'm referring to the huge tour groups from Europe and Asia) and then add a sprinkling of Snowbirds and its just too busy.

The one advantage the Lower canyon has is that its all one way traffic.  You enter at one end and exit at the other and then make your way back to the parking lot above ground.  A good thing cause two way traffic would have been impossible in this narrow canyon.

On to the pics.

Here we were making our exit from the canyon.  You can see the narrow channel behind the people.  That is the top of the canyon.  Only a few feet wide.  Down at the bottom the channel varies in width with a few small caverns perhaps 6-8 feet wide.  For the most part the channel is only 3 feet wide.  Not the place to be if you are claustrophobic.

Thats it for the Antelope Canyons.  We did take about 400 pictures of the canyons over the two days plus another 40 or so from a few other scenic lookouts.  I'll post some of those when I have some time during our drive north.   If we had more time we could have explored a little more.  Perhaps another time but for right now we are ready to get home.  We have about 5 days of serious driving ahead of us so I'll report back when I can.  Till then.

Upper Antelope Canyon

Friday was Upper Antelope Canyon tour day.  We were pretty excited as the pictures we had seen of the canyons were so filled with light, shadows and amazingly vivid colours that they didn't look real.   The Canyons are on Navajo land which requires a day pass of $8.00 each to gain admittance to their land and then another $40.00 each for the tour.  A bit pricey however if it was anything like the pictures well worth the price.

We arrived at 10:00 as the website had requested, an hour before our scheduled departure time.  Our transportation from their staging area to the site of the canyon was by way of 1/4T trucks.  They had outfitted them with benches on the sides of the boxes and a canopy for shade.  We had to drive about 3 miles down the bed of a dry wash to the canyon site.  The temp was only in the mid- 50's and with the truck going 30-40 mph it was pretty breezy and cold sitting in the back of the truck.  Fingers and ears were numb by the time we arrived.  The trucks were outfitted with extra large and under inflated tires and I expect a softened suspension so the ride on the soft sand was bouncy but not jarringly rough.   Each truck contained 12 people and there were 9 trucks going for the 11:00 tour plus a special Photography Tour (they had to pay $80. each).  There were probably 8 tours each day (only one Photography Tour per day, I think.  There are 2 other canyons that they provide tours although I don't think they are as popular.  There are also 2 other tour companies, all run by the Navajo band, that provide tours to these 3 canyons.  Then there is the Lower Antelope Canyon where a 4th company is the only one providing tours.
Bottom line, a real nice source of cash flow for the Navajo's.

We arrived at the entrance to the canyon, which is actually on the down river side of the wash, where  the water exits the canyons during floods.

Flash floods and high winds can result in closing of the canyon.  The floor of the wash and canyon is a very fine sand, about the size of grains of salt.  All the rocks and canyon walls are sandstone, so basically the same sand as is loose on the ground but compressed and hardened over millions of years into rocks.  The unique lines in the rocks have been formed over the years by erosion caused by wind, sand and water.

The sand on the floor of the canyon is deposited or washed out downstream during the periodic flooding.  As a result the floor of the canyon can change levels from season to season.  A few years ago a flash flood saw the water levels almost fill up the canyon, about 30 feet of water.

The best time to tour the canyons is around noon as the sun is the highest and results in sun beams entering the canyon from gaps in the ceiling.  As you can see the results are truly amazing and well worth the cost of admission.

We weren't alone and if there was one criticism of the tour it was the large number of people in the canyon.  The interior space isn't very big as you can see and the picture above is one of the larger caverns.  Much of the canyon is no more than 5 feet wide.

 Here you can see one of the sun beams hitting the floor.  You can see the fine sand hanging in the air making the sun beam visible.  I had to suppress the urge to stand in the beam and say "beam me up Scotty".

The BBC was actually filming here for a documentary to be released sometime next year.  Some of the professional photographers have done quite well selling pictures to National Geographic and various travel magazines/websites.  One picture was sold for over $1 Million.

 The indirect sunlight made for some interesting photo opportunities.  Although due to the number of people it was get in position, snap a picture and get out of the way for the next people.  The tour guide was actually very good, showing us the best picture opportunities and suggesting settings for our cameras.  We took about 400 pictures, me on my DSLR and Lori on my iPhone.

One of the tour guides was throwing sand up into the sun beam to enhance its effect.  Had to keep my camera lens covered when not snapping.  We had fine sand in our ears, hair and all over our clothes by the time we were done.  Some people had their cameras in plastic bags to protect them from the sand and only took them out to snap pictures.  Although as many pictures as I was taking the camera wouldn't have been in the bag very much.

Here is the end of the canyon or where the water would enter during a flood.  As you can see its not a very large opening and given the size of the dry wash the resulting torrent of water going through the canyon creates enough force to shape the interior over the years.

Thats it for the Upper Antelope Canyon.  I'm going on a Photographers tour of the Lower Antelope Canyon and will be able to bring my tripod but not my wife.  Only people with DSLR cameras and tripods are allowed.  No spectators.  The above pictures were taken handheld and even though I set the ISO to 800-1000 some of the shutter speeds were pretty slow, up to 1/2 second.  I hope the use of a tripod will make for crisper pictures although I am pretty happy with the above results.

Later

GC to Page, Az

We packed up Sunday morning in somewhat cool temperatures and howling winds.  I actually put my gloves on to do some of the outside teardown.  Good practice for when we get home.  We pulled out of the campground about 9:30 and proceeded into the GCNP on Hwy 64 and headed east and south through the Park.  The drive was slow given the twisting roads but the bigger trees sheltered us nicely from the winds.

We came upon the Desert View at the east end of the Park and decided to stop for one last glimpse of the canyon.


 The canyon continues however its just not quite so grand.

While this may look like remnants of an old castle it is a relatively new observation building with some rather unique artwork inside.

On our way again and we started our descent out of the higher elevations down to the valley below.  Thats when we realized just how bad the winds were.

In the foreground you can see the vegetation and the canyon walls quite clearly however the horizon is obliterated with blowing dust and sand.  We heard later that the wind was gusting over 40 MPH and given the 37 foot sail we were pulling I knew it wasn't going to be a speedy trip.  At Cameron we turned onto Hwy 89 and started heading north back into the higher elevations.

This was probably one of our more picturesque drives of our trip.

 Beware of falling rocks.

 Our campsite at the Page Lake Powell Campground.  Nice campground with large gravel sites with cable TV and working wifi.  The view isn't too bad either.

We are headed for a tour of the Upper Antelope Canyon on Monday and should have those pics posted as soon as I can get IPhoto to unfreeze.

Later