Red Rock Report: Antelope Canyon

After the hike to the ruins, we decicded to take off the next morning and go to Page, AZ. Page is about 160 miles north of Sedona at the edge of Lake Powell where the Colorado river really begins to work its way through the Grand Canyon. We made a quick plan to visit Antelope Canyon and take a leisure river raft ride down the Colorado. This post will deal with the Antelope Canyon.

Antelope Canyon is defined as a slot canyon. I guess that means it has been carved out over the millions of years and can barely be seen except for a slot or slit at the top. In fact, these were not even discovered until relatively recently. There are two Antelope Canyons, the Upper and Lower. The Upper has more of an opening at the top so light can come in and bounce off the eroded walls. The Lower has a more narrow opening at the top, so briliant spots of light can come in, but only when the sun is strong and high in the sky. We visited the Upper Canyon. Below are some photos. I'll let the pictures do most of the talking.

You enter via a "slot" to get into the canyon. It's a little intimidating at first.

There are little stairways that take you from one level to another. Kind of a tight squeeze and looking into the darkness is a bit scary. But it opens up.

Sometimes you have to take a ladder to get to another level. The holes on the left of the ladder were the hand-holes used before the ladders went in during the 90's. They only had the holes and ropes to make their way through the canyon. There was a flash flood through the canyon in the 90's and about 12 tourists drowned. Now, they have ladders for quicker entry and exit.

Our guide, Curtis, brought his guitar along and sang. The sound in the canyon was mystical and sort of comforting. The evening before we had stopped at the entrance and the woman at the booth, whose name was Dixie, told us it was too late in the day to get good photos of the Lower canyon and we should just come back in the morning to visit the Upper canyon. She told us to ask for Curtis. I asked if she was related to Curtis and she said they were in the same clan. It turns out Curtis' girl friend's brother is dating Dixie's daughter. Got that?