NEW BLOG - ANTELOPE CANYON PHOTOS TAKEN IN AUGUST 2009

This is the Navajo Nation Power Plant Station  near Page, Arizona, taken from my archives when we were on a road trip in August 2009. We were heading to Antelope Canyon. 

The tour trucks were just coming back from the canyon. We would soon have our turn to ride one.

The day before we had gone to Monument Valley and met Brian at the visitors' center overlooking The Mittens. Brian was an Englishmen from Manchester. We were both looking at that magnificent view and he told us he was traveling alone and asked us if we would take a photo of him. We were happy to oblige and he did the same for us. When we told him we were traveling through the area and wanted to see as much as we could, he asked us if we had seen Antelope Canyon. At that time it was completely new to us. He said it was incredible, and that we really ought to check it out if we had the time. He gave us directions and after we left the Valley, we headed towards Page in Arizona. We owe him a great deal of thanks. 

It was one of the many highlights of our trip. Truly we did not know what to expect as we pulled into the entrance, a dusty little parking lot which we had driven by once. When we realized we had missed the sign we turned back. It seemed that we were in middle of nowhere, or so we thought, but we saw the sign on the second pass and headed for a small kiosk with a lady sitting inside. After chatting with her we found the next tour was in a half hour or so. As hot as it was we decided to wait because Brian's great description of this place had piqued our curiosity. There were a few other people waiting and it wasn't long before we hopped on the Navaho Tours truck, and were heading helter-skelter along the well-traveled wash which you can see in the photo above.

Above and below Gregg and I were hanging on for dear life. I had a seat right at the end of the truck. My sun hat almost flew off my head and I clutched it in my hands for the rest of the drive. I enjoyed this ride better than the last rollercoaster I went on when I decided five years previously that it was going to be the last one. This particular ride was exciting and so much fun but there wasn't a lot of talking going on in the back of that truck. There was, however, a lot of laughter because we were all merrily having our derriere's lifted off the seat at every bump. Everyone must have been wondering what was in store for us. Gregg was sitting on the opposite side and we were grinning at each other like a couple of Cheshire Cats.

We have reached our destination where you can see other tour trucks parked by the entrance to the canyon. The opening in the wall is on the right of the photo.

Here is a closer look.

With hat now firmly on head we wait until it was our turn to go inside, but we don't have to wait for long.

We didn't have to wait long before we were inside looking at all the magnificent sandstone formations. In sections there was sunlight streaming in from openings above. In other areas it was very dark.

Our guide, Carol Begay of Navajo Tours, told us how the Navajo had given names to certain shapes in the rock walls, the bear, the eagle, and many more. 

She also told us that a relative of hers as a young girl had been the first to discover the canyon when a sheep ran into the opening in the canyon wall many, many, many years ago.

Gregg and someone else are taking photos.

Actually being there was surreal.

This is our guide Carol. She was the best and told us the history of this place. She also showed us how to use our little cameras for the surest shots. We all followed her advice as best we could and if we had difficulty, she was kind enough to take a photo with each of our cameras, so that we could be sure of at least one shot we would be happy to take home with us.

I remember this lady as if it were yesterday
and will always be thankful we had her as our guide.

This is an addition to my post since I wrote it all those years ago. There is a very interesting story about the Australian photographer Peter Lik and his very famous photograph taken here called The Phantom. He sold it to the National Geographic for a mind-boggling $6.5 million dollars. You can read the story on the Antelope Canyon Navajo Tours page at this link. I mentioned this photo below when we reached the same spot the photo was taken in. 

When I saw my not $6.5 million photo below, a lightbulb went off in my head. I suddenly remembered a very famous photograph I had seen, of a shaft of light streaming from above in this very same spot. I believe the photo was in the National Geographic and I'm sorry to say I can't remember the name of the photographer (since found this person is Peter Lik, biography here) but it was an absolutely awesome photograph. You had to be there at a certain time of the day when the sun was in the correct position. 

This is what many of the more knowledgeable photographers with tripods had come for. I watched them set up their cameras in the hopes of getting that same shaft of light. It wasn't a very strong light at the time, so Carol threw up some dust for it to appear more clearly. I got a little one that I was very happy with.

Below is as far as we could go as we stepped out into an opening with canyon walls surrounding us.

That's Gregg heading out in front of me.

This is a photo looking back at that opening.

There were plenty of willing volunteers to take each other's photographs and this one was taken by a nice young lady from overseas visiting with her family. They were tourists but I didn't recognize their dialect. We communicated with smiles and hand motions, a wonderful universal language.

Gregg wanted me to take one of him holding his Ralph Waldo Emerson book that he had been reading throughout the trip. It seemed appropriate considering our surroundings.

We are back at the entrance now waiting for all our fellow passengers to gather near the truck. Gregg who over the years is getting just like his father and knows no strangers on this planet, was chatting to another tour guide from a different company. He had pointed out this flower growing out of the wall of the canyon. He identified it but we forgot and it was lost in time until now. Thanks to my plant app I can identify it as the Sacred datura, also known as Jimsonweed, Angel trumpet, Sacred thorn-apple, Western jimson weed, California jimson weed, Manit, Indian whiskey and one I strangely recognize the name of, Nightshade. Must be because I read all those Agatha Christie books!  The guide did say it was incredibly poisonous and yes,it is, highly toxic to humans. You can read  information about nightshades at this website.

In the next photo we are on another helter-skelter ride going back to pick up our car. This time as another truck approaches, Carol slows down to a stop and she has a friendly chat with the lady driving the other truck. This was all in the Navajo language and it was fascinating, not having heard it spoken before. Their conversation lasted for about five minutes...

and then we were waving goodbye and resuming our speedy ride. I made sure I wasn't sitting on the end this time. With the heat, the walk and yes even banging my head on an outcrop of wall inside the canyon (it was hard to see in the dark places, and I did the person behind me a favor, preventing her from doing the same. I heard a gasp from the young lady from overseas and we once again communicated without having to say a word. Her hand on my shoulder as I rubbed my head, a sympathetic look as she asked me if I was okay, and all this without saying a word. I assured her I was fine but truthfully had a bit of a headache for the rest of the day). No wonder I picked a seat up front as I had visions of doing an ungainly somersault into the sand. Nope, no back seat for me this time. There were plenty of willing takers for my place as it was a fun place to sit. I might not be going on any more rollercoaster rides, but I would definitely look forward to that ride again if we ever came back this way. Seems unlikely now but it was quite an experience and one I would most definitely enjoy repeating.

One last photo of Gregg with Ralph Waldo Emmerson and we were heading to our next destination.

What a fantastic experience walking through Antelope Canyon. And a big thank you to Brian, the Englishman from Manchester, for steering us in this direction. We are forever in his debt.