Southwest Road trip - Antelope Canyons

If you haven't already visited the slot canyons, you have probably seen iconic images of the Antelope Canyons in Page, Arizona.  There are two of them, Upper Antelope and Lower Antelope, tourist meccas with visitors from all over the world. I was last in Page to see these slot canyons in April, 2013 - it was busy but not as crowded as things have since become. I was also able to sign up at the time for a private tour of five slot canyons in the area.  For my post on these canyons, please click on Arizona in the header of this blog.  This time we were visiting in what is supposed to be "low" season yet I still had the feeling of being rushed through a crowded tourist area with the next group hot on our heels.  This may be particularly obvious because I was always the last one in our group to leave a spot! 

But the slot canyons are as spectacular as ever.  I was able to stand back and enjoy the beautiful swirls and lines in the rock face already knowing what to expect, also having already heard the tour guide's script before I didn't need to stand around to listen any more.  

On my first visit, I had found the Lower Antelope Canyon very peaceful, stunning in its beauty - almost conducive to poetry.  But this time around it was a completely different experience - the over-enthusiastic guide created an almost marketplace atmosphere, although his enthusiasm should probably be applauded.  

The Upper is narrower on top but wider at the bottom.  The Lower is the other way round, narrower at the bottom which makes it sometimes hard to walk through.  You can see in the some of the photos below that it can be a tight squeeze at times.  

Upper Antelope is above ground while the Lower Antelope Canyon is below ground which made a difference in the lighting.  You will notice in the images below that the rocks can come out in different colours - that is because of the very dim light in the canyons which doesn't always allow the natural sandstone colour to come through and also made the rocks seem surreal at times - all the more beautiful in many ways.

The first nine images are from the Upper Canyon, the rest from the Lower.

Upper Antelope walls - looking up

This provides a perspective of the inside of Upper Antelope - you are walking between canyon walls but still relatively wide compared to Lower Antelope.

You can almost see the water gushing and turning through in these swirls

The layers of rocky swirls make for nice abstracts

This is the exit/entrance to the Upper Antelope Canyon

Entrance to the Lower Antelope.  In my first visit, this was the exit.  They have reversed the direction of the tour.

Lower Antelope - swirls are a little different

The guide referred to this as the Johnny Depp profile (as in Pirates of the Caribbean)...

Love this perspective looking up - reminded me of sunset in the canyons

This is a perspective on the height of the canyon

It's a tight squeeze!

Looking down 

Using your imagination you can probably see all kinds of animals carved on the walls, like this one.

Or make up your own abstracts

Another sunset landscape

Reminded me of candy making

This is where we exited - used to be the entrance.  It makes sense for them to reverse the direction as the descent was quite scary not knowing where you're "falling" into when you first enter.

The slot canyons are the sort of landscape you could visit ten times and still capture different perspectives of it - if only it weren't so crowded...