The retired life of Greg and Dona: Amazing Pics at Antelope Canyon!

Entrance at Antelope Canyon

Monday 4/7/14
We left our campsite at Lee's Ferry (Colorado River) at 7:25am with temps in the mid-50's. We are driving to Page AZ which is normally a 45 minute drive but the highway from here washed out in 2013 and it hasn't been fixed yet. We will have to drive 2 hours to get there now via a detour. We have arranged a guided tour thru Antelope Canyon, just outside of Page, at 11:00am. We're giving ourselves plenty of time to get there. The only way to see the canyon is with native guides (it's on the Navajo Reservation). It is a slot canyon with narrow passage ways and colorful rock walls. When the sun shines in from above it creates amazing colors on the canyon walls. Reviews state the best time to tour this is mid-day when the sun is directly overhead (that's why we're going at 11). We arrived at the canyon fee area and main parking lot at 9:10, well ahead of our predicted 10:00 time. There is NOTHING to see from the parking just dirt and lots of RV's and cars.

Antelope Canyon parking area
from the highway

There are a bunch of trucks outfitted with cushioned seats and canopies in the rear beds for hauling tourists to the canyon. At 11:00 we were "herded" into the back of a truck with 12 other people (7 of us on each side, facing each other). Our tour guide, Raquel, was also the truck driver. It was a 15 minute drive over really soft sand, like at the beach. Very dusty and bouncy (thank goodness for cushioned seats). When we arrived at the entrance to the canyon, there were TONS of other tour companies in the same type of rigs and hundred or more tourists. We literally had to walk thru the canyon single file (it was one way in - same way out so we were running into people coming out as we were going in). We had to stay with Raquel. She was giving us pointers on where to take photos, how to take the photos, and even taking our cameras from us to take the photos. Only a little explanation about the formations themselves (how they were formed, how old, etc). Raquel was about 20 years old and had a very soft voice. With several other tour guides and hundreds of tourists in our area, she was very difficult to hear so I'm glad there wasn't much geology lessons going on. It was an hour tour which took us about an hour 15 minutes because it was so crowded. Greg handled the camera shots and I tried to stick to Raquel so I could hear what instructions she was giving. I am very impressed with the shots Greg got. I think we really enjoyed the tour even though the cost was high at 48.00 a piece.....ouch!