The Antelope Canyon Tour October 3-5, 2008

Our day started early on Friday. I grabbed my Starbucks and checked the time, it was just after 7am, our target. We hopped in the 4Runner and began the trip. The first stop along our way was the Great Sand Dunes. The drive down there took about three hours. When we arrived it was late morning and the temperature was perfect. Since we didn’t have a lot of time to spend there, we didn’t waste any time. We rose to the challenge to climb the dunes that towered ahead of us, but the dunes turned out to be pretty deceptive. Jeremy, determined to make it to the top, found that out. He was way ahead of the rest of us and from our angle it seemed as thought he was at the top. However, once he climbed to the “top” he realized that he was not even close. There were larger dunes looming over him. He snapped a few pictures, and started jumping down one of the steepest dunes. Having lost all hope of making it to the top, (especially if Jeremy wasn’t going to make it) we turned around and started the trek back down with him. We made it back to our 4Runner and pulled out the lunch spread. Little did I know that sandwich I held in my hand for that day’s lunch would be something that I would have given anything for in the next couple days.

Well, with 7 hours to go to Page, AZ, we packed up and hit the road. It was our first time traveling through the bottom of Colorado and it was quite a fascinating experience. We pulled into our hotel in Page, AZ at about 10pm. We were all tired from the long car ride, but the anticipation was building for tomorrow, when we would go to Antelope Canyon.

I booked our trip with Chief Tsosie’s Antelope Slot Canyon Tours and opted for the 2.5 hour photographic tour that cost $50 per person. Our guide was a native Navajo named Milo, he made our trip really fantastic. He was super helpful with the cameras and a really talented photographer. I booked the tour 3 weeks in advance b/c the photography tours are limited to a certain number of people and fill up really fast. We drove 10 hours for Antelope Canyon and I wasn’t going to take any chances.

Antelope Canyon far exceeded my expectations. I knew that it was going to be amazing, but I couldn’t wrap my mind around the canyon’s beauty until I stood inside the crevice in the red sandstone rock. The red walls wrap around you and the sunlight from above echoes off the walls throughout the canyon. The red waves of rock were created by the power of nature: flash floods and time. It felt as though I was standing inside a sculpture whose light and shadows change constantly by the sun overhead. You can look at hundreds of pictures of Antelope Canyon but none compare to being there and enjoying it’s three-dimensionalness. You really just have to see it for yourself, there is something about Antelope Canyon.

After the tour of Antelope Canyon was over we found a familiar standby in the Safeway across the road: Starbucks. We hopped back in the 4Runner and started our trip back. We drove 3.5 hours back to Cortez, CO, where we would stay for the night. Our final stop would be Mesa Verde. We were only supposed to be 10 miles from Mesa Verde, actually, that’s how far we were from the entrance. The national park sprawls over 52,000 acres, with most of the dwellings towards the bottom part. So our 10 minute drive became 30, not a big deal. Since time was limited, we did one tour: The Cliff Palace Tour. It’s the largest and best preserved of the dwellings, so I definitely recommend it. It’s a rare chance to peek into the lives of the Pueblo Indians that lived there. While you don’t get to climb through the ruins, you get to see them up close. Next, was a quick stop at the museum and then we were on our way back home. We had a long ride ahead of us, and lucky for us the thunderclouds made things a bit more interesting over the miles of plains. After the hours of driving we made it back Sunday evening, the time was 10pm.

Peace, Monica