Ed and Colleen in the Southwest: Page AZ

Monday, October 19, 2015

Page AZ

We have spent two days in Page. AZ. We walked to Horseshoe Bend, the overlook where you can see the Colorado River do a 270 degree turn. It was scenic, but also a bit overrun. There were three tour buses in the parking lot when we arrived, and some of the horde felt the need to get altogether too close to the edge of the 1,000-foot cliff to be safe. We had no desire to witness any disasters. As for us, we got about 8 feet from the edge---enough distance for comfort but not close enough to get any really great photos.

We took a boat tour on Lake Powell that also didn't turn out to be our favorite. A canned experience with headphones offering recorded information on the sites we were passing, available in your favorite language. The scenery was lovely but the boat was uncomfortable and crowded. And we had seen so much better scenery in the last few days.

Tower Butte, outside of Page. Just over 5,000 feet high.

Castle Rock, over Lake Powell

Antelope Canyon on the tour boat, the lowest part flooded by the lake

This morning (Monday) we slept late, caught up on our laundry, paid some bills, posted to this blog, mailed a few things that needed to be mailed and took a little time to rest and relax and re-organize. We love to get out and do stuff, but once in a while we enjoy a nice relaxing morning. In the afternoon we took a tour of Glen Canyon Dam, given by a volunteer from the local historical society, and that was very enjoyable. Our young guide did a splendid job. We were amused when he marveled at the fact that such a feat of engineering could have been accomplished over fifty years ago. We had to give each other a look. ---That look people our age give each other when we hear young people say something like that.

Glen Canyon Bridge from the top of the Dam

Inside the power plant

The highlight of our time in Page was our tour of Lower Antelope Canyon. Oh my goodness, it was beautiful! As I am writing this Ed is trying to select pictures to share. We chose Lower Antelope, which is less touristy than the Upper Canyon. It also requires more walking and stair climbing, is barely wide enough to squeeze through in places, and has more light streaming in from above. Our young Navajo guide, Xavier, turned out to be a real gem... enthusiastic, engaged and truly interested in giving his group the best possible experience. From advising everyone how to set our cameras to get the best possible shots to sharing insight into the Navajo culture, Xavier did a great job.
Here are some photos of our tour of tour. Keep in mind that these are shot from about 100 feet down inside a slot canyon---a canyon carved by torrential flash floods. After we did the tour, Xavier suggested we watch a video of such a flash flood on youtube, showing why you don't want to be 100 feet down during such an event. (Just Google >Lower Antelope Canyon Flash Flood<)

Climbing up

The other highlight was meeting the kitty. We are staying at a sweet little motel that is really an apartment, originally built to house construction workers who built the Glen Canyon Dam in the late 1950's. We were having a picnic lunch at a little table behind our apartment when a kitty approached us, announcing his arrival in a loud voice. He stayed with us for quite a while... climbed up in Colleen's lap and started purring... and of course I was thrilled to get an unexpected kitty fix. Ed was thrilled that he was wearing a collar and was unmistakably an owned and loved kitty...and therefore in no need of rescue.

Tomorrow night we will stay in Monument Valley. WiFi is rumored to be iffy at best. Then two nights in Mesa Verde National Park. I don't think there are even rumors of WiFi happening there. Followed by three nights in Farmington, NM near Chaco Canyon. WiFi...? Well... maybe. Maybe not. We'll post again as soon as we're able.

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Itinerary

October 4&5 - Great Basin National Park, Nevada...a place we've never been. The combination of high elevation, low humidity and no light pollution makes this one of the darkest places in the country, and therefore one of the best places to watch a night sky. Darker yet is the underground world of the Lehman Caves, which we will explore in this park.

October 6&7 - Cedar Breaks National Park, Utah....another new spot for us. This is a high-altitude natural amphitheater with brightly multicolored sculptured rock, similar to Bryce Canyon. It is surrounded by a lush subalpine forest.

October 8-10 - Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. We visited here on our honeymoon, but because a freak snowstorm covered all the trails, we were only able to look down into this spectacular canyon. This time we hope to be able to hike down into the hoodoos.

October 11&12 - Zion Canyon National Park, Utah. We were so knocked out by this park the first time, that we had to come again. As long as no flash flooding is expected, we'll explore some slot canyons. Since our first visit, when I (Ed) chickened out of the Angels Landing Trail, Colleen has seen photos and videos of terrified hikers clutching a chain while navigating a narrow spine of rock with a 1,000 foot drop on one side and a 1,200 foot drop on the other. So she has agreed that we will not attempt this trail. Whew!

October 13-15 - Grand Canyon North Rim, Arizona. This is the less-visited side of the canyon, and far less commercialized. It is also about 1,000 feet higher elevation than the South Rim, so the vegetation is more forest-y here, and generally cooler.

October 16 - Vermillion Cliffs National Monument, Arizona. Not an easy place to get into, as it requires obtaining one of a very limited number of daily permits in advance (Colleen got ours within minutes of them becoming available online!) And you either need to be a serious desert backcountry traveler, or be part of a 4wheel drive tour to access this area. But if you see photos of this park you'll understand why it's worth the effort. We hope to take some photos of our own that do it justice.

October 17-19 - Page Arizona. Antelope Canyon, another spot that is heaven for photographs, is on Navajo land, and as such requires that we be part of a tour. We also may take a boat tour on Lake Powell which provides access to the other end of the canyon and we will most definitely walk to Horseshoe Bend.

October 20 - Monument Valley, Utah. We'll explore around the vast sandstone buttes, mesas and pinnacles.

October 21&22 - Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Much of the park will be closed this late in the year but we will explore as much as we can.

October 23-25 - Farmington New Mexico. We will explore Chaco Canyon and other archeological sites in the area.

October 26&27 - Canyon de Chelly, Arizona, Some of the best preserved archeological sites of the Pueblo culture are here. We will explore the rim and take a tour of the canyon with a Navajo guide.

October 28-31 - Sedona, Arizona. Hiking and photographic opportunities abound in this beautiful country. On the way there, we may stop to see Meteor Crater. And if we want to see something so spectacular that all other sights pale by comparison, we may stop in Winslow, Arizona. There we can see the statue of Jackson Browne in Standing On A Corner Park.---No, we are NOT making this up!

November 1-3 - Grand Canyon, South Rim. We shall brave the tourist hordes to see this, but since we're staying right by the rim, we should be able to get out on trails before the tour buses from Vegas arrive. Colleen was here once, long ago, with a guy whose idea of exploring was to look over the edge and say, "OK, we've seen it. Let's go." This time, Colleen will get as far into the Canyon as four senior-citizen legs dare go, without hiking to the bottom. We may also splurge on an aerial tour of the Canyon.

November 4-6 - Joshua Tree National park, California. We'll spend a few days hiking the desert landscape, hopefully with some more excellent night sky views.

November 7&8 - Now, for something completely different, we will skirt Los Angeles and come to rest near Malibu. We'll use this as a base to visit a couple of Getty Museums.

November 9-11 - Heading back toward home, we'll take a few days to explore Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The last time we were here, we were too young to remember much of anything. So, as with almost all of this itinerary, it will essentially be a first visit.