Lone Rock Part 3 - Antelope Canyon Tour

Wednesday, November 1st - Antelope Canyon Tour Day

Another gorgeous sunny morning. Ray and I just relaxed and did our own thing as did Steve and Dianne. Our reserved tour of the Antelope Canyon isn't until 1:30 pm and we didn't have to be there until 1 pm. We arrived at their office a little early to confirm our tickets and waited to be loaded up into their "monster trucks" to drive us the 20 minutes down to the canyon. 1/2 the ride is on pavement and 1/2 the ride is down a very bumpy river wash. Lots of dust.

Here we go!

Once we arrived and disembarked, our guide, Rick, gave out the instructions for how to set your camera and cell phones to get the best pictures. With so many people around it was hard to hear clearly and both Ray and Steve had trouble with their camera settings. Ray had to keep taking his battery out for the camera to respond and Steve could not get his camera to come off a 200 ISO setting. Dianne and I had no idea how to fix our phones but we handed them over for Rick to change the settings and "voila" pictures were pretty good. There were 6 trucks of about 14 people each that got off almost at the same time so it was quite busy in the canyon. Most of the pictures were taken looking up so it wasn't too bad. (After Ray and Steve used their Lightroom Program, their camera pictures ended up pretty good to.)

Waiting for the group ahead of us to enter the Canyon.

The colours and the textures of the canyon sides are amazing. Apparently for the sun's beams to breach into the canyon, it only happens mostly in the summer, but completely ended 3 weeks earlier. A lot of the most famous pictures do include the sunbeams.

Our guide Rick, took a picture with my phone with me holding his flashlight and it looks like a torch.

Ray says this looks like a wolf.

And this one looks like a face.

Now here is an example of how to catch a light beam. Oh well we will have to come back here again and I will put Ray on the Photography Tour where there are only 6 people at a time ... you still have to wait for all the other tours to go through and take your pictures between bunches.




In spite of Ray's and Steve's tribulations, we all thoroughly enjoyed the tour even though it was pretty crowded with people. Rick stopped along specific areas where famous pictures had been taken and helped most of us try to get the same picture although with 14 people in your tour and a time schedule to follow it was sometimes difficult. I would definitely do this tour again.

The walk is about 1/4 mile and you get to stop and take pictures all the way through. Once at the end of the canyon you get back out in the open and to the sunshine and able to snap a few more pictures.

Once back in the canyon you are supposed to stay to the right and keep moving back through to the other end and not take any more pictures.  However, since Ray and Steve had so much trouble on the way in they both set up their phones and snapped pics all the way back instead.

Back on the truck, although we put Ray inside the truck with the driver so it would be a little easier on his back. I think he is a pretty sore boy. 20 minutes later we were back to the parking lot and we all decided to have a beer to wash down the dust at "The Dam Bar and Grill".

Steve and Dianne

We briefly stopped at the Glen Canyon Dam's Visitor's Center looking for a water spigot for Steve and Dianne so Ray popped out to take a couple of pictures.

We also noticed a lot of smoke in the sky driving home that Steve and Dianne found out later that it was a controlled burn. Boy did it spit out the smoke!

Back home, Ray rested for the rest of the afternoon in bed, yup he is a pretty sore boy. I made dinner and we spent the rest of the night looking at our pictures. A fantastic day spent with great friends.