Photogenic Arizona

Today was a day of photo opportunities. We woke to the morning sun on Monument Valley. It was hard to stay in bed because of the sunlight glowing through the closed curtains. So we got breakfast to go and hopped in the car to do the driving tour of the valley. It is a dirt road with a one way loop which gives very scenic views of the buttes. You are not allowed to hike the area without a Navajo guide but the views from the road are all you need.

We drove the loop road and took too many pictures because the next view was always photo worthy. I remembered my cycloramic app on my phone and took some 360 degree panoramic movies. Not good for a photo book but neat for showing other people what Monument Valley is like. I even got my photo taken on a horse at John Ford Point. It was a real horse but he sat at still as a statue; didn't even move from leg to leg or turn its head. His name was Spirit and he is a mustang - really beautiful horse. I found my charm at another overlook - they allow people to set up tables at the various pullouts and sell stuff, mostly jewelry.

It was a long drive to Antelope Canyon; about 2.5 hours. Luckily the road was straight. We ran into one section of road construction which meant waiting for 15 minutes or more for the pilot car to drive us through. Other than that, easy drive and got there in plenty of time. As we were waiting for our tour at 1:40 they still had room on the 1:20 tour and they invited us to go earlier. So, of course, we did.

The tour groups technically have around 10 people in them but they

are basically one after another in a big long line. We walked down to the end of the Lower Antelope Canyon and took the stairs down into the canyon. The tour then walks back up through the canyon which is less than half a mile long. It takes nearly an hour because you walk so slowly and stop and take photos.

Our guide was Trey and he grew up in the area. He did a nice job of narrating and helping set cameras for optimum photos. He often showed us where to shoot pictures and took a few for each of us. Sometimes they were photos of our family and a couple times they were just canyon photos. The walk through the canyon was wonderful and it was important to stop taking photos and just enjoy then scenery. It was amazing the curves and waves in the rock. And the narrowness of the walls. The only thing that would have made it perfect would have been to get rid of the rest of the tourists - especially the Chinese group behind us. They were loud, rude, and extremely smelly. But the canyon was worth it. We even saw four dinosaur footprints in the sandstone. Cool!

Of course, we had ice cream at the tour office and then drove on to Horseshoe Bend just a few miles away. It is a sharp turn in the Colorado River in a deep canyon. The view of the river from the overlook is lovely. The blue water and green algae ribbons were a nice contrast to the red rocks. But the walk, although under 2 miles round trip, was punishing. Mostly uphill on the way back in the blistering hot sun. The thermometer on the car register 102 degrees.

We found the Travelodge in Page and spend the late afternoon in the motel room. Too hot and the sun too direct to even go to the pool. I did a load of laundry so they we would have more clean clothes than dirty in our bags and because we had plenty of time. I think we were all a little bored but yet I think we needed a little boredom.