In July of 2004 I would (unbeknownst to me at the time) spend my last night camped primitive under the wide sky and stars of the Arizona Desert Hard-Pack.
For those who have never camped primitive on this red clay desert, as romantic as it may sound with the Eagle's "million stars all around"...there are other features they don't share in their song. Like the number of lizards, scorpions, and snakes who also take advantage of the evening cool after a 114 degree day. The stickery tumbleweeds (Russian Thistle) and Prickly Pear Cactus Starts (barely thumb size), or tiny rocks that you will inevitably "find" beneath your sleeping bag even though you thought you swept the area thoroughly. And then there is the hard-pack itself. Rust red clay that has been baked beneath the unforgiving Arizona sun until it it exactly like sleeping outside on your concrete patio or garage floor. And the loose sand...blowing into every crack and crevasse- including your own.
Seriously.
Yes....you'll "make love in the desert tonight"...because there is no way in hell you are going to actually sleep out here on the hard-pack.
But, if you look past all the creepy crawlies and slitherers. Ignore the fact you are sleeping on the equivalent of asphalt with thorns. Really focus. You will begin to appreciate the amazing desert-at-night sounds. The fragrant night blooming cactus flowers which quickly shrivel come the light of day. The smell of the hard-pack itself...like the red clay you used in third grade to make a pinch pot. And, yes...the perfect black velvet sky without city light pollution, and more stars than you have ever seen in your entire life.
The July Trip was all of that.
My (late) husband- Bill, two of our three boys (Lennon and Chris), three tents and sleeping bags, and a fire built of every bit of combustible brush we could scrounge before dark. The Arizona Desert, which reaches 114 degrees in the daytime, often drops to the 30's and low 40's at night.
The plan was to take them to the rim of The Grand Canyon...then head out the single highway beyond the canyon that (in a few more miles) ends in Page Arizona to explore Antelope Slot Canyons.
We woke early and were treated to another sight I will never forget.
Some yuppies who had also pulled off to "camp" in their Winnebago (or some such behemoth) and a woman (also up early) had her tiny teacup white poodle on a thin pink leash...and an even tinier bedazzled jewel pink collar...out for a morning walk.
On the clay-dusted hard-pack.
The longer the poor beast walked...the PINKER it became. By the time she looped back to the motor home- both the dog and the lower 1/4 of her legs were clay pink.
"Honey...the dog's gone pink."
Bill and I pulled our head back into the relative privacy of our tent and laughed until we literally cried.
---maybe you had to be there...
But I digress.
The above picture from that trip shows WHY we never made it through the Slot Canyons.
Midday the storm on the horizon became a full-fledged gully washer and so...no Slot Canyons for us.
I have always been in awe of photographs of Antelope Canyon...and although my Virtual Long Distance Travel is over for the year decided that I will from now to January take a few Virtual Day Trips to places and things I have otherwise missed along the way.
So that is why we are Virtually Exploring The Antelope Slot Canyons, today.
Come along!
Antelope Canyons are located in Page on Navajo Reservation land. The road ends at a steel gate and visitors to them are charged a fee and taken down in small groups by Navajo Guides.
The road from the gate to the Slot Canyons themselves is, unsurprisingly, just more well worn hard-pack. After a hard rain the ersatz road and the area around it becomes a slippery river of...well...clay slip.
The Canyons are divided into two sections
Upper Antelope Canyon
It is basically a walk up canyon. A sandstone slot. Upper Antelope is the site of some of the amazing sunbeam photos as pure white light overhead slips down in shafts and beams.
I have always felt that if one could sit in one of these magical beams...one could be healed of most anything.
The beams begin in March and can usually be seen mid-day until October.
The walls are sandstone which have been carved over the ages by flowing water and you can see the many different layers exposed. The floor is reddish clay and sand.
Tour of Upper Antelope Canyon
https://youtu.be/PRw422TpXHU
Lower Antelope is altogether different. Much longer, narrower and required long climbs down into the spiralling arches of eroded sandstone. Steel ladders and stairs have replaced hand-built wooden ladders of the 1990's. There are few light beams here.
In 1997 a group of hikers became trapped in a flash flood that raged through Lower Antelope. Eleven were killed. Their guide, the sole survivor. When they had descended into the lower chambers it was a beautiful sunny Arizona day. A downpour from several miles away rushed through the sandstone slots and swept them away. If there is rain...even in the surrounding areas...the slot canyons are not safe.
Especially the lower chambers.
The Lower Canyon Tour
https://youtu.be/2OGSbuml7as
To appreciate the magnitude of a Flash Flood in the Slot Canyons...some footage of one
Flash Flood in the Slot Canyons
https://youtu.be/zDP2YTpznq4
This footage really opened my eyes to how horrific getting caught in one of these really would be...not just rushing water...but what amounts to thousands and thousands of gallons of thick clay slip rushing towards you and engulfing you.
And yet...still...one of the most beautiful places on (or beneath) Earth.
Ordered a souvenir prior to today's Virtual Tour which arrived Saturday
A Navajo Hand Carved Picture Sandstone (Sculpture) from Page.
A tiny bit of the same sandstone of which Antelope Canyon is made.
More anon.