http://www.travelswithhok.com/Hok/Antelope_Canyon/Antelope_Canyon.html Antelope Canyon, in Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park, just on the outskirts of Page, Arizona, is easily one of the most beautiful places we have seen. Many of the tours start in Page, and some tour operators will even pick you up from your hotel. Surprisingly, it appears that this place is better known outside the USA than locally. Mention Antelope Canyon, and nobody here in the USA seems to have heard about the place. More than half of the tourists visiting the canyon seem to be foreigners. On August 12, 1997, 11 tourists were killed in the Lower Antelope Canyon in a flash flood. Of these 11, nine were from abroad, and only two were from the USA. But just wait a few more years. The place will be completely overrun by visitors from all over the world.<br/><br/> In the course of the centuries these slot canyons are carved from the abundant orange-red Navajo sandstone bedrock in the area. Of the many slot canyons in the area, Antelope Canyon is the most well-known, the most visited, and certainly the most photographed. If there were not that many tourists around, this place is both awe-inspiring and tranquil. It is still awe-inspiring today, but not that tranquil anymore. But you can still take beautiful pictures. Antelope Canyon is a photographer’s dream. Take a tripod along, because for best results one should use slow speeds and longer exposures. Set the camera to 100 ISO, high resolution, narrow aspect ratio, white balance to “shade” and color mode to “vivid or warm”.<br/><br/> These slot canyons are dry most of the time, but sometimes flood water rushes through the canyons, quickly flooding the narrow passages. Wind and water from floods and from rainwater slowly sculpt out the sandstone to give it the beautiful and graceful undulating curves. Depending on the time of day, the brightness of the day, and where you are in the canyon, sunlight gives the walls many different hues. <br/><br/> There are actually two separate canyons, the Upper Antelope Canyon, also referred to as “The Crack”, and the Lower Antelope Canyon, also known as “The Corkscrew”. They are located about a few miles apart. Since both canyons are on Navajo land, you can only visit them with an authorized guide. In addition to the tour fees you also have to pay a general admission fee of $6 per person to the Navajo nation to enter the area. Actually, you don’t really need guides to visit the canyons. <br/><br/> To get to the entrance of the canyons, drive on highway 98 in the direction of the smoke-belching three-stack power plant and you will see signs to the canyons. For the upper canyon, you have to pass a gate, where your admission fee to the Navajo tribal lands is collected. The entrance to the Lower canyon is on the other side of highway 98. <br/> iWeb 3.0.4 http://www.travelswithhok.com/Hok/Antelope_Canyon/Entries/2009/6/11_Upper_Antelope_Canyon.html 5e6870ab-84a6-466a-aead-c0b447ea0c3c Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:59:00 -0700 Upper Antelope Canyon is the canyon where everybody goes to. There are at least 5 different operators, who lead tours through this canyon. Most of these tours start in Page. If you want to do it yourself, drive to the gate for the Upper Canyon, pay your fees, and park your car there. There is a locally-operated jeep there which, for $26, will take you to the entrance of the canyon, which is still a few miles away. There will be no guide for your party and the jeep will pick you up in an hour to drive you back. <br/><br/> We actually opted to go with a tour operated by Chief Tsosie. They operate the standard 1 1/2 hour, which is 1/2 hour to get from their Page office to the canyon entrance and back, and 1 hour in the canyon. Chief Tsosie also offers a “photographic tour”, which lasts 2 1/2 hours, of which 2 hours are spent in the canyon. If you can afford it, by all means take the photographic tour. We had the good fortune to have Mylo, a very personable and also very knowledgeable young Navajo as guide. He knew where to go to avoid the biggest concentrations of visitors, and he is also very knowledgeable in adjusting the settings of all the cameras presented to him to get optimum results. And this included some very expensive toys from visitors, who were laboring under the belief that to make good pictures, all you need is a very expensive camera. Mylo also gave many hints how to make good pictures. And at the end of the tour, he played the flute for us; haunting melodies in this breath-taking surroundings.<br/><br/> The walking surface of the canyon is essentially flat and it was very easy to get around. If you are in a wheelchair, it may be difficult. The canyon becomes narrow in some places, but even then there is no problem is getting around, even in groups. With the tour groups, it is indeed more difficult to get good pictures without having to include your other tour companions in the picture.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>top: A sand waterfall<br/><br/><br/> In the photography tour, the number of participants is usually smaller and, because more time is allotted, there will be fewer people around at the end of the tour.<br/><br/>left: More marvelous stuff http://www.travelswithhok.com/Hok/Antelope_Canyon/Entries/2009/6/10_Lower_Antelope_Canyon.html c77802bf-7569-4f72-a58b-8d2d7a90ef99 Wed, 10 Jun 2009 22:19:48 -0700 Ken seems to have the sole franchise on this canyon. At the parking lot north of Highway 98 there is a booth where you pay your $6 entrance and $20 tour fees. Guided tours are about an hour long each. But instead of going with the tour you can also opt for the photography pass, which gives you up to 4 hours to stay in the canyon, but which will not give you the rambling insights of a tour guide. <br/><br/> We were glad we made that choice, because soon after us came a tour with the guide lugging a guitar. Well, he wasn’t Jimi Hendrix for sure, and after a while it was obvious he had a very limited repertory and was replaying his melody-challenged melodies over and over again. We tried to stay away as far as possible from this group. You can enjoy the canyon better if it is quiet, so you can hear the gods and the winds whispering to you. The sun was blazing hot outside, but it was nice and cool in the canyon.<br/><br/> The entrance to the canyon is a narrow crack in the ground just a few minutes walk from the booth. The canyon is difficult to traverse if you are obese or very stiff, dead or alive. If you are still reasonable agile, there will be no problems. The canyon floor is also at different levels, but there are sturdy metal stairs which makes it easier to move from one level to another. Maybe it is for this reason there are fewer people visiting this canyon and it is less difficult to make pictures without people in them.<br/><br/> We came at around 10 a.m., but the light is better if we would have come earlier, at maybe 8 a.m. The sun gets overhead as the day progresses and the direct light into the canyon leads to hard contrasts, which makes it more difficult to make good pictures.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>top: The entrance to the Lower Antelope Canyon is just a cleft in the dark brown-red sandstone.<br/><br/><br/><br/><br/><br/>left above: But inside the canyon the colors become muted and spectacular.<br/><br/>right: Trying to find the right angle to make the shot of the century makes for an interesting picture by itself.