Second Day In Page

25 September 2014

Weather: Sunny and 34C

This morning we were up at 5:40am to get ready for the first tour of the day.  We grabbed a little bit of breakfast from the Clarion Inn breakfast area.  To this day it still cracks me up, Justin got two round creamy coloured items which he thought was pancakes and covered them in maple syrup.  I thought he was strange but he thought I was the odd ball.  He took a mouthful and discovered he had poured maple syrup all over his cheese omelets.

We drove around to the Colorado River Discovery Centre ( http://raftthecanyon.com/raft-the-river/half-day-raft-trips/ ) were we boarded a bus to the Glen Canyon.  The bus went through the wall of the Glen Canyon to reach our boarding location for the raft.  At this point we had to don hard hats and walk along a walkway over the water’s edge to reach the rafts.  Our group was divided into two smaller groups of 14 people and we floated down the Colorado River with our guide David telling us facts about the Glen Canyon and the dam.  We drifted most of the way to Horseshoe Bend then it was time to hit the throttle and we reached no more than 15 miles an hour.

Glen Canyon Dam

Horseshoe Bend, Colorado Rover

We stopped at a beach area on the way back where we walked along a track to some petroglyphs.  No one knows there meaning but most of them are of horned animals, mostly bighorn sheep.  To my disappointment there was no sheep sighted but we saw Blue Grey Herons, Osprey and a Californian Condor.  The condor was too high up in the sky to take a photo but you could see it with the naked eye.

Petroglyphs, Glen Canyon

Petroglyphs, Glen Canyon

Sandy beach on the Colorado River, Glen Canyon

When the tour finished and we had returned to Page we headed out to the meeting point for our afternoon tour to see what time it starts after the previous night’s confusion.  Our afternoon tour wasn't until 2:00pm so we had some lunch using the groceries we had bought the afternoon before.  Then it was time to head out again to Adventurous Antelope Canyon Tours ( www.navajoantelopecanyon.com/tours.html ) to meet our guide Noah, who took us to see Rattlesnake and Antelope Canyons.  Rattlesnake is not as popular, it is open to the sunlight making it better to photograph.  The iconic shaft of light that enters Antelope Canyon in summer makes it more popular but for September it was too dark and most of the photos turned out blurry.  We had an enjoyable tour as it was just the two of us and our guide.  That afternoon we met Lionel Bigthumb who would be taking us out on the night tour.

Me at Rattlesnake Canyon

Antelope Canyon

After the second tour of the day we had a couple of hours of down time.  I spent some of the time writing in my travel journal, while eating grapes and drinking water.  We are in the desert so one needs to keep themselves hydrated.  Justin had a nap as he had caught my cold and had a headache, maybe not enough water?  Rested up we had Thai for dinner at Dara Thai Express then drove out to meet Lionel for the night tour.  Justin was the photographer for the night using our SLR camera and tripod.  Luckily he was the photographer as I had sinusitis for the first time in my life and had taken Benadryl which meant I kept falling asleep even when I was standing.  Justin took photos of the stars as well as a flame spun around in the air by Lionel in the dark.  We then went into Antelope Canyon to get photos of the stars and the canyon at the same time.  Justin also took photos of the canyon walls which where lit up by Lionel to allow enough light to capture the photos.  The process involved Lionel lighting the walls up in various locations for short periods of, this is called light painting.  I slept all the way back to our car and I think the way back to the Clarion Inn but the medicine was doing its trick.  Handy note don't take Benadryl when you really want to do something interesting like a tour.

Stars at Antelope Canyon

Night photography at Antelope Canyon