antelope canyon and monument valley

our 4x4 that took us to antelope canyon
the start of the canyon in the dry river bed

inside the canyon

us at the other end of the canyon

inside the canyon

water and wind have carved the rocks

monument valley entrance

the sandstone buttes

up high!

the cube

us at the visitor centre
canyon king paddle boat

this is now a pizzeria

Thursday 28th April 2011.

Today was a day of of two halves where we had decided that we were going to do a canyon tour with a company straight across the road from our motel, and the second was a trip to monument valley. Our Antelope Canyon tour was booked for 9.30am where we were put onto the back of 4x4 pickups with big wheels like monster trucks. The trip to the canyon was out of the town a couple of miles and then along a few miles of sandy river bed where they needed 4wd to get us there. The trip in was really cool, it was a v8 ute and it was really beefy as it ploughed through the dry sand. Once at the canyon we were shown through by the driver to give a run down and then we had about 50 minutes to spend walking back through as many times as we wanted. We took loads of photos as the light on the walls of the carved out sandstone was just amazing to look at. The light captured the lines in the stone with the shadows falling across the rock with brilliant shades of pinks and oranges. It was hard to take photos as there was so much light from the top but very dark in the base where we were. The trip took just a bit less then 2 hours where we went back to our car, got some lunch and then headed to Monument Valley.

Monument Valley was 195km drive from Page and took us just two hours to get there. The sandstone buttes are just amazing, the view is spectacular and you really need to be there to get the most out of it. The photos do look good, but real life is just so much better. We entered the park and followed the 17 mile trail which does a loop around a few of the buttes. We got some really nice photos of the valley as we made our way around the loop track. Once at the end we went to the visitor centre where we took some photos from the edge of the valley with three buttes in the background. A drink from the shop and then the 2 hour drive back to Page.

On the way back into town it was now dinner time and we wanted something different. We had seen the day before a paddle steamer which had been moved to dry land and placed next to a bar. The boat was in the river at Lake Powell up till 2008 where it was purchased by the owner of the bar. The boat then was moved and converted to a pizzeria restaurant. The pizza was delicious and I would highly recommend it if you are in Arizona.

Tomorrow we head to the Grand Canyon which is only about 2 hours from Page. We are then going to be in Las Vegas where I will catch up with my brother as he is there for work.