ANTELOPE CANYON, ARIZONA, October 2019: A Natural Wonder of Light and Color, Guest post by Caroline Hatton

Sunbeam in Lower Antelope Canyon, near Page, Arizona

My friend and fellow children’s book author Caroline Hatton visited Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon in October 2019. She took all but one of the photos in this post. For more information about her, visit www.carolinehattonauthor.com.

The Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons on Navajo land near Page, Arizona, are natural wonders-- narrow, deep, slot canyons sculpted in sandstone by rushing waters and swirling winds.

In an earlier guest post by Owen Floody about both canyons, photos show how Upper Antelope Canyon was lit on his visit in September. Because the time of year and time of day determine how high the sun is, and therefore how much or how little light penetrates the canyons, the purpose of this post is to compare the two canyons in the first week of October. All visitors are now required to join a guided tour, so I reserved tickets online in advance, for the following dates and times:

- Upper Antelope Canyon: Saturday, October 5, 10:15 a.m. tour

- Lower Antelope Canyon: Friday, October 4, 10:45 a.m. tour

The weather was clear and sunny on both days.

A-shaped, darker Upper Antelope Canyon

V-shaped, brighter Lower Antelope Canyon

The Upper Antelope Canyon tour began with a military-style truck ride from the parking lot to the canyon entrance. The tour is a round trip, walking into the canyon to the end, turning around, and walking back out, with tight traffic control: staying on the right, stopping completely to allow photo-tour guides to line up their photographers to all take a photo with fewer tourists and less suspended dust, and otherwise moving along to prevent traffic jams.

The Lower Antelope Canyon tour began at the parking lot. The tour goes in one direction, from one end of the canyon to the other. The number of people around me was five to ten times less than in the Upper Canyon tour, because fewer people visit the Lower Canyon and because the floor is narrower in the Lower than the Upper Canyon, often allowing only one person at a time to go through.

In both tours, the guide for my group offered help setting cell phone cameras to “vivid colors.” Digital camera users switched to a higher ISO value. Along the walk, the guide offered to take the photos of the famous, nicknamed, rock formations and patterns, on behalf of visitors, by using their phones and cameras, one after the other, as well as to take portraits of couples and families posed by themselves against attractive backgrounds. 

In Upper Antelope Canyon

In Lower Antelope Canyon

The Upper Antelope Canyon is A-shaped. The narrow top allows no sun rays into the canyon, except in a few wider spots, but only on the very top of the rock wall, more than 100 feet (~30 m) above my head. The wide, flat, sandy bottom was easy to walk on, even in the near-pitch darkness. Guides reminded some visitors, who used flashlights to see where they were going, to keep those off, to avoid ruining everyone else’s photos. Indeed, everyone’s camera-setting-enhanced photos made the canyon look brighter, more colorful, and simply more visible than the dim, colorless reality.

The Lower Antelope Canyon is V-shaped. The wide top lets the sun shine on the rock walls. At the entrance, the five flights of stairs going down were of the industrial, metal-grid type. The canyon bottom narrowed here and there to an actual rock V, where the left and right walls met at an acute angle with no flat spot to put a foot down. Photos showed rocks as seen with the naked eye, like melted, stretched, brightly colored candy. Visiting was quieter and more leisurely in the Lower than the Upper Canyon. I would do it again, especially in a different season!

In Lower Antelope Canyon. I like this as a 3D sculpture and as 2D picture.

In Lower Antelope Canyon

 

Lower Antelope Canyon exit. Credit W. Hatton

ARIZONA WHIRLWIND, Part 3: Antelope Canyon and Grand Canyon, Guest Post by Owen Floody

Upper Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Our friend Owen Floody traveled in Arizona last September.  Owen recently retired from a career of teaching and research at Bucknell University in Pennsylvania. He has always been an avid photographer and in his retirement has taken numerous trips that allow him to pursue his passion. Here is the third part of a reflection on his Arizona trip and some of his excellent photographs.
 
So far, my tour had proceeded remarkably smoothly.  But an unpleasant surprise met me in Page, where I expected easy access to the two slot canyons (the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons) that are one of this area's major draws.  Unfortunately, it turns out that nearly all access to the canyons is now limited to guided tours, most of which are filled well in advance, at least in the busier times of the year.  All of this may be especially true of the more popular upper canyon.  Here, it seems essential to reserve a place on a general (1 hr, $25-40) or photographic (2 hr, $80) guided tour.  In addition to their greater length, guides privilege photo tours by directing traffic so as to give their participants the best unobstructed views of the convoluted rock walls and of the amazing colors that can develop there, especially when the sun is relatively high. 

Upper Antelope Canyon, Arizona

At the time of my visit, the situation in Lower Antelope Canyon was a little different.  Again, most visitors are enlisted in 1-hr non-photographic guided tours.  Well-equipped (DSLR plus tripod) photographers, however, were permitted to purchase a "photographic pass" that allowed one to wander unguided for 2 hr.  This was a great experience, though it sounded as though the tour operator may have been in the process of phasing it out. For a time after my arrival in Page, it looked as though I would strike out completely.  Luck intervened, however, providing an open photographic pass to the lower canyon and a late cancellation of a reservation for a photographic tour of the upper. I thoroughly enjoyed both.  

The upper canyon is larger and easier to negotiate, but is much more popular and crowded.  The lower is generally more narrow, with some especially narrow bottlenecks.  It also involves more elevation changes, some effected by steep metal stairs.  On the other hand, it is much less heavily visited and may make for the more relaxing and enjoyable tour.  Importantly though, both canyons come through with the amazing patterns and colors for which they are known.

Grand Canyon, Arizona

The final stop on my circuit was, not surprisingly, the Grand Canyon.  Here, I needed to stay in the campground to secure a place in Canyon Village, close to the canyon and its viewpoints, something that was especially important in stalking sunrises and sunsets.  In fact, much of my time was spent looking for the perfect viewpoints from which these events could be viewed. The fact is that most or all of the viewpoints offer stunning views, and at most or all times of the day.  Also, I found the sunrises and sunsets to be complicated by a canyon so deep as to create big differences between the times at which the  illumination would change near the rim versus floor. 

Grand Canyon at Sunset

In general, this trip perfectly illustrated the advantages and disadvantages of a whirlwind tour.  On the one hand, I was able to see a lot in a short time, including many major parks and attractions.  On the other, I could easily have at least doubled the time spent at each of these sites and still not exhausted all that they have to offer.