Our trip home - 25 April - Campsite to Walmart, Page, Arizona

Upper Antelope Canyon Tour
Yup, we didn't move very far, as it was windy, and cloudy, with the odd shower thrown in, so we decided that since we had no rush to travel, there were a few items left to be done while we were in town so we left the campsite and drove about 10 miles to the Walmart in Page, where we managed to snag a fairly protected spot after waiting for the trucker to leave it, heh heh.
     Antelope Canyon is very close to Page and is the most photographed Slot Canyon in the world and a place I have wanted to see for a long time, so I took a drive (10 minute) out to see about a tour.

When I arrived 4 busses had just pulled up and it looked like it was going to be pretty busy for a while, so I took note of the prices (8.00 to gain entrance to the area where they have their booth, then 40.00 for a 1.5 hour tour..... No tripods, monopods, backpacks are allowed either.  If you want to go on a "photographer's tour" it is $128.00 that apparently gets you more time and less people are crowded into the canyon than normal.

There are 4 or 5 different native tour groups taking people so it can get really crowded in the summer.
     I left as it was getting really windy and people coming back from the tour had sand all over their coats and in their hair. The man at the booth had told me there are no refunds once you leave in the jeep and if I didn't like sand falling on me it probably wasn't a good idea to go today. With those thoughts in mind, I took my leave, thinking to try later in the day when it might not be so busy.....
     I had noticed the other day that both windshield wipers had fallen apart during our 4 month stay in Lake Havasu, with the blades in the sun for much of the time..... they needed to be replaced, especially in light of the fact that it was raining and more was forecast in the upcoming days.
     Well, these are 32" wiper blades and not available anywhere but at an RV dealer, so I picked up a couple of 28" blades at Walmart and then found that the "snap" clip that keeps them on the arm of the wiper would not "snap" close as the wiper arm was too big and thick.  I jury-rigged one by tying a zap strap around the clip so that it stayed closed..... It worked!.... Hopefully until we can find an RV dealer, as there is none in Page, Arizona.
     Once the wiper blades were attached there was not much left for me to do as Darlene was busy with TJ and his school for the remainder of the morning and a good part of the afternoon by the looks of things, so I opted to head back out to Antelope Canyon to see if it was still busy.
     There are 2 canyons worth noting here, Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon. When I was there in the morning at the Upper Antelope Canyon I asked about the pricing for Lower Antelope and was told they were closed.  Well, they weren't, it was simply other tour companies that ran it and the guy in the booth just wanted to make sure my sheckels went towards his company I guess.
      Anyway, I got out there about 1:15 and was told the next tour was 2 PM.  There was only a couple of cars in the parking lot so I paid my money and went back to the car, as the wind was pretty bad, and there was lots of sand being kicked up by it.
      At 2 pm we got on the jeep type safari vehicle (no windows) and headed out, as it is a 10 minute drive to the slot canyon. There were 13 of us in the group, with 4 girls from New Yahk, a family of 4 from Paris, France, a couple from St. Louis, and another couple from Colorado.  The guide was a young native woman named Felicity who gave us an amazing tour.

Entrance to Upper Antelope Canyon

     The first thing she did was congratulate us all on taking the tour as it was windy and raining and did not look very promising. She also said the wind would blow sand on us in the canyon and also on the way back in the jeep.  Once we got to the canyon, I was happy to see only a couple of other jeeps there, and the wind had died down almost completely!

4 Girls from New York on tour

      It turns out those 2 other groups had already been thru and were on their way out so they passed by us going the opposite direction as we made our way thru the canyon.  Basically, you enter the canyon, walk thru it, exit at the other end, and then walk back the same way to the beginning.... Basically, that is it, but our guide made our tour very enjoyable by pointing out camera angles, mentioning camera (well, camera phone) setting suggestions, and also good spots for shots. It really was pretty special, and she mentioned that she had heard of there being hardly anyone there only once before in the 5 years she had been giving tours there, so we were really really lucky!

     I took photos with both my DSLR and also my iphone, which does an amazing job in that department.
     Below are some of my favourite photos from the tour.