There She Goes Again

Since John and Charlotte both naturally wake up at ungodly hours like 5:00 a.m. we were at Horseshoe Bend by 7:00.  It’s quite something to see.  Not only is it an incredible site (the Colorado River making a huge loop around a very large rock), it would be incredibly easy to plummet to your death from the edge.  It’s 1,100 feet down and there is no guard rail or barrier of any sort to prevent you from going right over.  I’m sure people have died, fortunately none while I was there.  Charlotte and I are quite the pair – I’m terrified of slipping when walking on a downward slope or off the edge of very narrow walkways with a drop on either side and Charlotte is terrified of walking on suspension bridges and getting near the edges of things that drop off – even if there is a barricade (for example, she said she wouldn’t walk across the dam for love or money and there’s a huge barrier that you couldn’t get through if you tried).  I was OK with getting pretty close to the edge of Horseshoe Bend and Charlotte got close by crawling on her hands and knees.  Yeah us!  John wanders around like it’s no big deal.  I had planned to take loads of photos and had my tripod with me.  That was a great plan except for leaving the tripod head back at the hotel!  Brilliant.  At least I did it here and not at Antelope Canyon.

Back at the hotel John took off for the Vermillion Cliffs to see condors while Charlotte and I hung out with Rick, the guy running the hotel.  He used to live in LA and was on Babylon 5 for five years and also was a Borg on a Next Generation episode.  I was very excited by that, of course.  Not to mention he’s single, one year younger than me, straight and cute.  Only problem, he moved from LA to Page to help his Dad run the two hotels they own and I am for damn sure not moving to Page (who cares if he’s interested or not, that’s irrelevant)!  So alas, I am still single.

Charlotte and I had a spectacular lunch at Fiesta Mexicana before heading out to Antelope Canyon for the photo tour.  The ride to the Canyon was crazy.  Once you get off the main road you drive in a sand filled wash, which when it rains fills with 4-5 feet of water (no wonder they have flash floods), before arriving at the entrance to the canyon.  It reminded me a lot of the entrance to the Siq in Petra.  Our tour left Page at 1:00 so we missed the sunbeams but we had loads of light coming down the sides of the Canyon.  I still can’t believe I’ve actually been there.  It was just spectacular and was even better than I imagined.  I had read a suggestion on photo.net to use a Ziploc bag to cover your camera to protect it from sand.  I cut a hole in one and taped the opening to the lens hood and am I ever glad I did.  I didn’t realize how much sand was blowing down from the top of the canyon until Charlotte took a photo of me with flash and it looked as if it was snowing.  When I looked up and got a face full of sand it made it pretty clear as well.  I’m quick on the uptake aren’t I? 

I don’t think I’ve ever taken so many photos in such a short time.  I was shooting RAW and JPEG and took over 145 photos in about 1 hour and 40 minutes.  The other guy in our group (our group of me, Charlotte and him) had been on the tour just before this one and had seen the light beams but also said there were over 100 people in the Canyon.  We had about 40 and that was a lot in my opinion.  Charlotte took almost 100 with my little  point and shoot.  A lot of those are blurry, it’s just impossible to hold a camera still for long without a tripod, but there are some good ones.  Soon it was time to leave and the only thing I’m wishing I’d done is walk through the Canyon and take a movie.  I’ll just have to come back. 

Back to town to meet up with John and hit the road to Kayenta.  Once we entered Navajo land the time changed AGAIN even though we’re still in Arizona.  Bizarre.  Kayenta is tiny but I give them credit, they have a two screen movie theatre and they’re showing Star Trek.  Tomorrow we’re heading to Monument Valley, I’m looking forward to seeing the quintessential Wild West live and in person.