After such an amazing hike on the Wave Trail, we headed to the main attraction. The one request that Beach had on the trip was to see the Antelope Canyon. The only way you can do so is with a Navajo tour company, as it is on Navajo Nation land. There are a variety of such business and is quite pricey but an amazing experience.
You get there by a back of a truck, with a small group that you will be touring with your guide.
It was a windy ride.
Some of us tolerated the wind more than others.
You drive to what appears to be the middle of nowhere.
The very scheduled smaller groups allow for you to see the canyon without folks in the photos.
The places where the light will spill through added even more of a magical feel.
Our guide was very gracious in taking a quick family photo in different spots.
She, also, took some photos on my phone, knowing where to get best light and angle. I can't recall which ones she took but glad to have a compilation of it all.
Even slightly different angles of the same thing make it look very different.
Our guide gave very specific instructions that we were supposed to listen to, and they take that very seriously. If you don't follow the rules, you have to leave, and we had someone from a group ahead of us have to do just that.
We were able to go around noon, when the lighting was the best and accented the colors on the walls.
Such a gift to get to see this!
You would hardly know that such beauty could be found in an opening in this wall.
Walking back to our truck ride.
I had a brief freak out moment, as my time had changed on my phone (the time zones around the area can be different and Navo doesn't acknowledge them, so it can be confusing). I thought we were forsure going to miss our next reservation, and I felt frustrated with myself for somehow not understanding how my planning could be so off. Thankfully after several minutes, I realized what was actually going on with the time and stop internally unraveling.
The set up was interesting to get to Antelope Point Marina for our next activity with Lake Powell Boat Tour. You are not allowed to drive all the way to it, but instead get shuttled down a steep hill on a golf cart.
It was fun but a bit scary.
The sky turned a little onimus and the temperature seemed to drop a bit.
We took a couple of pictures while we waited to board.
Despite the weather, we set off and it was still very beautiful.
The different colored rock lines were nature's marking on how high the water was at one time.
The canyon walls kept getting bigger and bigger as we went.
At one point we made a brief stop on some large rocks.
The wind started to really pick up, which made a family shot a bit of a challenge.
Then someone was kind enough to take a family photo!
On the way back, the wind picked up even more along with the mist. The kids acted pretty miserable and found covering anyway they could. So this got voted probably the least favorite activity of our trip.
However, their moods did change when we grabbed an early dinner at the restaurant on the marina (the largest floating restaurant in the country).
We had to wait for a ride back up to our car, and the ducks provided a bit of distraction from the weather.
Because I love to cram in many things, I wanted to make one more short stop on the way back to the hotel into a fun nature feature. We hiked up a steep sandy hill/mountain to Shell Cave.
The kids quickly ran up the hill and huddle together from the wind.
After getting back to the hotel, my FOMO was not done, and I decided to drive about 10 minutes to see if there was any signs of a sunset. My little buddy wanted to join me, so we grabbed our jackets and headed off!
Wahweap Overlook was extra windy and made us giggle, despite being chilly!
It turned out to remain pretty overcast, but a sight nonetheless!
Another amazing special day with my people!
