Tse Bighanilini

Is Navajo for "the place where water runs through rocks".   If you are an expert, or professional photographer, and are willing to pay big bucks you can get a picture in Upper Antelope Canyon like this one (below) when the sun is at the perfect angle.  TLE and I are neither, but we sure know how to use a phone camera.

This first picture (above) was taken from the internet.  The rest of the pictures to follow were taken by TLE and I on our phone cameras (TLE's - iPhone 5; mine - Samsung Galaxy Note 3).  The only thing missing from our shots is the light beam.

There are numerous tour companies licensed to give tours in Upper Antelope Canyon. We chose "Antelope Canyon Tours by Roger Ekis" located in downtown Page.  I called them Monday afternoon to make a reservation for the 9:30 am tour.  This is a very popular tour, even at this time of year, and a reservation is very necessary.  The cost for the two of us including senior discount was $68.96.....the discount saved us about $5.  We were told to be at the downtown office by 9 am, so we left our boondock camp about 8:30 arriving there by 8:55.  

Both Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon sit on Navajo land so they license the tour operators, and control all ingress and egress to each canyon.  Our tour guide was Presley.....not related to Elvis.  There were 13 in our group, and we were just one of a dozen groups touring the upper canyon at 9:30.

 What do you know?  I did get a light beam!

The sandstone walls in these canyons just comes alive when the sunlight hits them, and the lighting is changing all day long.  The tour of the upper "slot canyon" takes about 80-90 minutes and is well worth the money.  Now we are inspired to find other slot canyons we can tour on our own some day.  It is important to note that this slot canyon, and others like it are the result of thousands of years of water rushing through them.  If it is raining somewhere at a higher elevation and the water hits the slot canyon while you are in it you most likely will not survive.  It is very important to know not only the local weather, but weather in the surrounding areas before entering one of these canyons.

Taken by Presley.......good shot Presley!

See the "heart"?

After finishing our tour we headed over to the local Subway for lunch.......a footlong Club for me.......6" for lunch, and 6" for dinner.  TLE ordered a footlong Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki.   Next we hit the local Safeway supermarket for a few items we needed, and then made our way back "home" for the rest of the day.

About mid afternoon I took a hike up to the top of the hill near our campsite to take a few pictures.  I'm learning how to take a panorama shot with my phone camera and here is my first one.

The "pano"

A shot from the hill of our campsite

I spent the rest of the day reading a book, and enjoying the scenery.....really enjoying the scenery.  I began to wonder why we are leaving here on Thursday.....really wondering.  Around 5:30 TLE came out to join me with a couple glasses of white wine to watch the evening settle in on our little slice of heaven. and before long our neighbors (see the big class A diesel pusher to the left of ours) Chuck and Jan (from Iowa) came over with two chairs to join us.  We talked until we all began to get cold.....even though the daytime temps get into the 80's here, it cools off very fast!  This is one of the things we love about this lifestyle.  Two days ago Chuck and Jan were total strangers, and just within that short period of time we have formed a friendship and talk about meeting up again.  They arrived here about a week ago intending to stay 2 days, and now are thinking they will be hear another week.  

It was during that conversation with Chuck and Jan that we decided we would extend our stay here by at least 4 more days beyond Thursday.  Instead of driving the coach back to Flagstaff to have the rest of the work done on the VW, we'll leave the coach here and drive the VW down to Flagstaff for the day, get the work done, and return.

And so the written in Jello plans have changed dramatically......instead of heading 135 miles back south to Flagstaff, and then east on I-40 through New Mexico and Oklahoma we will head north from here towards Moab, picking up I-70 at some point and then heading for Sioux Falls via Denver.  We've already been east on I-40, and we really want to see the Canyon Lands, Arches, Moab, etc., so the plan has changed in a dramatic way.  We will continue northward to see places we haven't yet seen.

To our friends in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Kansas we send apologies, because this change in plans means we will not see you this time around.  This decision has been kind of brewing in the back ground for some time.  Due to my unexpected surgery that delayed our departure from SoCal by over 3 weeks we have just had to accept the fact that there is not enough time to go further east and do everything we had planned.  We really need to be in Sioux Falls, SD by the last week in April if we are to have enough time to install the new bumper, fix the damaged aluminum on the right rear quarter panel, and numerous other repairs, and upgrades before we begin our run for South Lake Tahoe.  We figure it will take at least a week to 10 days to get all this done, and also fulfill our promise to help our friends, Todd and Dawn, make some electrical and other repairs to their '84 Newell.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - If you are not already a "follower" please click on the "Join This Site" button and become a "follower"!