Antelope Canyon (Upper)

Antelope Canyon

Date : 18-JUL-2014

From : Zion National park                                        Temperature : 95 F

Destination :Antelope canyon

Antelope canyon is a slot canyon in north of Arizona state.It is on navajo land in Page city , AZ. Antelope canyon is famous for its amazing view and photographic opportunities.Antelope canyon consists two parts, upper canyon and lower canyon. The Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is Tse' bighanilini, which means "the place where water runs through rocks." Upper Antelope is at about 4,000 feet elevation and the canyon walls rise 120 feet above the streambed.You would need advance permit if you are planning to go there on your own, there are also many tour packages available in page city for canyon tour. There are different time slots for tour out of which the tour between 10:00 AM -12:00 PM is most famous .Between that time limit the sunlight streak hits the canyon and gives the inner walls an amazing orange color.

We booked our tour from antelopeslotcanyon for 10:30 AM slot. They offer two types of tour
 1) Normal tour (rates are high for  10:30 time slot) (1 hour long) 
 2) Photographic tour (2 hours long)

The tour start with navajo tribal dance which the tour company arranged for us.
Grass dance : 

Hoop dance : The dancer danced with 10 hoops that day but he said he usually dance with up-to 34 hoops and is participating in world hoop dance championship.(he was pretty good)

After the dance show we were asked to sit in an open truck which had seat belts similar to flight but one belt covers two people..... :) funny....On the way to canyon after half way the drive was through desert and the ride was so bumpy, but the seatbelt helped us alot in keeping everyone at their seats.Anyways after around 15-20 min drive we reached upper antelopoe canyon.Since it was the peak hour for visiting antlope canyon there were  a lot of people from different tour company groups .Our guide lead us into the canyon. The very first big room had the sunlight streak and so many photographers were clicking the picture. There was a tour guide who was throwing sand in light streak to make it prominent for photographers. Guides were making sure that no one comes in that area for a specific time period .After passing that room there was curvy and narrow path with different kind of formation.The whole canyon was filled with very fine sand so beware, if you are using DSLR don't try to change the lens inside canyon. Also once you are out clean your camera first and then only change the lens. My suggestion that bring the widest angle lens from your kit to capture the canyon,but if you want to take some close up shot for distant formations use another camera with telephoto lens (you can rent another camera).Our guide was showing us some formations and was also taking pictures for us of them, but there  was another group whose guide was rude and was constantly poking us to move forward. The whole canyon business has become too much commercialized .The time that we spend in canyon(1 Hr) wrt the money we paid($48) was not justifiable but even though there is net of tour company business who are trying to cheat us its undoubtedly true that antelope canon is one of my best experiences.
Below is a video that we shot while in canyon

ZION National Park

ZION 

Date : 17-JUL-2014
From : Salt Lake City, UTAH,                                         Temperature: 101 F
Destination : Zion National Park, Springdale, UT 84767 Contact : (435) 772-3256


It took us around 4 and 1/2 hrs to drive to Zion National Park from downtown SLC. Even though we had confirmed booking of car with Enterprise car rentals, they couldn't arrange the car on time and it delayed our trip by 2 hrs straight.
                                Anyways the trip started by 10:45 AM in morning and we reached ZION by 3:15.
There are shuttles to tour the main scenic byway of ZION  which had 9 stops including ZION visitor center.The last shuttles from last point  to visitor center is by 9:00 PM. Frequecy of shuttles is 10 min. We had decided to trail "The Narrows" but since we were late we did only the paved trail not the actual one.

Entering ZION

Zion scenic by-way

On the trail to narrows.You will see lots of squirrel and we encountered one having good time with doritos... :)

"The narrows"  hike through virgin river starts from here. Its 1 mile paved trail from "temple of sinawava" to the virgin river. You would need  plenty of water, hiking sticks, hiking shoes and lots of determination if you are going for full 16 mile hike.Hiking in narrows means walking ,wading and sometimes swimming.Please check on Flash flood warnings before going for hike, also consider the hypothermia seriously which could be very dangerous sometimes.

After narrows we took the shuttle from "temple of sinwava"  for weeping rock and since sun was setting (going behind the rock mountains) we decided to go for a shorter trail of .5 miles to upper view point . At weeping rock water seeps out of the stone and helps the vegetation to grow and create a hanging garden.

After this whole day rush we decided to call it a day and moved towards our campsite @ watchman. Its near to Zion visitor center.This campground have different campsite eg. with electricity connection, primitive campsite i.e. without electricity, riverside campsite.Watchman campground have only toilet facility and no showers. It's surrounded by rocks from both the sides.

Night Sky from Watchman Campground @ ZION

Overall Zion is a very beautiful park which gives you lots of opportunity to spend some quality time.There are many trails that you can enjoy.Since the dry heat in ZION kills you quickly the word of advice from my personal experience is that always have some water with yourself while you are on trail are just hiking to an overlook point. 

Happy Traveling