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Solo flying. At the Happy Canyon landing strip | |
Eagle City landing strip right of center, near the road. Pretty pleasant camping. Left of the strip is a slot canyon. |
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Slot canyon near Eagle City. I explored down to the first rappel, which is down a large cemet dam. An old rock rappel anchor showed that others had come this way. |
Next day I flew to Bullfrog and hiked up to the southern water pocket fold (aka Capitol Reef). I've done several trips into the reef, but not to this southern section. It was pretty. The eastern slope is complex terrain of canyons and domes on Navajo sandstone. I camped two nights, and hiked on the reef top in the middle day. I decided that I was feeling a little beat up from being out side for nearly 2 weeks and if I was going to be enthusiastic for my trip with Richard in a couple days I would need a couple rest days so I flew to Page and got a motel room.
Outside of Page is the original slot canyon: Antelope Canyon. We have all seen pictures of this canyon. On seeing the pictures I developed a desire to see the actual canyon. 20 years ago I found Antelope wash on the map and by poking around was able to find the canyon. Back then it was just becoming known. I was able to have the canyon pretty much to my self. Lower antelope canyon is just below the road and has several steep drops. Back then there were a few ropes and a rope ladder to get up and down the hardest. Upper antelope is about two miles up from the road and an easy walk through.
Since then I heard of masses of photographers in the canyon and then that the Navajo were running paid tours. I decided to take the tour to see how the canyon had changed. Turned out I was there on a cloudy day and was able to walk through myself. There were a couple other people in the canyon, but I felt I pretty much had it to myself.
The Navajo have installed ladders through out so it is easy to travel through the canyon. Aside from scale, I think this is not any different than the bolts we found in Robber's Roost. Both human implements added to the canyon to make travel easier. Both remove wildness from the world.
It is still a very beautiful canyon and a place of wonder.
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Visiting Antelope Canyon, near Page AZ. Just before you enter Antelope there are three dinasour tracks in the stone. The first is at the bottom, with the sand brushed away. The second is just beyone the sand, and the last at the edge of the rock. Each print shows a large three toed foot as long as my own foot. |  |
The top of Antelope. The narrow opening hides a whole world of rock. |
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First drop into that world. |  |
Ladders near the head of Antelope. |
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New ladder and old ladder of chopped foot holds. |  |
This is where the rope ladder was. I have a photo of that and my try to scan it. |
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Beautiful shapes and colors. |
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Images © 2010 Tom Unger
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Page last modified: Sep 05 19:07 2010 by Tom Unger