Page, Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon

Ante­lope Canyon is locat­ed very close to the city, just four miles away. It is not a nation­al park but is on Native Amer­i­can land and belongs to the Nava­jo Nation. This is the largest tribe in the US and their reser­va­tion is the largest in terms of land area. All Native Amer­i­cans liv­ing on reser­va­tions, it turns out, do not pay income tax if their income is earned on the reser­va­tion and do not pay prop­er­ty tax if it is locat­ed on the reser­va­tion. The Nava­jo Nation (I don’t know about oth­er tribes) has made its ter­ri­to­ry a restrict­ed-access park, and all attrac­tions with­in their ter­ri­to­ries are tight­ly con­trolled and com­mer­cial­ized. You can­not vis­it any site with­out their escort, and tick­ets are not cheap. For Ante­lope Canyon, an adult tick­et costs $75 and a child’s tick­et is $58. Nev­er­the­less, there are many vis­i­tors. You can­not dri­ve your own car. We arrived at the appoint­ed time, watched a Native Amer­i­can dance, then got into semi-open trucks and drove, first on the high­way and then on a sandy road.

We had a tour of Upper Ante­lope Canyon. The entrance and the entire canyon are at ground lev­el. There is also Low­er Ante­lope Canyon, but it requires descend­ing down a lad­der, is twice as long, and is a sep­a­rate tour.

Ante­lope Canyon is cer­tain­ly a very unusu­al slot canyon. You enter as if into a cave, and light fil­ters through the open­ings at the top of the rocks. The yel­low-red rocks have smooth, tex­tured lines that in some places resem­ble ante­lope horns and in col­or, they resem­ble an antelope’s skin. Due to the unique light­ing, pho­tos in this canyon are stun­ning. The col­ors in the pho­tos do not exact­ly match the real col­ors and depend on the sea­son, time of day, and weath­er conditions.

The final stage of our stay in Page, after Ante­lope Canyon, was a vis­it to a pop­u­lar restau­rant in town where they smoke bar­be­cue right on the street in two huge smok­ers. This restau­rant is styled like an old gas sta­tion (because it is an old gas sta­tion). It fea­tures live coun­try music and is very pop­u­lar. Peo­ple even stand in line wait­ing for a table. The restau­rant has two din­ing areas, indoor and out­door, but every­one prefers to sit out­side. We were lucky and did not have to wait in line. The meat cooked in these smok­ers was incred­i­bly deli­cious and was ordered by weight rather than by por­tion. We took some to have for din­ner when we got home.

The next day we loaded up and head­ed back. We passed through Flagstaff. Snow was still on the moun­tain­tops of Flagstaff, and there was a mag­nif­i­cent pine for­est around. Only as we approached the Phoenix metro area we did see our beloved Saguaros. They had just begun their flow­er­ing peri­od, and all the Saguaro girls were adorned with flow­ers and buds like crowns on their heads.