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Published: October 15th 2010
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Alarm went off at 5am this morning and after a restless night sleep for both of us we got up, showered and ready to go. Drove to the Grand Canyon Airport ready for our Grand Canyon River Adventure. Checked in and waited for our plane. It was a small plane, seated about 15ish. First on the agenda was a 1 hour flight over the Grand Canyon, Marble Canyon, Glen Canyon and Lake Powell on the way to Page airport. The sun had just come up and the views were just spectacular. The only thing wrong with the flight is it went so quick!!! We had a smooth ride and amazing views - again the photos just don’t do it justice. Once we’d landed at Page airport, we were given breakfast, which was pretty big - muffin, yogurt, cheese stick, crackers, muesli bar and OJ. Ate this at the airport whilst waiting of our jeep to arrive. The views from the airport were really cool - I believe the cliffs we could see were part of the Navajo reservation.
We got picked up by jeep by a native Navajo guide. He drove us down the highway in the jeep - which seated
about 14 until we entered Antelope Canyon. The drive to the actual canyon once off the highway was about 10 minutes, all on soft sand that is flood lands. Pulled up to the canyon, which is just like a slit in the walls and our guide took us through. His English name was Blane and he had grown up in the area, in fact when he was 6 or 7 antelope canyon used to be his playground. It was named Antelope Canyon, as in the summer before the area became populated and roads were built, antelopes used to take shelter within, as it was much cooler inside than out. The canyon was created due to many thousands of years of flooding. When it rains, the water flows down into the canyon creating the patterns in the sandstone. Sometimes, when it rains a lot the whole canyon will fill with water. When you see the photos you will see how big this is!! When the water flows through, it created eddy’s which is how the sandstones shape is formed. Each season the height of the floor changes, Blane told us that this year after it flooded, the floor rose about 6
feet from where it previously was and that this is ever-changing. In some of the photos you can see trees lodged up in the walls which is from flood waters - gives you an indication of how high the water gets. It has been since 2000 that the trees have remained at that height, last year the water reached just below them, but not above to dislodge them.
The acoustics of the canyon are also amazing.....Blane stood on the opposite wall from us in a certain section and whispered into the wall.....whilst we couldn’t decipher what he said it sounded like surround sound coming from behind us. The other interesting thing was that 60 minutes crew had put in some cameras at either end of the canyon to see if the water really came as quickly and as much as the tribes said it did. They installed the cameras, fixed them to the wall and waited. Once the rains came and the canyon flooded, they went back to get their gear, and it had been swept away - ripped out of the walls!! Was an amazing place.
Headed back into the jeeps and headed toward Colorado River Discovery Office, where
we boarded buses to the base of Glen Canyon Dam to get on our rafts! The bus went through a 2 mile tunnel on an 8degree gradient to get to the bottom of the dam. The tunnel was originally built so that workers could build the dam. There were adits to the left of the tunnel so they could ensure they were digging in the right spots. We had to wear hard hats from the bus to the where we boarded our raft as stones fall down from the road above and people apparently throw coins for luck! Got on our raft with about 15 other people and we began our slow sail down the Colorado River through glen canyon. As you can imagine was spectacular scenery and our guide josh did a great job of explaining some history about the area, river etc. Our first stop along the river was to see some petro glyphs which are basically ancient Indian drawings in the rock. There are two types petro glyphs and pictographs. Petrogylphs are carved into the rock, whereas pictographs are painted on. Next stop was a sandy beach where we sat under the shade of the trees to
eat our picnic lunch. Stayed for about 20minutes before heading back on the raft. On the way back to Lee’s ferry saw some giant sand dunes in amongst the canyon, bizarre sight amongst the rock, but apparently is just like normal sand!
Got off the rafts at Lee’s ferry, which is famous site and where the white water rafting leaves from down the Colorado. Hopped on our bus back to the airport and went through Marble canyon, Navajo reservation, Cameron - where we stopped to buy some souvenirs; and South Rim Desert Drive - where we saw Elk!! Got back to airport just before 6 and back to lodge at about 6.15. We snuck a peak at the Canyon and saw the top of the trail that we’d be hiking up to the next day. Had early night as up early for the big hike!!
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