Antelope Canyon – Page, Arizona
In the words of Wikipedia, Antelope Canyon is the most-visited and most-photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest. On a recent trip to Arizona, Utah, ending in Las Vegas, I passed through Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon is located very close to this small town. Since the Canyon is located on Navajo lands, which are fenced off from intruders, the only way to access it is by a tour operated by the Navajo locals.
If you happen to take the tour, you should know that there are 2 types of tours: the regular and the “photographer’s” tour. The regular costs around $30 and lasts for about 1 hour 40 minutes while the photographer tour is $50 and lasts 2 hours. The problem here is that these times include the ride to the canyon itself and each way is at least 15 minutes.
Due to time constraints, our group booked the Upper Antelope Canyon basic tour, though I would have preferred the photographer’s tour. Starting from Page, a group of 12 to 16 people is loaded in the back of a 4×4 with raised suspension and big tires and driven to the Canyon’s entrance. Once the road enters the Navajo lands, it turns to sand and that’s where the fun starts. You will be bounced, rattled and shaken for almost 10 minutes over this rough terrain while the truck struggles to overcome the deep sand. Two words of advice here: hold on tight to the railing or else risk getting thrown out and keep your electronic equipment well covered. A ton of fine, red dust will cover it otherwise and there’s really no fun in that.
Unfortunately for us, the light wasn’t very good for taking pictures inside the canyon. Not only did we get there fairly late in the afternoon (after 4pm) but it was also cloudy. Flash photography is not permitted inside the canyon and I can sympathize with that as an enthusiast photographer. The best thing here is to use the available light which, just to spite us, didn’t make itself very available on this occasion. Luckily I had my 24-70 2.8 lens and I made do with a wide-open aperture and high ISOs.
Another factor that contributed to the poor crop of photographs was the nature of this particular tour. The basic package is too short for more advanced photographers. The Navajo guide, which is also the driver, did not give us much leeway in taking photos and kept pushing us to move forward due to the time running out. He also had the annoying habit of asking for people’s cameras, taking a shot and then exclaiming “And here’s another beautiful picture!”. Needless to say, he managed to get on the entire group’s nerves and regretfully no one tipped him at the end.
The Canyon itself is a beautiful work of nature but I feel it would be better enjoyed in solitude. Our guide did redeem himself a bit by suggesting we take our shoes off at the entrance and walk barefoot. The sand inside is powdery fine, very smooth and surprisingly cool considering the whole thing is right in the middle of the desert. If you’re worried about snakes, don’t be. I doubt they would enjoy the chill.
Finally, the pictures. Most of them turned out bad, in spite of the bright aperture and high sensitivity. I have selected the ones I feel are the best and I hope you will enjoy them. I give you… Antelope Canyon:
