Antelope Slot Canyon

May 6, 2009

Today is a fitting day to end our Grand Circle vacation because our tour of the Upper Antelope Slot Canyon was just as I anticipated. I’ve read a lot about the place and was excited to visit it. It is a photographer’s dream (there are actually photographers’ tours) and with the help of our tour guide I was able to get really good pictures.

Our tour guide helped me set up my digital camera (she seems to know all the digital cameras as she helped others too) and so I just ‘shot away’. I sometimes gave the camera to the guide so she took some of the shots. From experience, she knew which angle would get the best shots.
A slot canyon is a narrow fissure among the rocks. The walls are high and the openings on top allow for the shaft of light to come in. It is dangerous to go into these canyons during thunderstorms as a flash flood could happen. Back in 1991, 11 tourists, with their out-of-town guide, ignored the advice of the local Navajos not to go into the canyons as a thunderstorm was developing miles away. Thunderstorms miles away can cause flash floods here. They all died except for the guide.

The tour to the slot canyon was bumpy and dusty (much like our Underground River trip in Palawan but this was much shorter). Inside the slot canyon, it would sometimes ‘rain’ sand. At one point, I was looking up to take a shot and suddenly sand rained on my face. Ugh. The best time of day to visit the slot canyon is at 10:30 - 12 noon. Also visit during the off season so there is less crowd and you can take your time taking pictures. This place is definitely a must-see.

For lunch, we went back to Ranch Grill House. I ordered the same thing (BLT with avocado) because I wanted to make sure I'd have a good lunch.. Dek ordered chile verde breakfast plate. After lunch, we proceeded on our way back to St. George, Utah, the starting point of our Grand Circle tour. But, as usual, we made a detour… a 10-mile detour to Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park. It was very difficult to hike the sand dunes so we had a good hike today. If one has time, this is a good park to visit.

We reached St. George at around 7 p.m., Utah time. We had dinner at Lefty’s, again the same place we had dinner when we started this tour 11 days ago. We plan to sleep in tomorrow and do some shopping at St. George’s Pioneer Square before heading to Las Vegas.