OUT WEST ADVENTURES Glen Canyon Dam, Antelope Slot Canyon, Southern rim of Grand Canyon

We pack all of our stuff up in the van and say good bye to our home sweet cabin.  It gets light so early that it is pretty easy to get an early start.  Our cabin is on the very Eastern part of Pacific time zone.  We will gain an hour as we head East to go around the Grand Canyon.

Our first stop is near Page Arizona at the Glen Canyon Dam which holds back Lake Powell.  There are 2 dams that control the Colorado river.  One is Glen Canyon Dam and the other is Hoover Dam which makes Lake Mead.

 It is amazing to see the lake in the middle of the dessert.  We enjoy the visitor's center and decide not to take the tour of the dam since we have reservations to see the Lower Antelope Slot Canyon at 12:15.  We figure we will have time for a quick lunch before the tour.  It is 10:30 at the dam.  We go out to Antelope Canyon about 3 miles away.  We know that it is on an Indian reservation.  I never really did figure out what was going on with the times.  One state didn't do daylight savings time, the reservation did something different.  We thought we had quite a bit of time and luckily had lunch makings in the cooler in the car.  We made up some sandwiches, had some of the carrots that have been offered at every picnic.  Drank the ice tea that we had frozen to keep things cool in the cooler.  All of a sudden, they called and said that we could go early.  Quick!  Pack things back away, grab your water and hat!  We follow our guide off into the dessert.

Sheila, our guide, is a Navajo who is now a Sophomore in college in Colorado.  She hopes to become a lawyer and work for Native American rights.  Charming young woman.
There is a limit of 75 people in the canyon at a time and the tour groups are 15 people each.  They had gotten backed up so we had to wait to enter the canyon.  Luckily, there was a shelter from the sun for most of the wait.
There were steep stairs to enter the canyon.  One set was particularly steep and she recommended that we turn around and go down them like a ladder.  Good suggestion!

Slot canyons are formed by water and wind.  Unless you know where the opening is, you really don't see it until you're right on top of it.  These were good hiding places for the Navajo.  They are subject to flash floods and there are escape rope ladders in a few places.
It was about 1/3 of a mile walk through the canyon.  I took about 50 pictures.  It seemed that every direction was an artistic swirl.

                                                          The entrance to the canyon.

Myra was feeling light headed and extremely pale while walking through the canyon.  Our guide alerted someone who came with ice packs, and an electrolyte drink.  After sitting for a little while, she felt much better.  They were very quick and helpful.  An added bonus is that we had 2 other guides telling us about the canyon and we got to stay in the canyon longer.

 this is where you come up out of the canyon.

The flag on the left is the Navajo nation flag.

As it turns out, the fastest way to our next VRBO house is through Grand Canyon National Park!  This way, we can go to the visitor's center today and get a bit more of the lay of the land.  After about 2 hour drive, we get to the Eastern Entrance of the park at about 4.  The drive to the Grand Canyon was beautiful too.

 Our first stop in the park is at the Desert View Watchtower.  

The tower was designed by Mary Colter and built in the 1930's.  It is inspired by Pueblo look out towers and is designed to look like it was from a much older time period.  Inside are Native American inspired pictoglyphs.  

The late afternoon glow is wonderful!

As we leave the park, the deer come out to graze.

Our home for the next 3 nights  in Valle is about a 30 minute drive from the entrance to the park.  We get there just before sunset.  Beautiful!

The house is down a little dirt road with lots of flat, dry land around it.  

The house is smaller than our previous one but will suit us well for the next several nights.  

After settling in and enjoying the sunset, we head into Williams for dinner and grocery store run.  Williams is about another 30 minute drive down the road.  It's a pretty hopping place with lots of restaurants and gift shops.  Main street is Route 66.  We enjoy a nice Italian place with good pizza and beer.