DAY 14 – Page to Monument Valley (126 miles driven, 5.68 miles walked*)
One of the wonders that is close to Page and a reason for stopping here are the ‘slot’ canyons and we had booked in for a tour round one first thing this morning.
There are a number of these slot canyons around the area and we had chosen to visit Antelope Canyon X because some friends recommended it to us and it wasn’t as packed as the Upper and Lower Canyons apparently are.
We met at a car park and then followed a pilot car for ten minutes taking us to the head of the canyon. Here we met our guide Arlee who was going to be taking a group of 12 of us down into Canyon X. I’m not a great fan of guided tours but Arlee was great providing just the right amount of information on the canyon and knew when to get out the way so we could take pictures.
The canyons are formed over millions of years as the wind blows the sand which builds up and then the rains come and hardens the deposits and finally there is erosion as the water runs through that creates a slot in the rock. Arlee described and demonstrated this much better that I can.
All this building up and erosion takes a very long time and we were told that one inch of height equalled a million years. These canyons are estimated to be 180-220 million years old.
As we walked through the canyon Arlee pointed out interesting rock formations and the best places to sit, stand and, in one case, lie for the best shot. She also knew a thing or two about getting the best pictures with an iPhone (Android users were not catered for!) giving tips on settings, colour options and cleaning lenses!
And the light running through the slots in the canyons made for some fantastic pictures too as you can see above.
The tour lasted just over an hour which was plenty of time to see all that there was there. That done we headed off for our next stop – Monument Valley.
I think that Monument Valley was the place that I was most looking forward to visiting which is always dangerous.
We arrived mid-afternoon and decided to go and do the 17 mile scenic loop right away. We knew that this was on unpaved roads but I still wasn’t prepared for just how rough it was. I found driving round pretty stressful as I had to constantly be careful of the dips and bumps along the road. I was also mindful of the fact that the only two things our hire car vehicle excess didn’t cover us for was the tyres and undercarriage – both of which were getting some attention!
Unfortunately this meant that I couldn’t concentrate on the landscape around me and I didn’t really enjoy the experience. I was glad when we got to the end of the route and onto solid ground.
We are staying on site tonight in a cabin overlooking the three mittens (see picture above). It is an amazing view and I am looking forward to watching the sunrise over the mittens tomorrow morning from our veranda. However, right now the whole cabin is shaking with the wind so I am hoping that dies down before too long!
*the scenic road through Monument Valley was so rough and we were moving so slowly that our watches thought we were on a walk and so credited us with the exercise minutes!