Exploring Arizona

Horseshoe Bend

Taking time off work is always hard to do. We get so caught up in our daily grind, work, meetings, social life and to-do lists. I recently took a MUCH needed 4 days off and went up north to Lake Powell with my parents in their brand new camper. Road trip, camping by the water, hiking, exploring and good old FRESH AIR was exactly what the doctor ordered! So I packed my bags (sans makeup and any "nice" attire, my kind of packing) and my cooler with 4 days worth of prepped and measured meals and we hit the open road!!!
Lake Powell is a man made lake in Page, Az. Its about 5 hours north of Phoenix, not a bad drive and worth it for some cooler weather. There's so much to do up there as well. Tons of house boats and jet skiers, and  hiking trails.  You can also take a dam tour of the Glen Canyon Dam, which is pretty neat (we did it years ago when we were visiting back in the late 90's). We took a rafting tour (about 4 hours long) down the CO river through Glen Canyon. It was very informative and relaxing, we had a great guide and a cool group of people on our boat. one thing that I wish I knew ahead of time though was that I wasn't doing any of the actual rafting!!! So I just soaked it all in and worked on my tan lines. =)
The main reason we went up there was to go take a tour of  Antelope Canyon. I had heard about it through many of my clients and really wanted to see it with my own eyes. Let me just tell you....and just listen. GO!! Go to Antelope Canyon!!! It is absolutely breathtaking! I find it unbelievable that mother nature has created such a beautiful sight for us to see. Just water, wind and sand created this master piece. The entire tour takes only an hour give or take. The length of the canyon (we did the lower canyon) is only 400 meters (the length of one lap around a track). Brad was our tour guide and he did an EXCELLENT job, if you can, request him! He gave us all the history of the canyon, the Navajos, fun folklore and tips for taking great pictures while down in the canyon. He also gave us plenty of time to move around the area and capture tons of pictures at every angle of the canyon.
I'm no Ansel Adams, and all I had was my point and shoot camera, but I think I got some really cool shots! I can't wait to go back and check out the "upper" canyon. Whats cool, is every time you take this tour (especially if you go at different times of day. Best times are between 10am-2pm) it will look different because of the way the sunlight comes through all the cracks in the canyon.

So set some time aside for yourself and get out and explore Arizona! We have so many things at our finger tips that are just a quick road trip away! ENJOY!

"street level" of canyon

D

getting a hang of the "lighting"

suck it all in

M

lady in the wind

the wave

the wave

portal

 

"The wonders of the Grand Canyon cannot be adequately represented in symbols of speech, nor by speech itself. The resources of the graphic art are taxed beyond their powers in attempting to portray its features. Language and illustration combined must fail." -John Wesley Powell