Day 9 – Grand Canyon National Park, AZ to Antelope Canyon, AZ to Monument Valley Tribal Park, UT to Moab, UT

Miles driven today: 428 Cumulative miles: 2252 I woke up at 4:30am this morning to the sound of elk bugling. I nudged Daniel and he said he heard it several times in the night when he woke up (never mind also hearing our neighbors as late as 2:00am). I’ve never actually heard an elk bugle (that I remember), so it was pretty cool. We had planned to get up early to watch sunrise. It sounded like a great idea last night, but Daniel wouldn’t hear of it when it actually came time to get up this morning. So, I slept for a while longer before getting up at 7:00am. About a half hour later, Daniel finally got up and we got camp packed up by 8:00am. Back to Market plaza one final time to buy some ice, then to Mather Point for a few more photos before heading East of out of the park. We drove for about two and a half hours before reaching Page, Arizona where we hoped to find a tour available for Antelope Canyon (a famous slot canyon). We had tried to book one of the Photographer’s (designed specifically for experienced photographers) before we left home, but got an email back saying that tour was full. We decided to just wing it. Knowing that timing is everything when it comes to photographing slot canyons (the sunlight only reaches down into the canyon for a short time each day – the most popular photos show a beam of sunlight shining down to the canyon floor), we timed our arrival into Page to be about 11:00am. We stopped at the first place that offered tours, but their next one didn’t leave until 1:00pm – not optimum for our schedule or for photos. Back in the car to the next place we saw offering tours. Outside the office, there were several white Chevy pickups equipped with benches in the back and a canopy overhead. This place, Roger Ekis’ Antelope Canyon Tours, turned out to be the same place we had tried to book the Photographer’s Tour (and the same place a friend of ours recommended). They had five spots left for the 11:30am Sightseer Tour, so we took that one. There were four trucks, each with 12 to 14 people on board, that left at the same time. The drive there took about 15 minutes, with the last half of the trip being on unpaved/ dirt roads. When we got to the entrance to the canyon, there were at least 10 to 12 trucks there giving tours (the only way to see Antelope Canyon is by guided tour and only for a maximum of two hours at a time as the canyon is on Navajo land and they have put these limitations on to preserve the canyon). So, there were well over 100 people there at the same time to see the inside of this slot canyon, which at some points is only three to four feet across. Our guide, Rosie (who is Navajo, as are the rest of the guides at Antelope Canyon Tours – it is Navajo owned and operated) led us through the canyon, allowing people with tripods (Daniel had one, I didn’t) to move to the front of the group to set up, blocking traffic so that we could get photos without people in them, and throwing sand into the shafts of light to make them show up better in photos. When we got to the back entrance of the canyon, Rosie showed us the mud line, about 25 to 30 feet up, where the water had backed up and risen to on Monday. When there are heavy storms further away (not directly over the canyon), the water builds up and takes several hours to drain through the canyon and carves the sandstone in the process. We worked our way back to the front entrance of the canyon taking photos. In all, we spent an hour in the canyon. There’s not a lot of time to compose your photos and make adjustments to your camera settings. I let Daniel do the more technical stuff (like the shafts of sunlight) since he is better and faster at that and had the tripod. I took a lot of shots without too many adjustments on the settings. Some turned out and some didn’t, but overall, I think we’re both pleased with what we got, given the situation, and each of us got one or two shots that we really like. We got on the road again around 1:15pm, but not before backtracking to the Sonic that we saw on our way into Page. A little more than three hours later, we arrived at Monument Valley Tribal Park on the Navajo Reservation, which means we are also back on Mountain Time/ observance of Daylight Savings Time. Being on a Reservation, in my experience, also means that a certain amount of ‘calm chaos’ is to be expected. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, just different than the environment to which I am accustomed. After going into the Visitor Center and viewing the Navajo Code Talkers exhibit (this part was very organized), we went back to our car in the disorganized parking lot. It was a big gravel lot with ravines six to eight inches deep running through it from storm water. Some cars probably wouldn’t have made it through this lot without bottoming out. We looked at our map to find Mitten View Campground where we planned to camp for the evening. It really isn’t that big of a place that it should require a map, but without any signs, it is a bit more difficult to navigate. We got ourselves oriented and drove less than a quarter mile to the campground. It was identifiable only by the bathroom/ shower facilities with a sign that said “Closed for the season.” After driving through the large-sized grave lot, again with ruts and ravines, the sign I would expect to see should say “4-wheel drive and high clearance vehicles only.” We made our way around the empty loop and drove back down to the entrance station to inquire about camping. The attendant said we needed to go back to the booth in the Visitor Center to check in. I told her I was just there and didn’t notice it. “Does it say ‘Information’ or ‘Registration’ over it?” I asked. ”No,” she told me, “If there’s nobody there though, I’ll be up after a while.” We took another drive through the bumpy parking lot and went back in to find the booth. There was nobody there, so we looked at the map taped to the countertop. There was a big ‘X’ through Mitten View Campground and the word ‘closed.’ Unless the sign on the showers and bathrooms was to say the entire campground was closed instead of just the facilities, this was the only indication that Mitten View Campground was closed. We did see that there was another campground close by, but it was really nothing more than a big patch of red dirt with no water, no bathrooms, a few RVs, and plenty of dust. Neither one of us was impressed by this, so we went back to the car to devise another plan of attack. We picked up the Frommer’s “Best RV & Tent Campgrounds in the U.S.A.” book before our trip, so we opened it to see where there were campgrounds on this side of Arizona and Utah. Between the book and using Streets and Trips on the laptop to calculate time and distance, we decided to make a reservation at the KOA in Moab, Utah (at least we knew we could shower in the morning) and move our visits to Arches National Park and Canyonlands National Park up by about a week. With at least that much figured out, we still wanted to see Monument Valley. We took the 17-mile loop drive on unimproved roads – i.e. dirt roads with ruts and potholes. I drove a little faster than the 15mph limit (the road was a lot more fun that way). With our stops for photos and the times we got stuck behind slower vehicles, it took us about an hour and 15 minutes to finish the loop and be back on the road again. I called my dad to find out if he had any suggestions on how to modify the latter part of our trip. He’s pretty good at figuring out trip routes and inherently (because of his experience traveling and his amazing memory) knows places that are worth a visit. He called and later text-messaged with some ideas that we will probably incorporate into our route. We got into Moab around 9:45pm and set up camp. Unfortunately, they put us in between two young frat-ish guys and two young girls. The guys were trying to pick up the girls and telling stories of their crazy frat parties to try (unsuccessfully I presume) to impress the girls. There were also about 15 plus empty bottles of beer at the guys’ campsite. Can’t say that my idea of a good time would be getting drunk at a KOA, but whatever. To each his own I suppose. Anyway, Daniel cooked dinner and we went to bed by 10:15pm. Wildlife seen: deer, hawk, bats Miles hiked: ~2.5