We left Pine, Arizona, last Wednesday (5-8) for the start of our second trip to Alaska. We meet up with Ron and Bernita Poutney outside of Page at the Lone Rock Campground. Our travel time was a little bit longer than usual because Hwy 89 West of Page is closed do to the road collapsing in February of this year. Lone Rock CG is about 9 miles North of Page, in Utah, and is run by the National Park Service. Cost for us - $5 per night. No amenities except for dump and water. But a fabulous view of Lake Powell and surrounding area.
On Thursday we went to the Lower Slot of Antelope Canyon. This has been on my bucket list for many years. Dean and Ron did the photographers tour of 2 hours and Bernita and I did the regular tour of 1 hour. This canyon is beautiful, not very crowded, and well worth the money. I have included some pictures. We also stopped at the lookout over Horseshoe Bend on the Colorado River. Great view but I sure don't remember hiking that much when we were here before!
On Friday, we drove to the thriving city of Big Water, Utah (population 430), and enjoyed a nice presentation from a paleontologist on the Grand Staircase/Escalante area. Then we did a hike at the Toadstools (pictures included). After a brief stop at the Paria Ranger station to ask about hiking in the Vermillion Cliffs area, we stopped at the old Paria Townsite, which only has a couple of structures standing. Highlight of this stop was having to cross the Paria River (streams) twice going over and twice back. No one fell in!
Today, Saturday, Dean, Ron, and Bernita went on the boat trip to Rainbow Bridge. Since I have been there twice I decided to go to the Upper slot of the Antelope Canyon. This canyon is very disappointing after going thru the lower slot. There were so many people there - probably close to 200. It was very hard to get a picture without someone in the picture. And the price of this tour is almost twice the cost - $46 compared to $26 for the lower. For those of you planning to go to Antelope Canyon - do the lower and forget the upper.
Tomorrow we leave for Kanab and try our chances on hiking into The Wave, day trip to Zion, and some other hiking trails.
