After yesterday’s busy day & a slight time change (AZ doesn’t do Daylight Saving – unless you work for the federal government or are on a reservation) we had a much less jam-packed day today. Which was just as well as that horrendous wind was back. They must really be copping it in tornado alley again, or are about to.

We had a 10.30 tour of Upper Antelope Canyon. Waiting around the parking lot the wind really picked up & all the sand it carried was soon stinging eyes & skin. After a ten minute drive in a Suburban up a wide sandy wash (flood water route) we were at the entrance to the canyon, at ground level.

We walked in to the quite skinny canyon – it is carved from Navajo sandstone by flash floods. With the sun high enough in the sky during the summer months, there were great shafts of light peeking through from above. With all the sand that the floods carry, the surface of the stone was smoothed & contoured in really nice ways. Unfortunately, with all the wind above it rained sand on us & our cameras quite a bit. Even I managed to get some nice pictures.

After lunch, we took a short trip out to Horseshoe Bend in the Colorado. Finally, after the sediment settling in the reservoir, the river is clear. It was even windier out here (about a one kilometre walk) & all the sand being blown around stung a lot – short, T-shirt & flip-flops/jandals wasn’t a great idea. I felt like I’d been (mildly) sandblasted & afterwards was in need of a human dedust system (shower sufficed). Still, the river was a deep green & very pretty as it made its big turn three hundred metres below us.

Wider angle would have been nice

The best thing was we didn’t get blown off the edge. On the off chance anyone else in interested in the vague route we are taking – the SPOT link at the top right of the page may interest you. I usually activate it at each new overnight stay, & occasionally at other significant places. When we sit still for a while in San Diego, I intend to compile a route map proper.  That is all, I need to develop my crazy plan of riding around part of the Grand Canyon (north) rim tomorrow & work out if it’s feasible.