Monument Valley, Antelope Valley and Four Corners
After Havasu Falls we we're exhausted. We stopped at a Starbucks in Flagstaff to use wifi and get a much needed hotel. My points got me as far as a Holiday Inn Express in Chinle, Az. It was horrifically hot and the largest restaurant was a Subway. It was fine though, they gave me extra cucumbers.
The next day we did a driving tour of AZ on our way to Lake Powell, stopping in Four Conners and Monument Valley
Four Corners is just about what you expect - $20 dollar entrance to stand on some arbitrary corners, but you can't just drive right? Monument Valley was awesome but horribly windy and everyone drove like they'd never been on a dirt road before...which was probably the case for a good portion of them.
We arrived late afternoon in Lake Powell and met an awesome couple who were camping in our spot. They placated us with wine and a promise to let us stay in their four bedroom flat in London (!!!) so I guess it was fine.
We lucked out and were able to find an open spot for an Antelope Canyon tour. Antelope Canyon is the most photographed place in Arizona and as such has now been restricted to tours only run by the Navajo Nation and book up months in advance. I checked a while ago and already saw that our dates were sold out and hoped we could get a walk up tour. Low and behold an entire time slot opened up at 8 am the next day and we were able to see it without too many crowds filtering in.
The whole experience was a bit surreal. The guides rush you through pretty fast and most of the pictures were taken by them; they know the exact place and setting on all of our devices to capture the award winning shot. I'm glad we went but overall was a bit of let down given all the oversight and how much it cost for the 45 minute tour.
But they had us sit for this super awkward portrait that I can't wait to blow up and frame in my home:
We moved on to horseshoe bend, just a short drive out of Page, AZ
I quickly decided I couldn't handle any more crowds and we needed to find a quieter place. We did an awesome hike down to the Colorado River near Marble Canyon that had a ton of meandering along cliffs and scrambling over rocks.
The next day we did a driving tour of AZ on our way to Lake Powell, stopping in Four Conners and Monument Valley
We arrived late afternoon in Lake Powell and met an awesome couple who were camping in our spot. They placated us with wine and a promise to let us stay in their four bedroom flat in London (!!!) so I guess it was fine.
We lucked out and were able to find an open spot for an Antelope Canyon tour. Antelope Canyon is the most photographed place in Arizona and as such has now been restricted to tours only run by the Navajo Nation and book up months in advance. I checked a while ago and already saw that our dates were sold out and hoped we could get a walk up tour. Low and behold an entire time slot opened up at 8 am the next day and we were able to see it without too many crowds filtering in.
But they had us sit for this super awkward portrait that I can't wait to blow up and frame in my home:
We moved on to horseshoe bend, just a short drive out of Page, AZ
I quickly decided I couldn't handle any more crowds and we needed to find a quieter place. We did an awesome hike down to the Colorado River near Marble Canyon that had a ton of meandering along cliffs and scrambling over rocks.
At this point in our trip we were getting a bit burnt out in the desert and still had another week and a half ahead of us in Utah.
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