Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Located a few miles from Lake Powell on a Navajo reservation, the mysterious and beautiful Antelope Canyon has delighted onlookers and photographers since its discovery. The slot canyon was formed from flash floods eroding away the Navajo sandstone. The layered and corkscrew formations left behind a like nothing else I've seen in nature. But the part that really surprised me was the fact that standing on the ground above the canyon one would never know the extent of what lies beneath without slipping down into the slot. It looks like a fault line crack, a couple feet wide, easy to jump across. But the canyon goes thirty to fifty feet down and in some places opens up into quite wide subterranean rooms.

Exiting the Lower Antelope Canyon

Many tour groups run guided trips through the upper and lower antelope canyons. You can go on a special photography tour which is longer, more expensive, and tripods are allowed, or you can go on a general tour with is only $20 but no tripods allowed. My friend Marguerite set up a general tour of lower antelope canyon for us so all these pictures were done with no tripod. It was a little difficult since not a lot of light reaches the canyon floor but I was able to capture some of the ethereal beauty of the place. It would have been amazing to have been one of the first people to stumble upon this long hidden secret gem. And it makes me wonder how many others like it might be lurking out there just waiting to be found.