Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon

Our big Grand Canyon rafting trip doesn't start until tomorrow morning but we decided to head north a day early so that we could take a detour to Page, AZ and check out the sights.  The Colorado River is west of Page, and just outside of town is a great spot to view the river -- Horseshoe Bend.

The river makes a snaking 180-degree turn.

If you look closely at that photo, you can see a tiny raft down there in the river.  There are several companies who offer 1/2 day or 1-day float trips on the calm section of the river just below Glen Canyon Dam.  Of course, we are looking for a little more action than that. 

There were hundreds of people at the overlook, and lots of them were getting awfully close to the edges of the cliff overhangs.  Obviously there is no guardrail here, so visitors are presented with many opportunities to win a Darwin Award.  I was glad we were using the "Go Pro on a stick" method of photography so that we didn't have to get too close to the edge to get a decent selfie.

We then headed over to Antelope Canyon, a beautiful sandstone slot canyon that has been carved over millennia by flash floods caused by monsoon rains.  This process is still going on today.  The walls of the canyon have been worn smooth by time and the elements.

There are two sections: the Upper Antelope and Lower Antelope Canyons.  Each can only be visited as part of a tour.  The upper canyon parking lot was full of tour buses and we hadn't booked ahead, so we chose the lower canyon and only waited 5 minutes for the next tour.  Our tour guide, Ivanna, grew up in the area and is now a student at the University of Arizona, guiding tours during her summers off.  She took our small group down the stairs into the canyon and pointed out some of the best spots for photos.

We learned that the canyon is still prone to flash flooding and can fill up fast.  When it rains upstream in the canyon basin, all of the water is funnelled into the narrow canyon and can easily sweep people off their feet.  This is what the canyon looks like from the rim during a flash flood:

Video credit: TheMrByrom via YouTube

I would not want to be in there during a rainstorm!  Luckily there was no chance of monsoon rain today.  Here's the view we had:

About 50 feet below the rim, looking directly up at the sky.

And a short video we took, with views of both Horseshoe Bend and inside Lower Antelope Canyon: