Canyon, Valley and Dunes — YOFO Adventures

The Colorado River sculpted Horseshoe Bend

We departed from our adventures in Escalante National Monument in Utah (and Arizona, since the Wave hike starts in Utah and crosses the border) on a high, inspired to find new and fun places to see and hike. The next week did not disappoint as we continue to be amazed and delighted at the variety of landscape you can see in the space of a few days.

Counterintuitively, as temps dropped we headed generally northeast along the Utah/Arizona border. Our first stop was not too far down the road near Page, Arizona. We had heard about Antelope Canyon from other travelers but were a bit reluctant to sign onto a guided hike. Antelope Canyon is on Navajo owned land, and all visitors must pay for a Navajo guided tour. The cost runs around $30-50+ per person, depending on whether you hike the lower or upper canyon, or opt for the photographic tour. And no, there is no military discount (of course we asked; we always ask!). We didn’t want to be cheap about it, but we’ve been spoiled by the relatively reasonable costs (sometime free) of so many of our adventures. Paying over $60 for a 1-hour hike seemed a bit much, especially since this hike did not involve attempting to hit a little dimpled ball into a hole in the ground.

Lower Antelope Canyon did not disappoint.

This view is named for Bruce, the shark in Finding Nemo.

Let there be no doubt that Antelope Canyon is worth seeing. Yes, they’re making money, but the guides add a lot of value, and ain’t this ‘Merica after all? Our guide helped with photography tips, and offered insights into Navajo tradition as well as the names of many of the unusual rock shapes sculpted by water and wind. We decided to just tour the Lower Antelope Canyon. We read/heard that the upper canyon is similarly beautiful, and if the lighting is just right, magnificent to photograph. But you’ve got to perfectly time that tour to capture that lighting, as well as pay for the costlier photographer’s guided tour. By overwhelming empirical evidence, neither of us are good photographers, so the lower canyon won! There was plenty of “wow” factor in the lower canyon. The tour took about an hour as promised, but it was easy to lose track of time and it seemed like we were down there longer. Similarly, it’s only about 400 yards/meters long, which sounds like it should take in the 10 minute range. But by the time you twist and turn your body (and your neck) to follow the twisting narrow wash, it is surprising to pop back out on the surface in nearly the same place you started.

After Lower Antelope Canyon, we headed over to Horseshoe Bend, an overlook on the Colorado River just below Lake Powell. One of the more curious things we’ve found in our wanderings is that foreigners love visiting our parks and places as much or more than Americans. The trail out to the overlook was predominantly foreign tourists – maybe because it was midday on a work day, maybe not. Also curious, we hadn’t heard of Horseshoe Bend prior to getting into the Utah-Arizona Strip area, but there were several hundred tourists we saw that day that had travelled across an ocean and somehow knew to visit here. And rightly so, the scenery was fantastic. Knowing that this river would continue to carve the channel from the thousand foot here to the five thousand foot depths of the Grand Canyon was inspiring. Wind, water, and gravity are certainly forces to be reckoned with!

Some of Monument Valley’s monuments from Artist’s Point

As we continued our meander east across northern Arizona, we next encountered Monument Valley, a collection of huge sandstone buttes on the Colorado Plateau, the largest reaching 1,000 feet above the valley. Of course, the bigger or more descriptive buttes have a names, such as the Mittens, Elephant Butte, Three Sisters, Camel Butte, Totem Pole, among others. Not sure we ever got the Elephant or Camel image from the buttes, but the place was super photogenic. This is all Navajo land requiring special permits, so we just took the “17-mile” scenic drive. Coming out of the Monument Valley we stopped at Gump Hill (there really is no sign or so-named hill) where the movie Forrest Gump filmed the scene where Forrest ends his run across America. We had fun reenacting it!

17 Mile Drive in Monument Valley. The views here are different, but no less epic than our views from 17-mile drive near Monterey, California! — 17 Mile Drive in Monument Valley. The views here are different, but no less epic than our views from 17-mile drive near Monterey, California!

Our tracks stretch hundreds of yards into the distance.  In a few hours there would be no trace of them. — Our tracks stretch hundreds of yards into the distance. In a few hours there would be no trace of them.

Our final destination before we dropped south to avoid the increasingly cold temps was Great Sand Dunes National Park in southern Colorado. This is another one of those very unusual places in America. It only achieved National Park status fairly recently in 2004, but before that had been a National Monument since 1932. Its claim to fame and purpose is the protection is the tallest sand dunes in North America. Star dune, the tallest, is 750 feet high. We decided to head into the dune field for a short hike. There are no trails, so you just pick a direction and go for it. Some of these dunes are quite steep, and the sand is not compacted. Attempting to climb them creates mini-avalanches that cause a peculiar humming sound as the sand gathers momentum. It’s a two steps forward, one step back, thigh-burner sort of a hike as you make your own switchbacks on the way up. But the view from the top of the highest sand dunes is a bit surreal. Feels a little like standing in the Sahara desert but with snow-peaked Colorado mountains in the background. Heading down the dunes was a lot more fun! You let you weight carry you pell-mell down the slope, sliding and almost skiing down the loose sand. You can also sand-sled or sandboard down the slopes. We didn’t try this but saw evidence of it in some tracks in the dune fields.

While we’re we at the Sand Dunes the temps dropped into the single digits overnight (it even froze our YOFOhome’s water pipes), so we kept this visit to one day and headed due south in hopes of finding warmth in New Mexico.