Saturday 28 September 2024

Sunday the 22nd  |  Monday the 23rd  |  Tuesday the 24th  |  Wednesday the 25th  |  Thursday the 26th  |  Friday the 27th  |  Saturday the 28th  |  Sunday the 29th  |  

Saturday 28 September

Early to Rise

Saturday. Where to begin? I guess, at the beginning.

It was a very short night. We went, as we mentioned, to cheer hikers until a bit after sunset, which is about 6:30 pm this time of year, so we got back to the room maybe 7:30 pm. We grabbed showers, arranged our gear, and started actually packing the car. Elizabeth needed a few things left out, so I got extra early, like 5 am to make sure we got all of our gear charged and everything accounted for and back into the van in time to get on the road.

There are a bunch of time considerations out here. First off, the distances to everything are big, and many of the roads are not. Then, Las Vegas is on Pacific Time, but Arizona is on Mountain time. Some of Arizona follows Daylight Savings Time, some (including most or all of the Indian Reservations) do not. So.... it's nearly impossible to know, for sure, what time it is anywhere in particular. Like, calculus hard. Our first stop on Saturday was going to be Antelope Canyon (lower) where we able to score a reservation for like the 10 am tour, but it's a couple of hours away, and we weren't sure what time they're on... so we had to call and confirm. With that in hand (I think it turned out they were on the same time as the Park, because they were across the timezone line, but didn't observe Savings time, but I forget the details.

What I do recall clearly is we needed to on the road very early, had a booked schedule, and had until 11 pm to catch our flight (OK, so we figured we needed to be dropping the car off by about 7:30 pm so we can get checked in, through security, and grab a meal first, but you get the idea).

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  Our room

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  Why did the elk cross the road?

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  On the road

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Lower Antelope Canyon

We booked with "Dixie's" tours, mostly because they had an opening in the time-slot we had available, but in hindsight they also seemed to be the most organized.

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  Arriving at Dixie's

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  Picnic tables

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  The bathrooms

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  Inside

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  Waiting to go into the canyon

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  The competition

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  Our guide

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  Trail to the canyon

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  John and Tammy take the lead

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  Stairs down to the canyon

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  Elizabeth is HYPED

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  ... and so is Tammy...

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  Heading down

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  Pictures from here are my handheld, and the flash was off so many are too dark or out of focus

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  These are supposed to be dinosaur foot prints

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Horseshoe Bend, AZ

I wasn't sure what to expect from Horseshoe Bend... It was pretty cool, but I wasa bit underwhelmed. It's interesting and all, and probably worth seeing... but... meh...

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  Approaching the bend

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  The path down to the river

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  The team heads out

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  It's like 3/4 of a mile walk from the parking lot down to the bend

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  iPhone photos from here on out

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Valley of Fire, AZ

The last thing on the itinerary, before dropping off the van and heading to the airport, was Valley of Fire State Park.

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