Monday, May 14, 2012

Our amazing little vacation...lots and lots of pictures!!

Pin It     This year we decided to go to Page for our little getaway. Page is a small town on the very border of UT and Arizona. It was about 7-hour drive one way for us, and it was absolutely worth it! Page was originally built to house workers during the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River: The population of it is about 7000 people but it attracts for then 3 million tourists every year.  I want to share with you just a few reasons why.
    The first thing you notice as you get closer to the Arizona border is a breathtaking landscape:


   Most of this land belongs to Navajo Indian tribe. On all the sides you are surrounded by magnificent red rock mountains and canyons. From what our tour guide explained to us, it's red because of the high level of iron in it. Over millions of years the canyons have been forming by water that also reacted with iron and "rusted" it.

  This region is very dry. I think, now I have a slight idea what it feels like to be in a dessert. Even though I didn't find any cacti the size of a man, I still found some. And lizards:



      As much as I was amazed by the beauty of this area , I doubt I could live there long term. I would miss green trees too much!
     We left home at around 4:30 pm on Friday and got to Page just short of 11 in the evening. It was already pitch dark outside, so we decided to just go to bed. We stayed in a little, cheap hotel there (sorry, no picture) called Americas Best Value Inn. It was old, outdated but clean and for the price of $80 (after tax, half of what some other places asked) a night it was quite decent. They also had a continental breakfast included which was surprisingly not bad. Their beds though weren't very comfortable, so I couldn't really sleep there. So I was up for the day at around 6 am, and well, I didn't let Hubby sleep much longer than that. :)
   So we had our breakfast and went around to look at the Dam and explore the city a little:


Here's my very helpless attempt to make a picture of the Dam through a fence. But it's humongous! We enjoyed the breathtaking views of Lake Powell:  




    But our main attraction and the whole reason for this trip was the amazing Antelope Canyon. We had a tour reserved at 9:30 in the morning. Entry to Antelope Canyon is restricted to guided tours led by mostly Navajo guides. When we got there, turned out that they overbooked, so they added additional help for our small group. There were only 6 of us, and it was awesome. Other than us, there was a couple from Moscow, Russia and another elderly couple from Europe (didn't catch exactly from where). So my husband was the only American :) And I actually had somebody to talk to in my own language! The other advantage of such a small group was a little more time for picture taking. And it was so worth it:



                                   
                                         (that was a group before us)




   The canyon is about 40 feet deep.These wavy rocks were created by sand and water over the millions of years. They have a few flood seasons a year when water goes up to 20 feet even nowadays:



         
   We loved every minute of it! It was so beautiful, more amazing than any pictures can show:




   And the picture with our wonderful guide. She was so helpful and nice :


 I have tons more pictures of the Antelope Canyon and some other smaller places that we visited but I think this post is getting kind of long :) So the last picture is a little souvenir made by locals that I couldn't resist buying (on the right). Navajo people are very talented . Isn't it so cute?? And matches our living room decor . Honestly my other  vases on this shelf just look so primitive next to this little gem :


 How was your weekend? And what are your vacation plans this year?                         

13 comments:

  1. That canyon is AMAZING! I'll see if I can fit it into my trip this summer.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I must admit as a hydrophobic, that photo of the dam made me nervous. Too close for comfort! But wow. Those photos of the canyon look awesome. Glad you guys had a great time!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amazing pictures. And the tour sounds well worth it. How awesome that you had such fun people in your group.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Such beautiful pictures! Sounds like a wonderful trip, so happy for you! And happy you got that cool camera right before, so I could see such awesome pictures; thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I agree with you. As gorgeous as all of the red rock is, I need some green around me long term. I hope to visit Antelope Canyon some day. It looks amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  6. What gorgeous photos - I HAVE to go there! Glad you and hubby had a nice little break - even a weekend away can be so revitalizing!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow... it's absolutely beautiful!! It's so nice that you got to get up close & personal to God's amazing creations! I love all the photos, and there is NO way I could resist that vase either.. it's stunning!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wow, that is amazing! God has created so many different beautiful places. We're going to a family reunion in Minnesota this year. I've never been there or met all of these cousins on my hubby's side, and he hasn't been there in about 20 years, so it should be fun!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Ya for a weekend away with grown ups!! Your photo's are amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  10. What an awesome trip. It's pictures like those that make me want to travel the world and see those places for myself. Places like that look so mesmerizing. I just have to see those things in my lifetime. I can't wait till I have more freedom to travel.

    That is such a beautiful looking vase. It seems like the perfect souvenir. The ones next to it don't even compare.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh wow you went there?! I always see those pics in magazines, and it is incredible. I'll have to add it to my vaca folder. :)

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...