ARIZONA SLOT CANYONS
The Grand Canyon may have the best PR, but for me the real stars of the Arizona show are the slot canyons.
I visited Antelope Canyon, near the city of Page and booked onto a tour, aptly named The Gorgeous Three, with Black Streak Canyon Tours.
My Navajo guide James, drove us out through the red sands and scrubby grasses, to the first of the slot canyons – Rattlesnake Canyon. There is a short metal walkway to allow you to gain access to the canyon, and then you disappear inside the red belly, shaped by millennia of water giving the walls themselves the look of frozen waves.
Sunlight filters through, throwing sunbeams in puddles on the dusty floor as you weave your way between the natural sculptures that wouldn’t look out of place in a high-end art gallery. Expect to spend a lot of time ‘oohing and aahing’ at the beauty of the rocks around you. Rattlesnake is a slim canyon requiring a little bit of squeezing in places, but with the sky always clear overhead, it is not at all claustrophobic. At the end of the canyon, you’ll need to climb a metal ladder in order to exit.
Although this is a short-ish canyon, it will take you a while as you’ll want to stop every few paces to take another picture. James was great at showing me the best settings to use on my phone-camera to ensure I got some really stunning images, and he knew the ideal places to suggest I stand so he could snap a few images with me in them too.
From Rattlesnake (where we did not encounter any snakes) to Owl Canyon – where we did see a Great Horned Owl. Owl Canyon is wider and longer than Rattlesnake and has a very different feel. Just as beautiful in its own way, it is an easier canyon to walk, you can always see the sky overhead, and some of the features are clearer too as you can take a step back to enjoy them more fully. Remember to take your time – it may be an easy stroll, but it’s worth taking it slow so you can really soak up the beauty and the rich colours of the canyon.
After Owl we nipped back to the staging area for a comfort break and a snack, and then we were off again, this time to Mountain Sheep Canyon. Mountain Sheep is a much longer canyon, that extends over three levels and is, in a way, a combination of Rattlesnake and Owl.
There are narrow areas to squeeze through, boulders to clamber over, wide open areas to pause in, and ladders you’ll need to climb in order to move from one level to the next. The walls tower above you, and wide shafts of sunlight pick out the desert dust motes spinning in the air. Giant cracks can be seen in the rock disappearing into darkness, and tiny pimples of calcium knobble the surface in places, striations show where the water once flowed, and the lines shifting from horizontal to vertical hint at tectonic forces that shaped the land thousands of years ago.
Once you’ve seen the otherworldly beauty of these canyons, you won’t be surprised to learn that they have the provided the backdrops for music videos, fashion shoot, album covers and book jackets. And you really don’t need to be the next Mario Testino to get some wonderful images during your visit. Just be sure to have your phone or camera batteries fully charged!
This was definitely a highlight of my trip to Arizona; it is a place that can’t fail to impress. Whether you are a keen photographer, or just obsessed with Instagramming your every move, or you love the natural wonders of the world, or simply enjoy being exposed to something a bit different – the Gorgeous Three tour should feature on your Arizona hit-list.
FACTBOX
Black Streak Canyon Tours – blackstreakcanyontours.com
Visit Arizona – VisitArizona.com
Experience Williams – experiencewilliams.com
The Ellsworth Hotel – choicehotels.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chantal Cooke is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster and co-founder of PASSION for the PLANET. Chantal is passionate about tourism being used as a force for good.
You can follow her adventures on Facebook (@chantal.cooke) and on Instagram (@Chantaldcooke)