Water Holes Canyon, Page, AZ

Today there is no wind and it is beautiful here on the beach at Lake Powell. Just caught the sunrise from the living room window this morning.

  Here’s another picture of our campsite on Lone Rock Beach.

One of the things we planned to do here was to visit Antelope Canyon, a beautiful slot canyon near Page. As we researched going there, we found that you cannot hike the canyon without an Indian guide and a hiking permit,  which cost anywhere from $26-$32 for a one hour tour, depending on which tour company you went with. I found a link to another canyon nearby, which you can still go into without a guide, called Water Holes Canyon. The photos looked as pretty as Antelope, and since we are cheap and did not really want to be herded through with a bunch of other people, we took the short drive from Page to a bridge south of town. There are no signs, but we found the pull-off and parked. Of course, there was a no trespassing sign, unless you had the $6 permit. Since we failed to find the office to buy one, we took some money in case a Navajo came along checking for permits.

This is the bridge from down in the canyon.

We had a little trouble finding our way down, the first place we tried being way beyond our rock climbing abilities. Walked some more and came upon a much easier way in. The dark shadow is the opening to the canyon, which is why it’s called a slot canyon.

Once down below, the hike was pretty wide open for a good while, nothing like the photos we saw.

That soon changed, and we began going into the narrow passages.

It was really incredible to see the sun coming through between the sculptured, swirly rock, and it created some surreal images.

After maybe a mile we came to an impasse, although some more adventurous souls might have been able to crawl up into the next passage. We turned back and found a way up and hiked the rim back to our car for a different perspective.

Came back to the beach and got to sit out and read and enjoy the pleasant afternoon. These ducks are moochers, obviously used to so many people feeding them that they just come right up and sit in front of  you.  Decided to hang out here another night. Can’t beat the price for the scenery.

Valley Of Fire State Park, NV (Part Two)

 

We stopped for lunch at the picnic area near the White Domes trailhead. At least a dozen of these little antelope ground squirrels descended upon us looking for a handout. Jim might have accidentally dropped some of his sandwich.

We then took the 1.2 mile White Domes loop, a very nice hike through some colorful rock formations and another slot canyon.

Here I saw a dinosaur getting ready to attack a seated monkey with a lampshade on it’s head. Jim and Debbie were doubting my sanity at that point.

Next we stopped at Arch Rock, but we saw many other unnamed arches in the park.

That was followed by a climb up to look at the petroglyphs on Atlatl Rock.

Our last stop of the day was the short trail to Elephant Rock. This one was a real stretch of the imagination, in my opinion.

A runaway bride, and the best dressed hiker we’ve ever seen.

Just as we were getting back into the car, I looked up and saw this iconic silhouette. For a split second I thought I was hallucinating.

We always joke about big horn sheep, since Debbie has never seen one on a hike. Jim and I had a close encounter with one in Canyonlands a few years ago, but haven’t seen any since, so this was quite a treat. And just when we thought those little squirrels were the extent of our wildlife sighting in Valley of Fire. What a nice ending to a great day in the park. The entire family was there!

Hope you’re not tired of red rocks, since we’re on our way to visit with the Box Canyon bunch, and spend the entire month of November near Zion National Park.