Antelope Canyon & Flagstaff

Hello everyone,

We had our best sleep of the trip yet last night. Our hotel was really quiet and comfortable, and the breakfast we had this morning was included and pretty good too. We then set off early to Antelope Canyon to do a tour of the lower section. There were so many companies to choose from online when I booked this, so I picked a random one called Ken’s Tours as they had good reviews. They’re next door to Dixie’s Tours and apparently Ken and Dixie are siblings whose mother discovered the section of the canyon they run tours through when she was 12, so they have a real life sibling rivalry! The canyon area is part of the Navajo Native American land just outside of Page.

We went on the 8am tour. I wrongly assumed this would mean less people. There were around 50 of us heading into the canyon, but they split us into six groups so it was fine. We quickly discovered the tour was mainly about photos and Instagram though, but luckily a few of us on our tour asked questions which prompted our guide to tell us a bit more about the canyon. We descended 22m on steel ladders at the start and then spent about 45 minutes wandering through the narrow canyon. Rushing water over the years has smoothed the sandstone quartz rock and created the ripples and waves we see today. The colours and these ripples were both beautiful, it was smoother than any other rock formation I've ever seen.

As we went through we were told that for the first five years of the tours run here there were very minimal steel ladders, and they weren’t secured to the rock. Today there are good sturdy ladders secured safely. After we exited the canyon our guide showed us a plaque dedicated to 11 international tourists that had died in August 1997 when a flash flood occurred and swept them back into the canyon right at the end of their tour. The silver lining of this tragedy was that it prompted much better safety features to be implemented such as the secured ladders and better warning systems ahead of flash floods. There hasn’t been a really bad one since 2013 apparently, and that year the entire 22m depth of the canyon was filled and then some within five minutes, and the canyon was closed for three months afterwards. The ladders secured to the walls were all ripped out by the water as that flood was so bad. The area doesn’t get much rain every year (around 8 inches on average) but the rains occur more frequently during summer monsoon season.

The walk through was beautiful, and afterwards we headed back to the hotel to pack up and check out. We had a quick look around the town of Page we were staying in, which is one of the youngest towns in the USA as it was set aside in 1956 as a government camp for the workers building the nearby Glen Canyon Dam. However due to enjoying nearby Lake Powell and its benefits so much, people stayed on and in 1975 it was designated as a town and named Page, after John C. Page a man involved in the reclamation of land for government camps such as this.

We headed south for two hours after this to the Grand Canyon. En route the wind was so crazy we could feel it pushing our car, and see it blowing dust in huge clouds across the desert. We even saw a trailer whose roof had blown off! It ended up turning into a full on desert storm and we lost pretty much all visibility at one point which was very scary. As a result, we abandoned our drive to the Grand Canyon because it would’ve meant another two hours driving in these conditions and we had already seen it from the air last week. It was disappointing, but we decided being safe was more important. We were glad we had seen it from the air.

We made the best of the bonus time and the $35 national park fee and petrol money we saved, and stopped in Flagstaff for lunch. It was a really cute town with some nice old buildings, beautiful murals and snowy mountains in the background. It was established 1882 and was named Flagstaff due to some passing travellers stripping a tree of its branches on July 4, 1886 and placing an American flag atop it to celebrate the United States’ centenary. As the railway was built through and eventually route 66, Flagstaff grew and grew and many lumber yards were set up to take advantage of the nearby pine forests.

Funnily enough, Collingwood used to base themselves here about ten years ago when we would travel over here for a pre season high altitude training camp over a number of seasons. I sat next to Mick Malthouse on a plane in 2019 and at the time I was reading my USA Lonely Planet guide ahead of our last trip here while next to him. He turned to the page about Flagstaff and was telling me all about where they used to go. So there you go, I’ve come full circle from that moment now!

We had lunch at a local brewery within one of the old lumberyards and enjoyed sitting in the sun. Rob had a platter and a tasting paddle and I had mac and cheese and a hot apple cider. The wind was picking up every now and then here too, and would even catch some dust in parking lots and twist it up into the air. Rob’s friend Simon was at the canyon today and told us it was very windy so we think we made the right choice. I can't properly describe how scary the roads were, I have never experienced anything like that sand storm before.

After lunch, we went to the visitor centre within the town’s train station and found a little town map with some notable buildings on it. Before we could go to the centre though, a ginormous train passed through town and we had to wait. We laughed that Dan Andrews’ wouldn’t have put up with that 3 minute long train. Once following the map, we saw some old hotels, an old theatre and some beautiful murals. The original hotel of the town - the Monte Vista - had even housed celebrities such as Bing Crosby. At the end we saw an old steam train that used to run in the area.

As we left and headed towards Sedona, we commented that even though it was sad to miss the Grand Canyon lookouts that we had enjoyed seeing something different. We agreed we would liken the town and its old buildings to Ballarat if we were to pick a similar place near home.

The drive to Sedona showed us yet another different landscape. We went from dust bowl desert to mountainous forest. Upon arrival we immediately noticed how charming and beautiful Sedona was. We checked into our hotel which is lovely, and they gave us a free upgrade and some chocolates due to having been married recently. We have a lovely view from our balcony and we even went for a bit of a swim in the spa and pool and enjoyed the view there too.

Rob spent the rest of the afternoon preparing for a position interview he has online tonight. I went for a bit of a walk through town (but will do this properly with Rob tomorrow morning) and then went to a nearby Safeway to do a big fruit and snacks shop ahead of going to Disneyland on Thursday, as there are no supermarkets near there and food is very expensive inside the park.

Love to all
Claire
Xoxox