Vacation Update - November 4th - 6th - Antelope Canyon

After the River trip - Oct 30 through Nov 2, we stayed in Moab another 2 nights to rest up and do some laundry and get ready to continue our adventure.

Sunday November 4th we broke camp in Moab and made the long drive to Page, Arizona, via Monument Valley. We stopped at the Burger King in Kayenta Az, since we had heard they had a great display about the Navajo Code Talkers and they did, so we had a milkshake and explored.

Then on the way to Page from Kayenta we took a small detour to the Navajo National Monument to see some old Pueblo style Indian Ruins. It was worth the 9 mile detour and comes highly recommended.

There was also this wonderful fossilized Dinosaur Track!



This is a distant shot of the ruins, you have to go on an escorted tour to visit the actual ruins and they were not offering it when we were there.



After our days drive we settled into a campground in Page and made plans for our next days adventure to Antelope Canyon. This should not be missed and in fact you should make plans to go there as soon as you can. It is amazing. If you can only do one of the canyons, choose the lower canyon as it is far better and more dramatic than the upper canyon.

Antelope Canyon!























In the Lower Canyon there is an Arch formed by the water and I made Pat stand in it to give you an idea of size of this place.



There are many very tight turns and alcoves.



The lower canyon has many steep drops, it descends about 230 feet overall and they have nice stairs and ladders.









The climb out of the Lower Canyon at the end is an Adventure! This only shows about the first half of your ascent!






Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

November 11th - Vacation Update.

OK - You can stop emailing me to update the blog. I have been super busy for the past two weeks and was a little negligent in keeping everyone updated on my whereabouts. Sorry!

For those of you who are regular followers, you know that I had a fantastic vacation planned from October 26th through November 9th. My girlfriend flew out from Ohio and joined me in the camper for a two week tour of Southern Utah and a little bit of Northern Arizona. The trip included a 4 day float trip down the Green River for some fantastic scenery and wonderful remote camping along the river. We used a local Moab Rafting company called NAVTEC Expeditions and they were fantastic. Great hosts with nice equipment a fantastic guide. The weather for the entire journey was fantastic with clear blue skies and warm weather for the past two weeks.

We arrived back in Salt Lake City for her flight home in a winter storm and the past two days has seen about 20 inches of snow where I am in Salt Lake. Since Pat left, I have been busy processing some of the photos I took on the trip and I now have some from the first couple days and will provide a brief description of where we were and some of the photos from our trip. In the next day or two I will continue the journey with text and photos.

Here is a great picture of Pat for those of you who have asked.
This was actually on the raft trip, so it is a little out of sequence.



Pat at the entrance to Arches National Park which was where we visited first!



One of about two pictures of us together.



The Windows or also called the "Spectacles"





Pat and I made a stop after Arches at Deadhorse Point State Park, near Moab!









Ready to leave on the raft trip!



Pat at the Raft Launch site, ready to go!



On the River!



Here we are breaking camp on the float trip!



Old high school friends joined us on the float trip. Greg Lantz and his wife Katrina.

Here is Greg pulling the raft in for our first camp!



Some fall scenery!



Greg trying his hand at the inflatable kayak!



The Green River scenery!



Some evening campfire fun!















On a hike!







Look for updates of the remainder of our trip in the next few days!



Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest

Tuesday November 6th - Update - Election Day GO VOTE!

So here I am in Page Arizona on election day with a raging liberal Democrat! WTF

Sorry for the delay in updating my blog, but it has been a very busy time since October 26th when my imaginary girlfriend arrived from Ohio for our two week vacation.

We first visited Arches National Park for a day, then we went to Canyonlands, Islands In the Sky area and Deadhorse Point State Park. Then it was back to the camper to get ready for our four day float trip down the Green River through Labyrinth Canyon. The weather has cooperated to the extreme, with clear blue skies and sunshine every day.

The raft trip was amazing with beautiful scenery around every corner. I have a ton of pictures to process and will be working on those in the coming weeks. Yesterday we toured Antelope Canyon a place I truly love and is very photogenic. I got some great pictures...

Here are a few from the past week or so...

We were joined on the raft trip by an old high school classmate and his wife. This is us getting ready to load up for the two hour drive to the put in location near the town of Green River, Utah.



This is Pat telling a wonderfully boring story on the river...



A wonderful nighttime fire along the river!



A wonderful shot of the canyon we were traveling through!



Here is Pat and I after traversing (Upper)Antelope Canyon!



This is Pat in an arch in the much more dramatic (Lower) Antelope Canyon!





Capt. Jim - "The Gypsy"

Traveling and photographing the Southwest