We visited Antelope Canyon in northern Arizona on our trip.  It is a canyon famous for the images people have captured there.  It is also becoming ‘famous’ as the most photographed slot canyon.

As you must do, we hired a tour guide — a member of the Najavo first nation — to take us into this canyon.  We were on a photo tour — we paid more; we had nearly twice as long in the canyon; our guide (Rob) gave us all kinds of clues on what to shoot, how to shoot, etc. etc. Rob was with the Chief Tsosie tour company and was excellent.

Rob gave us insight into the opportunities, living conditions etc. of the Navajo.  It added to the tour — while you were trying to take pictures, he was talking about how they as a people were simply throwing away their language and culture by not passing it on.  He was a (young) grandfather; his native language was his first language but his grand-children know none of it.

Following Rob’s advice, I have used a custom white balance for this image — he recommended using cloudy or fluorescent to get vibrant colours.  I have used something in between.

Some people want their photographs to represent what their eyes actually saw.  Some, want the photograph to represent what their vision was.  I am just happy with a decent photograph …

I will be making a gallery of photos from here later.

A nice photo of the Glen Canyon of the Colorado River here is ruined by a lens problem. Do you see the trail of green artifacts running down from the upper right of the picture? I have something failing inside one of my most used lenses and I have a piece of debris on the inside of the lens. Do I repair or replace??

I am as close to the edge of the canyon as it appears. It is about a 600 foot drop off the edge so one approaches very carefully!

They clearly have a different approach to safety than at similar public sites in Canada. Rather than build a wall or fence for safety, they will have minimal signs saying “You are responsible for your own safety.” This was somehow surprising in a country know for its litigious nature.

The week long photo tour of southern Utah with a bit of Nevada and northern Arizona is ending today. Back to some form of reality!

Yesterday we spent most of the day in Vegas – the height of unreality. It was a reasonably busy place. We walked put to the Cirque de Soleil show Mystere just 10 minutes before starting time and got 50% discounts on very good seats. The show has a mixture of humor, acrobatics, live music etc. A decent evening’s entertainment. I think there was likely a story to it … But I never understood what it was.

I have more than a few photos to now sort out, delete junk, etc. etc. There is some dirt inside the lens i use most and that created some issues with some images. There must be plastic or something coming off the lens inside. I guess one doesn’t repair the lens but rather replaces it. I guess.

I will publish a couple photo galleries when I have gone through the selection and deletion process.

This image should be a sunset reflecting the end of the trip …. But is actually a silhouette shot taken at sunrise at Bryce Canyon.

The smallish town of Page Arizona was established when the Glen Canyon dam was built. So, it is more of a planned community than many and has some unique features.

Befitting it’s place in the south, the main street extends into something locally referred to a church circle. All the churches in town are on the same street side by each – on a circle drive that goes around the schools. Apparently it is the only town in the States with this alignment.

It also has the widest residential streets I have seen. You can park two cars and still have room for four lanes of traffic – they must have more room for roads than homes. I think this is because all these sections were the first sections built and all the homes are still mobile homes. So, maybe they left plenty of room to get in and out?

The picture is of the Glen Canon dam on the Colorado River. It is an HDR photo – assembled from three photos to capture the range of light levels. I wanted to try the $3 app for the iPad that will do HDR. Doesn’t do a bad job at all but has limited adjustments possible.

The other big thing here is Antelope Canon. A so called slot canon – narrow with high walls And fascinating colours. I need to takes my photos of that to my home computer to see if any turned out.

We spent one day plus exploring Bryce Canyon and surrounding areas.

At Bryce, you are able to hike down into the canyon – among these tall spires of rock. It isn’t a place to be during a rainstorm, earthquake etc. You get a pretty amazing perspective on the park while walking amongst these spires.

As you are at about 7000 feet elevation, I was most impressed with the clearly senior elements of the population braving the hike down and back up. Also impressed with the young dad making his way up the switchback hiking trail with a two year old singing from the back pack. And, the parents starting down this trail with three active under 10 year old boys, i give credit for some combination of bravery and craziness! The one little guy had made a slide in the first 500 feet so i am sure they had some fun moments during their walk!

By the way, getting up at 5:30 to see the sunrise at Bryce….. It will be a once in a lifetime experience. In both ways you can interpret that.

We walked the Taylor Creek trail in Kolob Canyon today. A lovely day for a hike. We took close to 5 hours to cover the 5 miles as we stopped for photos regularly on route.

You walk up an increasingly narrow canyyou with sheer red walk walls increasingly close as you go. I gave up counting the number of creek crossings you make. Must have bee near 30 each way so we were glad there was little water in the creek.

The end has this deep alcove in the rock. Quite the site to see but my pictures don’t capture the perspective of depth. So, I have displayed an image taken during the early part of the canyon walk.

We spent a couple hours in Kolub Canyon on the western side of Zion National Park in south-western Utah. It is a large park with relatively little driving access into it. This road follow a canyon and there are some pretty spectacular rock formations across the canyon. The canyon starts at about 5000 feet above sea level and you get to about 6000 feet.

Interesting driving here. Not used to the high speed limits. Once today, 65 miles per hour was the reduced speed limit for the construction zone.

Pictures from today’s travels embedded.