Jeremiah Tolbert

Yesterday, we drove from Moab to Page Arizona in order to see the famous Antelope Canyon. It was the most expen­sive attrac­tion we’ve vis­ited at $26 a per­son, but the visit was the best money I’ve spent on pho­tog­ra­phy in a long time.

Lower Antelope Canyon is Navajo-​​controlled, and you get a guide to take you down the 90 or so feet into the bot­tom of the Canyon. Inside, you see the most beau­ti­fully sculpted sand­stone walls, like below. For hun­dreds of yards, it’s like this, with ever-​​changing light and shape. You could spend a life­time in this canyon and not cap­ture every aspect of its beauty.

I bought a pho­to­graph from the guide who escorted a group past us play­ing really fan­tas­tic, ethe­r­ial gui­tar music. With our photographer’s passes, we were able to spend as much time as we wanted, and that we did. At the end, we talked to this guide and he had a bud­ding inter­est in pho­tog­ra­phy. I took a look at a print of his, and even though it was’t for sale, I told him I wanted to buy it. He said he would give it to me, clearly embar­rassed, but I said no, I wanted to pay for it, and insisted. He had a clear tal­ent and eye for it, and I wanted to encour­age him any way I could.

From there, we drove straight to the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was amaz­ing, but very hazy and I don’t think much in the way of great pho­tog­ra­phy is going to come out of our sun­set shoot­ing there. We bailed before the sun had fin­ished going down, and tried to find a hotel room near the park, think­ing we would return. The one hotel we found had rooms at $200 a night, and the crowds at the Canyon just didn’t make it worth the price, so we con­tin­ued on to Flagstaff where we finally found a room in a Travelodge. Sarah’s still sleep­ing beside me, and I’ve been look­ing at yesterday’s photography.

Today, we’re headed to the Petrified Forest, and then onward toward Mesa Verde. Arizona has been fun, but the land­scape is very des­o­late and I find myself long­ing for Utah or Colorado already. I hadn’t real­ized how much the moun­tains had imprinted upon me.

We’ll prob­a­bly spend Wednesday in Mesa Verde, and then Thursday, drive on and stop in Black Hawk for some penny slots or some­thing. Saturday, we make it home and have the week­end to rest before Sarah goes back to work on Monday.

So far, an amaz­ing trip.

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