Antelope Canyon

Over the weekend, Ethan and I drove up to the Utah/Arizona boarder to explore some of the beauties up there. Aunt Kay took the girls and we made a quick trip of it.
We left Friday August 5th after work and drove to Flagstaff which is the half way point. We had big plans to make it a fun night out, but once we got there we were so tired from the drive that we ended up watching an Office and going to bed at like 9. When did we get so old!
Unfortunately we still had a two hour drive on Saturday morning so we had to leave Flagstaff no later than 7:30 so that we would be on time to our hiking reservations.
We left right at 7:30 and were making great time, but as we approached the boarder we noticed that the times on our cell phones kept changing back and forth between Pacific time and Mountain time. Depending on the time zone we either were an hour early or missed our hike. Naturally I started freaking out and just made everything worse than it had to be so this next part was just especially fun.

The canyon is on an Indian Reservation and you have to pay to enter. Another key factor in this story was that to get on this particular reservation, there is one gate that everyone has to enter through. Buses, Utah, Arizona, walkers, everyone! Everyone has to enter through this one gate and it is a crazy mad house. I'm talking MILES of traffic. Most of the traffic was coming from the north so the line was crazy long that direction. Well, since we were coming from the south, we had to turn into the line. If people didn't let us in (which they didn't) we were in the middle of the road stopping all traffic. It was ridiculous. Eventually someone let us in, got us off the road stopping traffic both ways, but in doing so we had to jump the curb thing which was equally as ridiculous. Side note: after we had to pull all of this a cop came to direct traffic and help the cars go every other car. It was way smoother with the cops there. God bless police officers. I wish this civil war against them would end.
side note two: I know people hate people merging. I know that. I also know that people feel an injustice when someone turns into the line that you have been waiting in. I get that. I feel that too, but heres the thing. We have all been that car coming from the "wrong" direction at some point and it helps no one continuing to not let them in. I used to pull up really close to the cars in front of me because I hate when people are dumb, but all that would do is make me mad over something that ultimately had no effect on my well being as a person what so ever. I have tried really hard to stop caring so much. I will get there eventually and if we all stopped trying to keep people out, they would stop trying to creep in. Its a vicious cycle. One that I CLEARLY care about!! WOW!!!

We finally got into the line (which was roughly TWO MILES LONG!!!!) and slowly made our way up to the gate to pay. We waited in that line, 110 yards from the gate for 45 minutes. By this time I was just frantic watching everything blow up in our faces. Remember, we still don't know what time it is. Of course I handled it poorly and kept snapping at Ethan and he calmly took everything positively and in stride, but tension was high and why? why did I have to freak out so much. Even if we missed our tour, there was absolutely nothing that anyone could do. Why did I not just start laughing!! I HATE that I do this!! Every time. Not once have I been handed a situation like this and handled it with a smile.
We creep to the gate, and on the window there is a hand written sign that says cash only. Crap. "Do you have cash?" "I don't. Do you?" We didn't. No where, on ANY of the sights that we read and researched did it say cash only to enter the reservation. We got to the window, asked the man if they had a credit card machine and he RIPPED into us. I mean RIPPED INTO US!! I have never been treated like such an idiot in my an entire life. It was almost like he found joy in telling us that we had to get out of line and go find cash somewhere. We tried to talk to him but he just kept yelling "How dare you come unprepared with a card. How dare you!! I won't even look at your card. Get out of my line, drive the 10 miles into town, stop at an Atm and get back in line and try to do this right!" We felt like fools.
Well, what option did we have. We didn't have cash, we didn't know what time it was, and there really was no way that anyone else could help us. We were in the middle of no where. Ethan pulled over and told me to start pulling the car around. He humbly walked up to the car behind us and asked if they had any money that we could borrow. Now imagine if you were these people. You don't know Ethan, you too have waited in a long line, you came prepared to enter, and there is no way that this complete stranger could pay you back. You would willingly be handing 20 bucks to some kids just because he didn't have the money. I don't know about you but I probably would have said please leave.
Well Ethan started talking to the man and the man in the both just started yelling at him again "Hwo dare you bother others. I told you to leave. Get in your car and leave this place until you are ready to enter correctly!" He wasn't wrong. I just feel like he could have treated us differently but isn't that always the case. If we switched roles I would like to think I would have treated us differently but I don't know if I would have.
Anyway, I started turning the car around, Ethan hoped in and we started driving away. And this is where I started bawling, because as we drove passed the car that Ethan talk to, the wife flagged us down, handed us 20 dollars and told us to have a good time. "We can pay you back," said Ethan. "You probably can, but odds are you won't see us again. Have a good time." I just bawled and bawled. I have never been shown such tenderness and kindness just because. This family knew of our predicament and acted upon it. They didn't judge, they didn't expect anything in return. They just opened their hearts and helped us. I have never been shown such tenderness and kindness. It was such a humbling experience.
also can I add that as they handed us the money they said "Oh and its 10:30." Our tour hadn't started :) It was an amazing experience and I hope to be able to always be ready to help people like that in my life. Truly help, expecting nothing in return. I know that these people will be blessed in their life. I pray about them often. We tried for about an hour to track them down ,but we couldn't find them. I hope they know how grateful we were.

 

We finally made it. We drove around, found our tour (had to stand in another 45 minute line even with reservations) but FINALLY made it to our tour spot. There was some confusion with the paying so we ended up paying at the end but the point is, we made it! We followed our tour guide to the mouth of the canyon, where we waited another 30 minutes to enter (its a popular place)
But I quickly learned why everyone is so willing to jump through such RIDICULOUS hoops. This is the most INCREDIBLE places I have ever been to. INCREDIBLE!!!  Our tour guide was amazing. She stopped at all the "picture perfect" places, changed settings on our phones, offered to take our pictures, and pointed out all the really cool places. She didn't rush us either. She's been in there a 100 times and still just trotted along at our ridiculously slow pace.

The entrance. We had to go down a three story twisty ladder. It was pretty steep.

Windows 10 screensaver anyone?

this is how narrow some of the walk ways were. It was not this narrow for your whole body, but for your feet some parts got crazy

You know how we be

Side note: we were one of the few people in our group that spoke English and some of the only people from Arizona. We were talking to some people from Rome and they were like "we just had to come. Its a once in a life time opportunity." They live in ROME and were saying that. It was a good reminder to me that people just want to see new. I want to see Rome and they want to see Arizona. There is no difference if you haven't seen it. IT was really fun to talk to them. They were also excited because they got to see Vegas and La :)

The canyon itself is probably 2 miles long and there are several spots where you have to climb ladders. We did lower canyon which is shaped like a V so the bottom is more narrow than the top. looking up for us was where all the beauty was. It was nice and cool and only got a little stuffy because you are in a slot canyon with 50 other people. Since you could see the sky the whole time though, you didn't get claustrophobic. Upper canyon is shaped liked an A so the bottom is more wide. This is why upper canyon gets more of the picturesque light beams that you often see on line.

This is the exit of the canyon. Crazy right?!

We made it through the canyon, tried to find that wonderful couple who saved us, and then headed to Slackers for lunch.
After a delicious burger, we drove over to Lake Powell to find our camp site. You heard me correctly. Ethan and Cami Wing got a campsite. It will go down in history as the first time we have ever used our tent. A million scouts have used it, but never us. We set up the tent and ran down to Lake Powell, where we decided to paddle board for a couple of hours. A storm rolled in so we had to cut our paddeling a bit short, but we were tired anyway so it all worked out.

Once we got all cleaned up, we drove over to Horseshoe bend, one of the most breath taking places I have ever seen. It was literally a 200 meter walk from the road and yet one of the coolest things in the world. A must see in my opinion.

I found the sandstone fascinating

We headed to Subway (just becasue we are sleeping in a tent does not mean we can't eat at a restaurant) and then made our way back to Powell to watch the sun set over the Lake. We built a fire and talked about all the crazy awesome things we got to see.

The campsite we were in was perfect for people like us. All the sites were very close together, but luckily everyone was very respectful of one another. There was also a flush bathroom, with a sink inside and outside specifically for brushing teething and washing your face. This place was basically a stopping ground for weary travelers. It wasn't the "lets be adventurous and camp" campers, but more the "lets save some money and we just need to find a place to sleep" travelers.


We are campers now

The next morning we were up at like 5:30 (thank you sun!), packed up and were on our wy. We drove pretty much non-stop to Kays and from Kays went straight to church.
Ethan and I have taken two weekend trips alone in our marriage. One to Seattle while I was pregnant with Madison and this one. In total we have been away from our kids a total of 4.5 days. I am completely convinced that we need to do this more because it was awesome. I love my kids and LOVE having them on family vacations, but there is a definite time and place for parents only vacays. This was awesome and we will forever be indebted to Aunt Kay.