ANTELOPE CANYON
Go there and contact
This canyon 3 m wide, 4 m wide and reaches 30 m deep is a few miles east of Page, on the Navajo reserve. A long distance of 8 km, it is not visible from the surface of the plateau (altitude 1300 m) and only two access points are open to tourists, only on accompanying visits. The guides all practise, in theory, similar prices. Some of them are directly on the site's parking lot. To know that boat tours on Powell Lake allow to approach the canyon by inland waterway. But this is a completely different view of the site.
The most popular visit concerns Upper Antelope Canyon (Hasdestwazi or "spiral rock arch"). Once in the hose, the tower allows to follow the gorge over one kilometre. Its very high walls, swept out for millennia by winds and waters, form hollow and waves, where there are soft or sharp sculptures that filter the sun. The bottom is lined with a very gentle sand. The best time for the visit is at noon, when the sun is on the vertical.
A few hundred metres away, Lower Antelope Canyon (Tse'bighanilini, «the place where water flows through the rocks») is the second access gap to the canyon. Longer and narrower, this area is also more rugged and has to be equipped with metal ladders. The course is also very beautiful.
Le site est vraiment très joli, la roche travaillée par l'eau est superbe et les photos magnifiques.
Néanmoins, c'est extrêmement fréquenté, et du coup les groupes se croisent, se pressent dans le canyon ce qui est assez désagréable. La visite du canyon dure moin d'une heure, on rajoute du temps avec le trajet depuis l'accueil.
Enfin, payer aussi cher 50 usd, uniquement pour des photos et 2 phrases du guide, un natif, je trouve que c'est exagéré.
Cela dit, je me répète, le site est magnifique.
Nous avons fait le lower antelope canyon car il était indiqué comme un peu moins touristique (donc un peu moins cher), plus riche en couleur avec un parcours plus ludique. Nous n'avons pas regretté!