Skip to main content

Return to Antelope Canyon

It had been a year since my first visit to Upper Antelope Canyon. That visit was too brief and too many other folks in the canyon at the same time. This time I was determined to linger a bit. I planned a trip that would include my birthday and made my way this time to Lower Antelope Canyon.

The earliest I could get into the canyon was 8 a.m. as that is when it opened.  I was there and ready well before 8. I was the first visitor of the day and the guide took me to the far, lower end of the canyon to enter. I descended to the canyon floor. Alone. Completely alone. . . in Antelope Canyon. . . on my birthday. . . and I could stay all day!

Lower Antelope Canyon, like Upper Antelope, is a slot canyon.  Slot canyons are narrow at the top and wider at the bottom, having been carved out by periodic flood waters. These are places that need to be visited more than once because it takes some experience to begin seeing the canyon the way your camera will see it. What looks unremarkable to the naked eye comes alive through the camera lens. It is only after seeing, photographing and then examining the images that I began to recognize these subtleties.  This is one of my favorite images, I call it Heart Of The Canyon.  It reminds me of that place within ourselves where we find the Peace of God.




There is so much to capture here.  Shapes, textures, hues and tones.  The canyon walls are  constantly changing as the light inside the canyon changes.  I have visited this canyon twice now and feel like I am just barely getting to know it.



Many people come here in search of light shafts.  As the sun reaches its mid day height in the sky it shines down into the canyon through openings at the top forming shafts of light.  When the shafts show up in the canyon they capture your full attention.  This alcove was one of my favorite places in Lower antelope.  To the left of the light shaft behind that rock is a little ledge where one can sit in quiet contemplation.




This canyon,  located underground, allows us the privilege of visiting with the inner natural beauty of the earth.  It reminds me of those people in my life who have allowed me the privilege of knowing their inner beauty. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Art Display At The Center For Spiritual Living, Santa Rosa

 The Center for Spiritual Living Santa Rosa, has a wonderful program that encourages artist members to display their work.  The work is hung in the Social Hall and typically has about twenty pieces hanging for two months at a time.  On March 1rst I will be hanging several images taken in Iceland, along with some wildlife images, including foxes, coyotes, eagles and kites.  I will also have some paintings by my mother and two of my own.  I am pretty excited about this showing.   One of the pictures I will have in the show is of Godafoss, a beautiful waterfall in Iceland.  When I first saw pictures of this waterfall I knew I wanted to go to Iceland to take pictures of it.  This composition required gettin into some very cold water.

Subscribe to my blog by Email

  Get new posts by email: Enter your email address in the box and click subscribe to be notified when a new post is published. Subscribe Powered by

The Aurora Borealis, May 10, 2024

  This last May, my wife, Jan, and I were on vacation in the San Juan Islands, WA.  We were there for a week staying at the Trumpeter Inn, a B&B on San Juan Island.  Mid way through our stay we heard there was to be a Northern Lights display and that we would likely be able to see it since we were at a latitude just north of Victoria, BC.  The excitement was immediate.  The conditions were just right as the sky was cloudless and the moon was in its crescent phase and would be low on the horizon (and therefore not overly bright) during the expected good viewing time between 10 pm and 2 am.   The image above was taken that night and is what I was expecting to see, a green Aurora.  Little did we know what was to come! Early on the was the first hint that something special was about to happen as color in addition to green began to show.  I found this very exciting as I had seen green auroras before but never one with the purple/blue colors an...