Ran into Friends!

At Antelope Slot Canyon, we ran into our friends, Susan and Gordon, from Ogden, Utah!! Can you believe it? Well, honestly we literally ran into them! And we didn’t know them before, but we were exchanging pleasantries when the surprise hit us! We were on some benches, facing other passengers (including our new, special friends!), on the back of a small truck heading by tour to the canyon when suddenly our truck slammed into the back of a van ahead of us! We were going at a pretty good clip, so we got cozy with Susan and Gordon as we crashed into them from the jarring of the accident. (Sorry about your shoulder check, Gordon!). At least we had a soft place to fall – Susan and Gordon were thrown against the steel back of the truck cab. Fortunately we were all okay, but Susan may have some bruises. Just think about this – we have travelled 16,000 km without a vehicle incident and here we are on our first driving tour and……..

Despite the unplanned beginning, the Antelope Slot Canyon tour near Page, Arizona is a very, very special place. You enter the canyon at ground level. It is sandy and the cave-like entrance is pink and the ground covered with pale pink, soft sand. In the canyon you look up (way, way up! – that’s my way of saying I don’t know how high it is, but it is up there!) to walls that dance and turn and bend with the occasional glimpse of blue sky. The sunlight slips through the walls at unpredictable moments like a flashlight casting light and shadow in the most enchanting way. At one point you round the corner to a sand “waterfall” and then a corkscrew view that takes your breath away. Meanwhile a native guide tells the story of the canyon and the native people who lived there. There were also at one time antelope that called the canyon area home – hence the name.

The canyon name in the native language means “place where the water runs through”. It is the flash floods that have formed this tall, thin, canyon masterpiece. The last one was in 2006 and lasted 36 hours! The walk cuts through the canyon walls like slots, in some places skinny and curvy and in other places round and wide. The length of the canyon is ¼ mile which sounds small, but the photo opportunities endless.

Again, we have just stopped in Page for the night with no tours in mind. I spotted an advertisement and remembered that the Hamilton Spec had printed an article about the canyon one time in the travel section. Rip and I both remembered it.

The tour was awesome; the place beyond words. And we ran into our new, special friends, Susan and Gordon! We hope we will run into them again in Ontario – with a softer place to land this time. And you know the old advice – be sure to wear clean underwear every day – you never know what might happen!