Magic Moments in Antelope Canyon

Last year’s trip to Arizona began as a long weekend getaway and ended up being quite an interesting adventure. Our drive North from the Phoenix airport took us to a part of the country I had never seen before. It was my first visit to the Grand Canyon, Sedona and that magical place I had seen many photos of but was shooting for the first time, Antelope Canyon.

After spending a day in Grand Canyon National Park, I was expecting Antelope Canyon to be more of an actual canyon. The area where Mother Nature spent thousands of years carving out exquisite formations in the rock, and has been the subject of many photographers from around the world, is actually more like a cave of sorts.

Page, Arizona is on the Utah state border in the northeast corner of the state. A bit over 5 hours by car north of Phoenix, Page attracts tourists from all over the world wishing to visit the area’s Indian reservations and the amazing red rock formations that can be found there.

One of the most popular sites is Antelope Canyon. Licensed tour guides provide the only public access to this hidden gem located on, and controlled by, the local Indian reservation. The entrance is through an opening in the rock carved by moving water when the area was submerged thousands of years ago. The canyon is flat and dry, and remains subject to occasional flash flooding.

There are a few areas where the formations are open to the sky, allowing sunlight to beam through the gaps during the summer months when the sun is directly overhead. The light beams add amazing drama to the texture and curves carved into the rock and create moments frozen in time by the magic of photography.