Antelope Canyon

I first saw antelope canyon on my computer as a screen saver for my Microsoft operating system. The forms and color looked so unreal I remembered its name. When we went to Utah to hike Zion national park, I noticed antelope canyon was just a 5 hour drive east in Arizona... so I included it in the itinerary. There are a lot of slot canyons in the Southwest... canyons which are cut by water flows and erosion. Some canyons have shallow water streams running through them in spring, making for cool refreshing shady hikes between canyon walls. All the slot canyons we hiked in Utah were at the base of a larger mountain systems.

To get to antelope from Utah, you traverse flat, red desert. The largest feature by the antelope canyon area is an enormous power station. There were no mountains around. Not what you would expect for a tourist destination or famous slot canyon. Founded by a Navajo shepherd 80 years ago, the antelope canyon has been under their control ever since. The entry process is tedious. You park your car in a large lot, wait in long lines in the sun, descend in groups of 10 with a Navajo guide. The entry to antelope is a unassuming fissure in the ground. Once you descend 30 feet to the sand floor, the canyon comes alive — the walls glow orange red and white. At times, the canyon walls constrict to the width of a body, other times, the canyon splays open to form caverns. The light is ever changing and bounces off the walls in dynamic ways. Rock formations resemble different animals inside the cave. Formulaically, the Navajo guide points out all the angles to take the optimal photos from.

I saw one curious bulbous formation above and asked the guide what kind of animal it was jokingly. He told me it was an elephant head and then continued
“Twenty years ago people clung to that elephant’s stone ears during a flash flood.”
“Really?”
“Yes. It’s the reason we have metal escape ladders in the canyon, flood detection systems upstream, restrictions on canyon access due to weather, and required tour guides for each group that comes visit. Back then, there was a large group of 11 French tourists visiting sites in the southwest. They hired an impromptu guide to take them to antelope. The guide for some reason, was 2 hours late picking them up from the hotel. Two of the French tourists’ children didn’t want to hike, so they stayed at the hotel to relax while their parents went. The guide took them to antelope. They had a great time... one person from the group requested to go back in to take some more pictures, so they re-entered the canyon. Meanwhile, 30 miles upstream, a summer storm dumped a lot of rain that started to flow towards antelope. The water gathered debris and rocks and started barreling towards the tourists. While the guide was helping take pictures for the group, the ground started shaking violently, the sand started jumping. The tourists start trying to climb up the walls to try to escape. That water channeling through the narrow slot canyon rose 20 feet all the way up the elephant head. The water was deafening, sounding like a 1000 jet engines. The people were hanging onto that elephant head for dear life, but were knocked loose. Only one person would survive the flood, the guide. He was found downstream battered and cut totally naked. When asked what it felt like to go through the canyon, he said it was like tumbling in a dryer lined with sand paper... every time he hit a wall or rock, another swatch of flesh or clothing would rip off. It took him a year to recover from his skin injuries.”

As I walked the rest of the canyon I started thinking about the extreme forces of erosion and water forces that formed the canyon... the children at the hotel who waited for their parents who never returned.... Having visited bridal veil trail Yosemite where people were swept off the waterfall, horseshoe bend where a tourist lost footing taking a selfie, Fort Worth water Gardens where a family was sucked into a fountain drain.. all the same year as my visit to antelope... I came to the conclusion the most beautiful places in the world always have tragic stories associated with them. Some people lured to the edge beauty never return.