Marble Canyon
Marble Canyon, Arizona Marble Canyon, Grand Canyon
 
Mesa
 
 

Soon, I was following him, and we ended up at a clearing in the desert. A Navajo man was standing there. The photographer paid my Navajo fee.

It was mild, and slow moving, so I was able to pull myself out with little problem, and continued on. The Buckskin Gulch was a beautiful slot canyon of changing colors and striated lines and waves.

I turned around in the early evening, tired and dreading the weight on my back. My nose was bleeding as I climbed back through the slot canyons. I stopped frequently for water, changing the angle of the pack on my back. 6 miles to the Wire Pass trailhead and I remembered Mr. Kurtz, dying, "The horror. The horror." Out of the bug-infested slots, I dropped on the sand, I had known I was unfit for this. "Experienced Canyoneers Only" said the outfitting guides. My nosebleed dripping in the sand.

But I also knew that I would do it, and I would make it. So I sat there, drinking water and chewing on my last bagel. When I returned to the jeep, there were two cars parked next to mine. Hikers were there drinking beer, and I talked with them about tripods and dust and then I was off, south, and then east along the edge of Utah's southern border, to Arizona, and across the Colorado River to Page, where I stayed overnight.


In the morning, I awoke well before the 5:45 alarm, and left for Navajo country, to the East, and made my way up some district roads to a small turnoff, with a view of Lake Powell to the North, and a vast expanse of nothing to the South. Here it was, Lower Antelope Canyon, the most notorious of the slots.

It was 1996, and 14 frenchmen had descended into the Antelope, their Navajo guide waiting above. It was a sunny day, not a cloud in the sky and then the Navajo guide came down, "Out now! You must all get out as fast as possible. Rains are coming."

 
 

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Text, photographs, illustrations and web design ©2008 Erik Gauger

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