I was up early on the second day of my trip. After breakfast, I saw Charly sitting on the patio talking to Brenda, the motel owner and his girlfriend.
Charly is a tall, thin, heavily tattooed man in his fifties who speaks with a German accent. I'll blog more about Charly at another time, but let's say I took an instant liking to him. I had scheduled him to take me to Canyon X, a sandstone slot canyon on the Navajo reservation near Page, Arizona. Frommer's Guide to Arizona had recommended Canyon X over the more famous Antelope Canyon for professional and serious amateur photographers. The book explained that Antelope can be very crowded, while only Charly's Overland Canyon Tours is licensed to provide tours to Canyon X. Competing with twenty other tripods and fifty other people milling about in my photos didn't sound like fun.
The Canyon X tour would only take four or five hours, so Charly and I discussed options for later in the day. I already had reservations for that night to stay at Jacob's Lake Inn (near the Grand Canyon), so we settled on a tour of Antelope Canyon after Canyon X. So long as I was okay with missing a beam of light, Charly explained, he could probably get me into Antelope Canyon when the crowds were much thinner.
Charly and I set out in his four-wheel drive truck to Canyon X. The four wheel drive was not for show, as we went off road on what I believe was some challenging terrain. Charly took his time, demonstrating his familiarity with the terrain and equipment, and we made it to our destination without incident. After parking the truck, we walked down a ravine to get to the canyon entrance.
What a difference those first few steps into Canyon X make. You go from the hot and sunny desert to a much cooler and darker canyon. The sandstone walls ranged in color from a bright orange to purple where the light was dimmest.
I spent three hours photographing Canyon X. It was great being the only person there photographing the Canyon that day. Well, Charly took a few shots with his new telephoto zoom lens. While I could see well in the canyon, it was dark enough that I had to use long exposures. Some of the exposures were thirty seconds long.
As I was photographing the lower part of the Canyon, Charly went and scouted the upper part. Unfortunately, he reported, it was still flooded. While a little disappointed, I managed to use the time to take additional shots of the lower part.
At one point in the morning, a sun beam came down into the canyon. Charly threw some sand into the air, and I took some photos of the beam of light. I've posted one on flickr, but more will come.
At 11:16 am, I took my last picture and we headed back to town. Charly ran some errands while I checked out and grabbed a snack. Then we headed out to Antelope Canyon.
Antelope Canyon is much more accessible than Canyon X. The drive to Antelope is much shorter, and the entrance is adjacent to the parking lot. You don't have to walk down a ravine, you just walk right in. There were only three or four trucks in the parking lot when we arrived. Charly told me that this was good, as he'd been there before when there were thirty plus trucks. He'd seen photographers yelling at each other when it gets really crowded.
While I didn't have this canyon to myself like I did earlier in the day, I was able to be in parts of it by myself for extended periods of time. I went to the back first, and after a tour group went through, I had twenty minutes to shoot with no-one around. It basically followed that pattern for the two plus hours that I was there.
After we were done, Charly and I headed back to his shop to settle up. Normally he has a minimum of two people on his tours, but he made an exception for me. I expected that he might have charged me a premium for this, but Charly treated me more than fairly. At some point I want to go back and have him show me some of the places that he and I had discussed in the morning, places like South Coyote Buttes and the Wave.
I'd say that Antelope is probably more beautiful than Canyon X, but they are both impressive in their own ways. Having Canyon X to myself, and knowing I was the only one shooting it that day made it kind of special. Antelope has one large open area that is probably more impressive than anything in Canyon X. Still, I really enjoyed both.
Next I hopped in the Mustang and headed to Jacob's Lake Inn, which is located about an hour from the Grand Canyon North Rim. When I arrived and checked in, I realized that the $120 that I paid per night didn't buy me much in the way of luxury. I was paying for location. The room did have air conditioning, but did not have a TV or internet. The bathroom was tiny, and the hot water heater sat right next to the toilette. When I was sitting at one point, I brushed against it and recoiled from the heat.
I found out later that they had rooms for an additional twenty dollars per night which were more modern and nicer. Still, I wasn't there to watch TV and surf the net, so it wasn't a big deal.
There aren't a lot of restaurants around, so I ate at the lunch counter at the hotel. They also had a sit down restaurant, but I really didn't want to spend a lot on dinner. The hamburger that I ate there was probably the best I had while in the states.
I turned in early that night, as I was going to get up early the next morning. The next day would be eventful, just not quite in the way I anticipated.
No comments:
Post a Comment