Ok seriously, there are some pretty places on this earth of ours.
And I’m pretty sure we went to one of the very prettiest on the last day of our road trip.

Exploring Utah’s Gorgeous Antelope Canyon

How in the world did I not know this place was right there next to Lake Powell all these years??
My brother Josh always knows where the cool places are when he goes on road trips.  When I saw his pictures of this place I knew that was a top priority for our road trip.
It’s called Antelope Canyon and it’s right outside of Page, Arizona.

You can go to Upper Antelope Canyon or Lower Antelope Canyon.  I read a bunch of reviews and they both sounded equally fantastic, Upper is just above ground and Lower is below.  By the time I called in the reservations happened to be taken for the Upper one so we went to the Lower one which is also a little less expensive to get into.  You have to climb up and down ladders to get in and out which kind of makes it fun and adventurous, but also made me worry a tad bit about Lucy.

But she did great…

…thanks to her awesome Dad’s help.
It’s kind of cool because you would never know this place is there from the looks of it on the onset:

See those people up there?  They are almost to the entrance under ground.
You just walk across this barren land…

…until you get to a ladder they have made to climb down in.

And that’s when the kids’ eye rolls that I was making them go to another hot stop on our road trip turned into sheer awe and reverence.

This place came to be after years upon years of wind and flash floods.

There is only a little bit of light that can come in from the top because the walls curve up so close together:

…which makes the light on that red sandstone so incredibly breathtaking.

There’s no way pictures can do it justice, but Elle and I had to keep trying 🙂

And Grace took some of these too.

I just found this video she took…love, love, love how I can hear her quiet-beauty-awe while she’s trying to capture it:

(We had to at least try…)

This is how we looked coming out:

…except that that is some random person 🙂

You can bet we picked up some sand to take back for a souvenir for our travel display cubbies (back HERE).

…and one of the kids even suggested that.

Which made my heart happy.

We also stopped to see the Glen Canyon Dam which was pretty cool:

We walked across this bridge to catch the view from either side.

This was off of one side:

And this was the other:

The last stop was Horseshoe Bend.

By this time everyone was ready to veg out and watch a movie in the car.

But we couldn’t leave when this spot was so close!

It was a little 3/4 mile hike off the road which seemed like it should be easy but it was hot.

And uphill (the part we could see from the parking lot).

And in deep sand.

So I had everyone stay in the car a/c and I went to check how far it really was.

I got to this point and figured it was right there, but it was still a ways away.

There was no cell reception and it was too hot to go back so I decided I’d just take one for the team and take pictures for everyone else.
…until Elle snuck up behind me.
Bless her sweet little heart.
We walked through kind of deep hot-as-blazes sand in our perfect hiking shoes:

Ouch.

(My flip flop broke at Bear Lake and I only brought one pair so I luckily found these cuties in an old bin…)

Almost to the edge:

Ta Da!

Is that gorgeous or what?

We just had to bask in God’s grandeur for a little bit.

Elle freaked me out a little bit doing this:
God put a masterpiece right there.
How grateful I am for this beautiful world.
How grateful we were to get back HOME.
And to bask in the memories of a wonderful summer.

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14 Comments

  1. Awww. I love Lake Powell and all the beauty around it. I often sit back and look at what a great and beautiful artist God is, all these pictures are beautiful. Now I just miss it more 🙁

  2. isn't horseshoe bend incredible? and now i'm dying to go to antelope canyon. have you seen pictures of the wave? also down there and really hard to get a permit but i really really want to go. let's go together 🙂

    love you!

  3. amazing! I must say though, Elle doing a handstand that close to the edge made me completely nauseous and still gives me the chills. Very afraid of heights over here!
    Utah is beautiful! 🙂

  4. Those photos are amazing. Dad helped the owner get in touch with marketing people to help him market it. I doubt they did any better job than you have done! Thanks for the boost. We'll tell you more about it in person. Dad has been there but I haven't and hope to see it soon!

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