Antelope Canyon X

 We drove South into Arizona to see Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon is a series of slot canyons on the Navajo Reservation and requires special permission and payment for access. Cindy picked Antelope Canyon X from among the different options. The name comes from Antelope using the slots as a migration route. At one time the Navajo would block antelope in the canyon and kill them for food. When Lake Powell was filled this blocked the immigration path and the antelope found a different route. The following are images from our time in the canyon.

Our guide provided the following demonstrations (I had to compress so Blogger would accept). Videos are better if you expand to full size. 

Crocodile fossil

Here is the reason it is called Antelope Canyon X. 

Lesson learned

We did not understand when booking access to an Antelope Canyon visit that there were multiple slot canyons. Because one says that the canyon is accessible by the elderly and those with mobility problems a different slot is not necessarily the same. We just thought we were visiting Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon X is accessed by a trail that descends abruptly for a length of about two football fields. Some of this trail is deep sand and the rest steps and sand side by side. The climb back up to the vehicles was quite challenging and we had to stop several times to catch our breath and get our hearts to slow down. We were last in returning by a significant amount of time. Tough being the old folks.