Antelope canyon and death valley

The Red canyons are an area of red colured natural rock formations hills and steep faces ,its about 24 km from Las Vegas and is well known as trekking trails rock climbing and other adventure sports .

Miles of huge staccato red hued hills dot the surface and it was a photographers delight

After our overnight stay in a very warm cosy homely cottage in the town of Page ( AirBnb and one of the best we had stayed ,rented by a family who were  away it had everything in good taste from the fireplace to the cosy beds to the quaint piano to tap away  )

We had a breakfast of fresh farm eggs omelette with some fresh bread and hot strong coffee to wash it down and suitably suited with our woollens we were off to another day of adventure into the famous Antelope canyons .

This was in Navajo country almost like a red Indian reserve ,there were two sighting points upper an lower Antelope canyons .

The special feature of these canyons were they were limestone hills carved by the forces of nature specially water over the years creating visually very pleasing natural art ,the upper antelope canyon was a t ground level ad was more easier to walk across it was more like narrow tall caves with light filtering from the top lighting up the myriad colours of the stone sculptured by the rain water and at times flash flood over the years .

The lower canyon was more difficult to reach as it involved metal spiral  steps  to climb down made slippery by falling sand from top and one had to ascend and descend at least five to six flights of stairs ,the advantage was it was better of photography and professional photographers frequented it more with their tripods rather than the normal tourist .

it was called HasdiStazi by the Navojhos or spiral rock arches

all tours here are guided as the danger of flash floods specially during monsoons existed always ,within minutes the water level could drown all inside those canyons and it had happened a couple of times too

We bought our tour tickets for the upper Antelope canyon and found that the place was run by Navajho Indians ,

There was a Hopi dance as part of the tour and it was exciting to see the colourful young man leaping and bounding with his hoop to the song and beat of his friends ,the howl of a coyote and the bounding of antelopes and the flowing of water was all brilliantly enacted and we also came to know that annual Hopi dance competitions were very popular and one had to learn it the hard way from a master and it wasn't easy too  

After this we were asked to get into small open trucks and driven across dusty sandy dunes to distant hillock where we alighted and got into the caves

It was spell binding the smooth crenulations of the walls with its myriad colours all sculpted by nature and the light falling from the top made it ideal of photographs ,for a long way we winded through the narrow passageways at times in one file and had to squeeze through to give way to those who were returning back but we never felt claustrophobic as the tunnels were lit by light on off and quite tall though narrow .

the upper Antelope canyon was called Tse Bignalini by the Navojho which means the place where water rune through .