Upper Antelope Canyon Navajo Nation Arizona

This is Upper Antelope Canyon. If you have had a Southwestern calendar in the last 50 years you most likely have seen pictures of it. Many times you will have seen the famous images of this canyon with a single light beam coming down from the ceiling a hundred feet or more overhead to illuminate a spot on the floor. Or the classic shots of swirls of color looking like old-fashion pulled taffy.

The colors are what get everyone. The spectacular combinations of reds and purples, oranges and light yellows that constantly change their hues and intensities as the sun moves across the opening in the ceiling above. So mesmerizing are these colors that many times you forget to look around and take in some of the other aspects of this incredible place. You are totally caught up in examining this display of exotic hues up close. The immediacy of the walls, the narrowness of the canyon, the normally short viewing distances, make you feel like you’re locked into a stone rainbow or a slowly adjusting kaleidoscope.

There are several places where you can see into the canyon for a short distance and it gives you a completely different perspective. It looks as if the canyon goes on forever with a new secret around each twist and bend. The floor is made up of a river of sand the consistency of fine flour that feels marvelous beneath your feet. This slow-moving stream that has been moving through this canyon for eons wants to carry you into the depths and will if you let it.