Lower Antelope Canyon, Lake Powell

Just when you thought you’d seen all of what the famous Route 66 has to offer, you deviate from the road for a few hours and end up at Lower Antelope Canyon, a natural spiral of rich red rock that has you lost in lust in seconds!

Lower Antelope Canyon

Following on from our epic Route 66 Road Trip last year, I present to you The Lower Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona.

Putting into words this natural wonder and describing just how beautifully unique the Antelope canyons are is a real challenge! The rich red carved shoots and holes are a natural jaw dropping phenomenon. The crooks are a direct creation from water flow in the areas and the cracks vary in depth and width as you wander through. Walking through the Lower Antelope Canyon is like walking through pages from the national geographic, it’s every photographers dream! Unfortunately for me I only had my smaller digital camera on hand so I apologise for these images as they are not as crisp as I would usually like to publish. That being said, even on an Iphone, snaps here will rival any other slice of earth you have banked n your camera roll.

We drove here after our trip to the Grand Canyon and decided to head straight to the smaller canyon (There are two, Upper & Lower) to take a guided tour. You are only allowed to walk through the canyons on an accompanied tour which you can book yourself into on arrival. There are two businesses to choose from, both are based side by side at the canyon’s entrance which is well signposted and they are both the same price. We just chose the one with the closest parking space 😉

You enter down in groups of 10 to 15 people via the man-made staircases and take a tour through for roughly an hour. There’s ample opportunities to take pictures here and you won’t be able to refrain from taking hundreds trust me! I didn’t take my DSLR (my pro camera) down in the canyon as I was out of battery at the time, instead I took my smaller digital camera and my IPhone which I set to HDR (I highly suggest you do the same!) and used the chrome filter to really bring out those deep red colours.

Lake Powell

After meandering through the depths of the canyon we drove for about 30 minutes to cool off in some natural waters 🙂

Lake Powell was one of those places that was circled and starred on our Route 66 fold out map. As most of you know by now, I am an official water baby; Swimming, scuba diving, floating, frolicking even dipping my toe in water, I am obsessed! So the idea of a giant lake famed for water-sports, camping and beaching located in the middle of the desert really appealed to me and it’s proximity to the Grand Canyon and Antelope Canyon’s was a sure fire way to get me packing my swimsuit for a drive by.

We were travelling outside of peak season which had it’s benefits in terms of seclusion but also meant there were less activities to get involved in. Lake Powell is a really popular spot for families that love the outdoors in summer. You can set up camp here for weeks and have so much to do, whether it’s on land or water!

If you are planning to do Route 66  I highly recommend deviating from the road for a day and checking these two places out, they are so worth the drive!