Mtn. Sheep Canyon -- A Very Different Slot

Continuing on with photos from the slot canyons near Page, AZ.... Steve, my husband, and I visited two other slot canyons this past Tuesday, Mtn. Sheep and Rattlesnake. Both were very different from Upper Antelope canyon, but equally as fascinating. Upper Antelope, as I mentioned before, is very wide and spacious in many areas at the wash bed (bottom), both Mtn. Sheep and Rattlesnake are very narrow. In the second photo here you can see the sandy bottom of Mtn Sheep canyon and, yes, it IS that narrow. We were literally brushing along the smooth, cool sandstone walls on both sides at once. Both of these photos are from Mtn. Sheep. I will post some photos from Rattlesnake next, which I feel was much more photogenic.

Quite an interesting experience!

Photos were taken with a Canon G9 on a tripod with long exposure times.

Glowing Sandstone Walls at Antelope Canyon

You know how some adventures in life just don't quite meet your expectations and you go away a little disappointed? Well this adventure so surpassed my expectations, I was literally blown away. Yesterday, my husband and I went on a guided photographer's tour into Upper Antelope Canyon. This is most likely the best known and most photographed of the slot canyons just a few miles southeast of Page, Arizona. I will talk about our tour guide in a later post, but suffice it to say that she was wonderful.

The slot canyons have been carved from the local Navajo sandstone by the tremendous forces of repeated flash floods. Upper Antelope is truly amazing -- very narrow in many places at the rim, which is as much as 100 feet above your head, but with many large room structures at the sandy bed. Yes, there are many very narrow spots as well, but what was so different from the other two slots we also visited yesterday, was the spaciousness of many areas of the canyon. In fact, it's difficult to get a sense of just how large parts of the canyon are without including people in your shots (like here) in order to get a sense of scale. Also, almost needless to say, the place lends itself to mostly vertical shots.

I decided to post these first few photos as taken with my Canon G9...no touchups with Photoshop (promise!). The camera performed like a champ! I couldn't be happier with it. I took all of the shots here in full manual mode, f2.8-5.0, 1/30 - 6 second exposures on a tripod. I will add the specifics if anyone wants to know. Some photos were shot with a Raynox high-def 0.7x wide-angle conversion lens.

Please enjoy!