We set our alarms for 6 a.m. because we were worried that our phones wouldn't go off at the right time due to the mountain time zone in Utah, we were at the border of Utah and Navajo Nation stays on daylight savings time, (does not change their clocks) to maintain a consistent time throughout its territory. We got ready for the day and then packed up our stuff into the suitcases. I made sure I brought my warm clothes with me since it is still chilly in the mornings up in Northern Arizona.
We took our suitcases and other items out to the rental car and then went back inside to eat our free breakfast. I had French toast, a banana and some orange juice. Mom checked us out and left our keys at the lobby desk and we sat and hung out until our ride showed up for our Antelope Canyon tour. I posted some of our pictures on Instagram while we waited. I saw a geocaching story on the front page of the local newspaper and read the story. It talked about the St. Patrick's Day event they held in town.
Our ride was supposed to be there by 8:30 but our guide was running a little bit late when he arrived at 8:45. He introduced himself as Cordell and we got into the van. He explained how the day was going to go and what we needed to do when we got to our destinations. He handed us a waiver to sign as he told us about himself, and we shared who we were and why we were in Arizona. Then it was just some small talk the rest of the way to Antelope Canyon.
We pulled off the highway to access Lake Powell and the entrance to Lower Antelope Canyon which is in a restricted fee area because it is on Navajo Nation land. It is closed to the public because of safety and to prevent vandalism to the delicate Navajo Sandstone. We learned that Antelope Canyon has a daily cap, no video is allowed on Navajo Nation (it is a rule), no bags allowed, they suggest you wear sturdy shoes/hikers and that you MUST be on a tour, or you can't come onto the land. We did a lot of research before booking a tour to come see the canyon.
He took us to the parking lot, he checked us in, gave us a tour sticker and told us to head over to the gate and wait for our 9:30 tour group. We only had to wait like 10 minutes which wasn't that bad. We wandered around the gift shop and the small "museum." As it approached tour time, we got in line and waited for our tour guide. Our tour guide introduced himself as Ben B and we were with four other people. A couple from Minnesota and two people from India.
Ben told us the rules as we walked towards the entrance of the canyon. He shared with us a little bit about himself, his family and why he does tours when he isn't teaching at the local high school. He told us once we get to the stairs there is absolutely no pictures while we are on the stairs, due to safety. We each climbed down inside 75 feet below the surface. Antelope Canyon has been on my bucket list for several years. He said we would be walking a little less than a mile and stopping at many spots to talk about the various formations.
Once we all got down into the canyon, he explained the history and geology along the way as well as took the time to take pictures of everyone in his group. He was a wiz with the settings on our phone cameras. I even learned something about my phone as we hiked through. We stopped at an area, and he told us about the 2022 flash floods. He said there were 11 separate floods during monsoon season that shut down the canyons for a while each time a flood went roaring down the canyon. He explained that the canyon is different every time it rains due to erosion. It makes a giant mess, and they have to clean it out and put sand down at the bottom (to make it easier to walk on when doing tours). It takes three days with about 160 people, buckets and shovels, to make it safe to walk through again. The last flood created a new hole and eroded the canyon four inches in some places. It was wild!
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As we approached the end of our tour, he took one more picture of us near the exit and showed us where we had to climb out at. We emerged out of the very narrow crack and then followed Ben back to the building to conclude the tour. We thanked him for a great time and gave him a small tip because he did an excellent job. We met Cordell at the van in the parking lot.
He took us to our next destination, Horseshoe Bend, another place that's been on my list to go visit. It was just right outside of town to the south. Along the way, he shared stories with us about his travels with his family over the years and said that he has been to Washington State. He said he found Washington State so pretty and green. We told him we didn't live too far from Mount Rainier, and he thought that was cool.
We pulled off the highway into the entrance, he paid our fee and dropped us off near the trailhead and told us we had about an hour to explore. It was about a 10–15-minute (half a mile) walk to the main event. I was so excited to finally see it in person. There were a lot of people walking around and peering off the edge but there was plenty of space to check out Horseshoe Bend. I got closer and was amazed when I finally got to the edge. The place was awesome! We enjoyed the scenery, took tons of pictures and worked on the earthcache, Horseshoe Bend Overlook (GC4VDY9). It wanted us to answer questions about the bend itself and what we thought the future held for the meandering bend.
Our time was running out, so we took our time walking back. We saw other fun "earth porn" on the way back to the trail. Cordell was right there waiting for us in the parking lot, and we arrived right when he asked us to be back. Perfect timing. He asked us if we wanted to go to Glen Canyon Dam still and we said yes, because we wanted to get our money's worth. It was a short drive from Horseshoe Bend. He pulled into the lot and let us out. He said we had about a half hour here to explore but we knew we weren't going to spend that much time down there because it was a dam overlook, nothing all that exciting. We took a few pictures, called it good and was only down there for about 10 minutes. It forms Lake Powell behind it, one of the largest reservoirs in the US.
We hopped back into the van, and he took us back to our hotel. We made some small talk and thanked him for taking us to our adventures. Mom got out a tip and handed it him. We wished each other a good rest of our day. He drove off and we went into the hotel one more time to use the bathroom before our next destination. Mom and I got organized inside the rental car, set the GPS to Flagstaff and stopped at the Walmart one more time for some more ice and a couple more snacks for the road. I saw there was a geocache in the parking lot and couldn't help myself. I grabbed When Will Beernuts Come and Get This One? (GC2ZDZQ). Yes, it was a lamp skirt cache.
We drove the two hours down Route 89 to Flagstaff. I wanted to take a side trip to Winslow since we were in Arizona.
We hopped onto I-40 and headed east. It was a 114-mile detour round trip for this experience, but to me, it was worth it. I wish we would have had an extra two hours to visit the meteor crater between Flagstaff and Winslow though but sadly, we were not going to have time on this trip to see it.
We rolled into Winslow and immediately found the iconic corner. I found a place to park, and we spent about an hour exploring "Standin on a Corner" Park. We worked on the virtual cache, Standin on a Corner (GC64F7), took a bunch of photos and read all of the plaques and Route 66 information. We went into the souvenir shop kitty corner from the statue and browsed for a little bit. Of course, I got my post cards and fridge magnet. The lady was nice and visited with us for a couple minutes. She asked where we were from and where we were going. We answered her and paid for our stuff.
I wanted to stop one more place before we left Winslow, their 9/11 memorial on the east end of town. I set the GPS to the cache that was there and off we went. There wasn't that much traffic through town, so it didn't take us long to get to the end of town. We found a place to park, got out and enjoyed how this town decided to represent 9/11 and how they remembered the victims. It was a nice remembrance garden with a couple pieces of the towers. I saw there was a cache nearby at the dog park too. I walked across the lawn to grab Winslow Bark Park RT 66 (GC8RA12). It was a nano hidden on the fence.
We got back on the road and stopped at the Flying J to get gas before heading back to Flagstaff. It was right at one of the on ramps to get back onto I-40. It was Mom's turn to purchase gas, so we took care of that, used the restroom and got back onto the freeway, this time heading west. A little less than an hour later, we took the wrong exit and headed down I-17 to Sedona. We didn't want to take I-17 or we'd be back tracking. Instead, we corrected our mistake and found the correct road 89A. We got stuck behind a van who hit a large bird in front of us and then continued to go slow until I just couldn't stand it anymore. We pulled off the side of the road and let him drive away. That road is very windy, and I could see how it would be closed often in the wintertime.
The place that I wanted to stop at was still closed for the season and probably didn't open until Memorial Day Weekend. We got to the edge of Sedona and stopped on the side of the road to take a couple landscape photos. I knew we wouldn't have time to do any hikes--that will have to be on the next trip here. We got into down just before 6 and had to sit in the rental car until then, so we didn't have to pay for parking.
Once it hit 6, we walked up the road to find Scorpion on the Porch (GC19CXD) before walking around the shops for a little bit. We did find a couple things to take home with us, including, a sticker for my suitcase. I saw there was another cache across the street near the Pink Jeeps called Missing Lynx (GC309EE). That one would have been hard if there were a ton of people walking around the town...but I got lucky. I told Mom we should find something to eat soon so we could finish the rest of our drive down to Phoenix. We found a place called Don Diego, a Mexican place, and we both shared a taco/enchilada combo. It was pretty good! We went into a couple more shops and then decided to call it quits and head to our last destination for the evening.
We left Sedona and headed the 120 miles to Phoenix. On the way, Mom booked two nights in the wrong Peoria (we found out because the address didn't exist in the GPS). My stomach dropped because we had nowhere to stay for two nights. Mom called the hotel in Illinois and canceled our reservations (sadly no refund) and found another hotel in North Phoenix instead, a La Quinta Inn, just off of I-17. Once it was booked, we plugged it into the GPS and away we went. The freeway was just terrible from Sedona to Phoenix, and we did have to stop a few times for night construction. We found out this region received a lot of snow and rain this past winter and just destroyed all the roads. The roads here are not made to handle weather like that.
As we got closer to Phoenix, we saw signs that said that I-17 was closed and to use a detour. I just followed the detour and we eventually got to our hotel around 8:45. I pulled up to the entrance, Mom got out and checked us in. She came back with two keys to room 161 on the backside of the hotel. I was glad we were on the bottom floor. It was a pretty basic room with no fridge or microwave which was a huge bummer because I wanted some popcorn. Oh well. I had some of my Fritos and an orange.
We got settled in, I talked to Ben for a bit about our trip thus far, got in a shower, watched a little bit of TV, journaled and got ready for bed. We didn't have to get up quite as early the next day which was nice.
Some notes on the day:
From Page to Flagstaff to Winslow, back to Flagstaff, to Sedona and to North Phoenix we drove 390 miles.
We walked 12,305 steps which is a little over five miles.
We finally got to experience Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend.
We stood on the corner in Winslow, Arizona...such a fine sight to see.
We saw another 9/11 Memorial, this time in Arizona.
We made two mistakes on this trip but glad we were able to fix them quickly.
We found six geocaches, of those six, four were traditionals, one earthcache and one virtual.
Next Adventure: Nevada/Arizona Vacation: Mariners Spring Training vs. Padres, In-N-Out and Hike Up North Mountain
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