On The Road Again...First Stop-Page AZ

A few days of volunteering, an exit interview with Darci our Park Supervisor and we were officially done with our workamp assignment. It was a great winter of learning about and watching the desert go through a few seasons. We had a wonderful experience at Spur Cross Ranch Conservation Area and living at Cave Creek Regional Park, we recommend them both, CCRP for camping if you find yourself in Phoenix and a location on the north side of town works for you. We also encourage anyone in the area to take the time and spend a day hiking at SCRCA, there are trails for all hiking abilities. We will miss all the friends we made at the parks and the friends we made who live locally, we will be back...in a few years.

With a last visit with our son David, his wife Laura and David's best friend James, it was time to hit the road.

We pulled out of CCRP at 8:45 on Sunday morning with Page AZ as our destination. The weather decided to be fickle and with signs saying "Caution Winter Driving Conditions" we  watched the truck thermometer bottom out at 33*, thankfully all of the precipitation we had was rain but earlier it had been snowing. 4 hours later we arrived at Page-Lake Powell Campground, we're definitely going to have to get used to closer quarters again.

On Monday we headed over the Lees Ferry area, we had hiked in that area a number of years ago...long before we had an rv. Then we did the Colorado River trail but Monday we headed out to try Spencer Trail. I didn't check before we left but later found out the trail has a 1550' elevation gain in under 2 miles. I made it about 950' or 1.5 miles and finally couldn't go any further. Dave hiked up another 500' but didn't quite make it to the top. While we've been doing lots of power walks in the last few weeks I'm just not in shape for that much elevation gain in such a short distance, give me time and I'll get there...next time hopefully I'll make it. Otherwise it was a great hike and took us up high above the Colorado River where we got some fabulous views. In hind site we're glad we turned around when we did, as soon as we were back at the truck the rain started coming down.  

Tuesday was our day for Antelope Canyon, both upper and lower. We have been to Page a few times but never got the chance to walk these slot canyons. To access them you must go with a Navajo guide. For the upper canyon we chose Antelope Canyon Slot Tours and booked a 10:30 tour time. Our guide, Irene, has been doing these tours since they started and was knowledgeable, if you let her she will even use your camera to get the best pictures. The time we chose was very busy but because of the time we all so got to see the sunbeams shining down into the canyon. Earlier tours are not so crowded but you also loose the sunbeam shots. Words cannot describe the beauty that we saw, I'll just let the pictures speak for themselves.

  Later Tuesday we headed back out to Antelope Canyon to do our lower tour. For this tour we chose Kens Tours our guide Michael just happened to be the son of the man who started Antelope Canyon Slot Tours. These tours require lots of stairs down into the canyon and then short sets of stairs back up out of the canyon. Again the guides are great about makings sure you get the best shots and will gladly help you. While not quite as beautiful as the upper canyon (and a lot less expensive) it was still worth the cost, lots less people too. If you do the tours on the same day you only have to pay Navajo tribal land entrance fee ($8/person) once.

After our tours we had the opportunity to catch up with some friends who were in the area. They were camped out at Wahweap National Park which has a beautiful campground but is also cost quite a bit more than where we stayed. Great to see you Nancy, Jean Marc and Tiki, safe travels to MO.

Wednesday we decided to take in Horseshoe Bend State Park and also do another hike at Lee's Ferry. It's a short hike to Horseshoe Bend but crazy busy with tourist, we heard they get 2 million guests a year which averages out to 5500+ people a day, we were fortunate to stop when there were no buses there.

Our hike at Lee's Ferry took us up Cathedral Wash, we spent a couple of hours walking up a few different washes but never found the area we had been in during our last visit in 2011, we must have been up the wash we didn't take on Wednesday.

We will be moving to Kanab UT today,