Lower Antelope Canyon

This is the lessor known, and probably lessor visited of the Antelope Canyons, but I highly recommend this canyon (as well as the upper location).  They are two entirely different canyons.  The lower Antelope Canyon is a classic example of a beautiful slot canyon.  It's easy to traverse (with install steps to get up and down and gets to a very deep part of the canyon. 

It's two most known photos are the eagle:

And the maiden:

This is the way my hair looks every morning!!!

The canyon is filled with beautiful shots one after the other.  Walt did HDR (high dynamic range) photos which take a while to process, but here are some of the rest of mine from this beautiful canyon

Unbelievable aren't they.  And remember this is the lessor know Canyon. 

The canyon is on Navajo Native American Tribe land, and you will need a permit from the Navajos, as well as a guide.  You can do the standard tour for penance or the photo tour for a very reasonable price.  For the photo tour you will need a DSLR or SLR and a tripod to get some of the great settings for the light.  Armando our guide (he's a really sharp dresser)....

 knew how to work everyone's camera and even knew some settings on mine that I didn't know it could do.  Pretty impressive.  It doesn't take anytime at all to get a reservation online or by phone (check out the link to get the phone information). 

The next slot canyon on our three-day slot-canyon extravaganza is even lesser know Water Holes.

The Colors Are Always Beautiful

So Walt has his camera out messing around with it before we take on the slot canyons and this is the result.

 

This is the view outside our RV every evening when sit down to enjoy the evening.  The water is almost artificially blue and the cliffs are almost artificially red. Coming into Lake Powell at the park entrance can seem like some other-worldly experience because the water is so blue after driving through such arid climate.  

What always amazes me as an artist is the natural occurrence over and over of opposites in the color wheel.  In this case these opposites:

 

In this case the rusts of the earth and the blue of the sky and the aqua of the lake.  There are several things here that work in favor of this - the deep lake which makes it extra blue, and the red earth which makes for a super contrast showing off the blue even more and the blue showing off the red even more.  

In the days to come, we visit a double whammy of photographers dreams so I'm sure we will have plenty to post tomorrow!!!

On The Road Again

It's been too long and after a few mishaps and minor glitches we have the old lady (and that does not refer to me thankyouverymuch!) up and running an d we're off with a bang to Page AZ. Page AZ you say?...what's there?  Well it's practically the slot canyon capital of the world. And what are slot canyons?  They are these cool canyons that have been carved out of stone by years of erosion by water and usually but not always in beautiful sandstone colors.

 Traveling out I40 is really amazing as the terrain.  Each state seems to have it's own contour....out in western Oklahoma - it's really really flat.

 

Which makes for these kind of skyscrapers!

 And the minute we hit the TX/NM border the mesas start to appear.

And the out of NM into AZ the sky seems to get bluer and the earth turns amazing colors.

 

This is the beginning of the Grand Staircase which shows the 6 steps of the staircase - from top to bottom: Pink Cliffs (Bryce NP), Grey Cliffs, White Cliffs, Vermilion Cliffs (Kanab, UT), Chocolate Cliffs and the Grand Canyon.

You can not tour this part of the world and not get interested in geology.

 

A quick trip

From about October to the end of the year, any traveling around in the state is fun and usually colorful if not filled with migrating birds, animals getting ready for winter (either rutting or feeding) and trees in colorful display.

Even this far into fall there are beautiful landscapes to be had:

The Southern Plains in the fall plants a crop of winter wheat which this time of year is usually a green velvet fuzz on the ground.

Traveling down the road, it's impossible to miss the contrast between the green velvet fuzz and the harvested corn, sorghum crops fields.  The light yellow in contrast with the deep green makes a gorgeous contrast.

 

And there's nothing prettier than the frost on the crop early late fall/early winter morning.  This provides not only a second crop for the farmers but also cattle can be run on these fields which goes a long way toward sustaining a winter herd of stock. 

 

But that's not the only thing out in the fields.  After a crop is harvested, there are the inevitable grain left on the field.  There is no way to  gather all the grain, and certain animals know that and are there to aid in the gathering of that grain.

In the morning sun, the beautiful colors of pheasants are gorgeous, as they are roosting in a tree next to a recently harvest field.

They are naturally skittish and as I walked closer and closer, they all began to fly away.

 

They are just as beautiful in flight as they are in the sun!   We continued to see a lot of them in the field, but never as beautifully displayed as here.

Celebrating Birthday

Well, this was a fine birthday for me - started with a nice sleep in and then a ride into town to get a few essentials at the grocery store, but what should appear outside, but a guy roasting chilies!!!  Way too cool, as I had been told that chili season was over.  So went inside to pester the employees and they were all very helpful and nice and walked out with 8 bags of hot freshly roasted chilies...next is chili hoarding season!!!

This is the view out our rear window every day - I know it's a tough job...yada, yada, yada!  The trees at the top of the mountains are just changing (aspens) and they are going to be glorious while we're here.

Here's another shot close up - they turn yellow gold then red!

Another view with the chamisa in the foreground - this is a painting begging to be done!

It's like the chamisa is color-coordinated with the aspens in the mountains - and of course the opposite of gold and orange is......blue!

Just before sunset we trekked over to the Rio Grand Gorge bridge and Siggy came along for a walk...here's a man and his dog!

And sunset on the gorge bridge didn't disappoint (I'm feeling another painting!)

This is a wider view - the colors just keep getting richer and deeper the further the sun goes down.

From the other side of the sky - I promise these colors aren't fake.

Back out on the road

There is serious color during the fall in northern New Mexico, and we even talked some friends into joining us.

Not only are the trees glowing.....

But so are the skies:

  

The trees are just starting their show, so while we're here, we expect them to only get better.

 This isn't only a photographic journey, but I do hope to get some painting done!

I have lots of natural color to work with here!

A Little Catching UP

Walt's done a bit of traveling but for business, but took his camera to shoot some magnificent shots of the state bird.

Such beautiful shots, that I didn't know our state bird had so much color under those wings!!