The American Dream Trip - Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend

Upon arriving at the campsite, our inexperience probably got the best of us. In the midst of scratching our heads and trying to figure out how to put our tent together, the nicest Park Ranger who was making his rounds yelled out at us amusingly from his little pick up, "Y'all need some help there?!". And not only was he ever so kind as to help put our tent together, he even brought us a load of firewood so that we could have a bonfire!

As soon as we had the campsite sorted, we headed straight to the lake for some kayaking on Lake Powell. The company we hired to take us out on the water was Kayak Lake Powell which I would totally recommend just because they treated us very nicely. Oh and they had really hot guides which were definitely a bonus! ;) The took us for a half-day excursion, kayaking deep into the wide portions of Antelope Canyon. I had been kayaking before in Croatia so I kinda had a little idea of what was to come but the lake was massive and there were people jet skiing and boat tours, it was quite a different experience than sea kayaking.

See what I meant about the cutie guide (in the hat) ;)

The landscape was nothing short of spectacular! We definitely had loads of fun despite having a massive sandstorm chase us back to shore, we still managed to squeeze in a little swimming and cliff jumping while at it!

Speaking of the sandstorm which wasnt very kind to us as we approached our campsite to find that it had ravaged our tent to the ground with its strong wind! Seeing this upon arriving still kinda wet from the lake and being first time campers, I must admit, it did dampen our morals slightly. More so when we found out that the storm had actually broken one of our main tent poles! Gosh, we had to make do with a little bit of creative tying and crossing our fingers that we would last the night.

Note our wonky tent!

Mornings at Lake Powell were really nice. Our surrounding was breathtaking and the air was unbelievably delicious! We had a dinner of some instant noodles and Brahim's ready meals heated up the night before and we fried up some scrambled eggs and nutella bread (YUM!) in the morning. Because we were also due for a whole day out, we packed some egg and nutella sandwiches to take with us to The Antelope Canyon and The Horseshoe Bend.

We were a little bit worried as the weather that morning was slightly drizzly, with some leftover rain from the storm last night. This canyon, being a very narrow slot canyon has the potential to collect rainwater very quickly and also endure flashflooding but thank goodness the weather perked up later that morning and we could enjoy the beauty of this canyon.

 It was purely impossible to take a bad picture in this setting!

 

If you were wondering, this is how narrow some of the portions of this canyon were.

Since the Antelope Canyon was in the Navajo Tribal Park (not part of the National Parks group) we had to have a guide from the Navajo Tribe take us for a tour. I couldnt quite remember what ours was called but he had a really cool tribe name... maybe along the lines of Big Brother Eagle or something like that.

Then we took a 30-minute drive to The Horseshoe Bend. It was a pretty easy hike to the actual viewpoint which really was a magnificent spectacle! The Colorado river which runs through The Grand Canyon and switchbacks on itself to carve out this beauty.

 

Being up there was slightly nervy (you can probably tell from our nervous smiles and uncomfortable poses as the edge of the rim literally ends in an almost 90-degree drop that would surely hurt(?) if one were to fall! Lol

Until the next post!

P xx