Day 6 (part 2): Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell

*Sorry this is out of order, I forgot about these pictures.*

After spending the morning at Antelope Canyon we went to a scenic outlook called Horseshoe Bend, which is where the Colorado River makes a bend that looks like a horseshoe (aptly named, right?). I wish I had a wider lens, but I think you get the picture of what it looked like. It was really pretty and definitely worth the short hike.

 

Next we went to Lake Powell, which is a stunningly beautiful lake pictured below (I found this photo online).

But, we didn’t take the time to see any of the gorgeous lake. Instead, we pulled off at a tiny beach where no one else was and we ended up inventing the best game of all time and the next thing we knew, 3 hours had passed and it was sundown. We may have missed some beautiful sights, but these may have been the best 3 hours of the trip.

The targets. We placed these rocks on a rock ledge that was just barely underwater.

The game pieces. We all stood several feet from the water’s edge behind a line we drew on the beach, and we all threw our rocks one at a time at the targets. Whoever got a rock closest to the black rock got 2 points, whoever got a rock closest to the white rock got 1 point, and it was negative 1 point for any of your rocks that fell off the edge.

The scoring system. The individual rocks on top matched our respective rock colors, and the pile blow was the point system: small rocks represented 1 point, large rocks represented 10. 

This game was awesome, even if it doesn’t sound that awesome. You’ll just have to trust me :)

Day 7: Grand Canyon

We spent our last day at the north rim of the Grand Canyon. Apparently 90% of visitors go to the south rim, but we didn’t want to travel that far from where we started. It was huge (obviously), and we hiked 2 miles down into the canyon and then back up, but that didn’t get us much closer to the bottom. By that time I was pretty sick of hiking and I’d be happy to go my whole life without ever hearing the word “switchback” ever again. Hiking down was a good way to get a sense of the magnitude, then we spent the rest of the day driving around the rim to various lookouts and playing some cards at the lodge. The Grand Canyon was my least favorite place that we went, simply because I thought the other places were even better, but it was beautiful and was a great way to end a great trip!

Day 6: Antelope Canyon

This place was nuts! It is a slot canyon and the entrance (first picture below) is just a crack in the ground and you climb a ladder down into the canyon. The rest of these pictures are from inside the canyon, which was all sandstone and was really narrow at parts. It was so beautiful and very different from anything else we’d seen. Professional photographers could have a heyday in there, but I did the best I could in the tight quarters.

Day 5 (part 2): White Pocket

We spent the second half of our hike through Vermillion Cliffs at a place called White Pocket. I don’t know what Mars looks like, but I really think this place may have some similar features. You’d think after several days of doing nothing but hiking and looking at rock formations it would all get old, but every place we went was so different. We had a great time!