Az Day 6: Upper Antelope Canyon

Arizona Trip Backlips:

Today K and I left the girls and went out on an all day photo tour of some of the slot canyons on Navajo land around Page.

Slot canyons are formed over millenia by flash floods cutting down into the sandstone of the colorado plateau. The water itself and the debris it carries carve deeper and deeper down into the sandstone as the years progress.

This shot is from Upper Antelope Canyon. Upper Antelope Canyon is famed for its light beams. Most of the light in an enclosed slot canyon such as this bounces back and forth down the walls. In the middle of the day however some light makes its way down though gaps in the swirls of rock on the canyon walls to directly light the canyon floor. Where this occurs you get the light beams. The dusty environment of the canyon (plus a little extra dust thrown into the air for good measure) illuminates the path this light took to reach the ground.

A wonderful sight indeed. :-)

Just for scale the line of rougher textured rock starting at the mid right of the image and weaving towards the light beam is about a foot above head height.

Arizona Trip Backblips... See them all!

- Day 1: Phoenix
- Day 2: The road to Sedona
- Day 3: Stormy Sunset at the Grand Canyon
- Day 4: Grand Canyon Sunsrise
- Day 5: Leaving the Grand Canyon
- Day 6: Upper Antelope Canyon
- Day 7: Red Rocks and Rainbows
- Day 8: Sunrise in Monument Valley
- Day 9: Mists and Monuments
- Day 10: Lower Antelope Canyon
- Day 11: One last look at Lower Antelope...