Page, Arizona – September 9 -10, 2021

After driving for 10 hours we arrived in Page, Arizona home of Lake Powell and the slot canyons. First thing this morning we went to the visitor center to find out how to fit all the wonders of this area in three days. We found out that we were very lucky to be here at this time with Covid keeping many of the international travelers away. Otherwise it would be very crowded filled with bus loads of Asians and Europeans. It seems much of the tourist trade for this area comes from those areas. One of the things Gordon shared with us is when the government took over the land they allocated pieces to each of the families of the Navajo tribe rather than all the land to the tribe as a whole. The families that got the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons are making a great deal of money conducting these tours, while others just got land to graze their animals.

Gordon, our friendly visitor center employee got us set up for tours of the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons, a 6 hour sunset tour of Alstrom Point Canyon and enough other options to make sure our days were filled. We took a walk along the bridge across the dam of the lake while waiting for our sunset tour.

The tour was scheduled to go on the Alstrom starting at 3:30 but it rained and it is too dangerous to be in these areas when it rains so we watched football for a while and then when the rain stopped went to Antelope Marina.

The Antelope Marina on Lake Powell is filled with HUGE houseboats and other boats for rent, complete with a floating restaurant. We thought we should go there and enjoy the peacefulness of the lake at sunset sitting out on the deck. Once you get on the property, thanks to our Senior Gold Pass without a fee, we parked the car and walked towards the ramp to the restaurant. I kid you not, this ramp was the length of half a football field all downhill. As you know, if you go down, you have to come back up. It was obvious to us that the water level of the Lake was much lower than normal because the last leg of the ramp had a very steep angle to it.

Unfortunately, the restaurant was filled with loud, party people and we decided it would not be any fun to stay, so back up the ramp we went breathing heavy and wishing we had known about the party people before we walked down but we did it with energy to spare. Guess we are in better shape than we thought for our age.