Pt 19 – Spilled Soda, Shutterbugs & Canyons

Monday, April 22nd – Tuesday, April 23rd, 2013

First thing in the morning, we decided to check out one of the shopping centers in Page, AZ. We met Joe and Jordan, who owned a SUP (stand up paddle board) shop, and they talked to us about paddle boards, travel, and suggested that we check out the Lower Antelope Canyon versus the Upper Antelope Canyon since it’s less touristy, cheaper, and in their opinion, has the better scenery.

We stopped at the laundromat and shortly realized we were the only non-Navajo people there (Page was purchased from the Navajo Nation and borders it). As our clothes were washing, I watched a woman spill soda all over the floor, pretend it never happened, then she immediately approached me to try to sell me some jewelry. I declined, although I was tempted to buy something for her giving me a good laugh. Trevor was talking to a man who pointed to the smoke stacks in the distance and shared his disgust with the power plant being on their land. It had been leased from the Navajo Nation back in the 1970’s (I recently heard the facility will be closing down once the lease expires in 2019). Our clothes were clean, but we weren’t, so instead of buying a room for a shower, we decided to head down to Lake Powell to rinse off there with some Eco-Friendly soap. It was freezing, but did the trick.

We took the short drive to Horseshoe Bend to catch the sunset, and found ourselves surrounded by “professional” photographers (and by “professional” I mean “pretentious poseur ass clowns”). You practically had to fight for a spot since there were so many tripods set up and people in yoga poses trying to get the perfect shot at the perfect angle. We talked to a few Dutch men who were traveling through the country and were ending their journey in New York City before heading home. One of them asked us if many Americans came out to visit such sights. This made us realize how few Americans vacation in the great outdoors, as most of them opt for the big cities. This realization would grow stronger the more U.S. national parks we would visit. We would notice the majority of the people in the parks were European, Asian, or Canadian; not American. It’s a sad truth.

We returned to Walmart for the night and would not be alone. The lines on the parking lot were getting re-painted and the crew had to wake up every sleeping individual in every car, truck, van, RV, and tractor trailer to have them move to the other side of the lot. It was total organized chaos. I was impressed.

We ventured to the outskirts of Page to go on the Lower Antelope Canyon tour in the Navajo Nation. Our tour guide, Gib, was a young Navajo teen who shared with us a bit about the area and the canyon. He was a great tour guide, especially for it only being his 2nd week on the job. The canyon itself was gorgeous!

We grabbed some really good food at an Indian and Thai Restaurant that we had been eyeing up since we arrived at Page. Afterwards, we needed to burn off some calories, so we went to the Dam Plaza (actual name), to check out the Dam Outlet (also the actual name), which also had the Dam Bar and Grill (there was a dam located nearby). We returned to Horseshoe Bend again before calling it a day.