This is nature at it's best I find these canyons to be some of the top spots on the earth I would like to visit,How about you? The Antelope Canyon lies on Navajo land in the American southwest, nestled hidden in the Arizona landscape. One of the world’s true natural wonders, it is a place of splendid serenity, the sort of spot where people find themselves talking in hushed whispers without quite knowing why. As a slot canyon, it has been formed over thousands of years by the gradual wear of water rushing through rock.
Rainwater, particularly in the monsoon season, runs into a large basin overlooking the slot canyon, picking up speed and sand as it runs into the narrow passageways. Grain by grain, the corridors are deepened and the edges smoothed to form the exquisite shapes and graceful curves in the rock. Wind too has played a part in eroding and sanding this majestic canyon.
The beams of light are typically seen in the summer months because the sun has to be high in the sky for the angle of its rays to be just right. The phenomenon does not happen so often in the winter, and during this season the colours are slightly more muted, though no less magnificent, as in the photo shown below.
Slot canyons are exceptionally narrow, far deeper than they are wide, and Antelope Canyon’s fantastic whorls and contours can be up to 150 feet tall, while being observable only by very small groups shuffling along the sandy floor. The canyon was formed by the erosion of Navajo sandstone, chiefly due to flash floods that still occur here, making this very much artwork still in progress.
Rainwater, particularly in the monsoon season, runs into a large basin overlooking the slot canyon, picking up speed and sand as it runs into the narrow passageways. Grain by grain, the corridors are deepened and the edges smoothed to form the exquisite shapes and graceful curves in the rock. Wind too has played a part in eroding and sanding this majestic canyon.
The large beams of sun light are typically seen in the summer months because the sun has to be high in the sky for the angle of its rays to be just right. The phenomenon does not happen so often in the winter, and during this season the colours are slightly more muted, though no less magnificent, as in the photo shown below.
There is a strong sense that this is some kind of sacred space, a womb-like sanctum perhaps, and to the older Navajos entering such a place would surely have been like entering a cathedral. They would likely have left feeling enlightened by nature and in harmony with something greater than themselves. Being inside Antelope Canyon will always be something of a spiritual experience.
At times the rock forms seem to bear a resemblance to human or animal bodies in their shape and appearance, making the canyon all the more like a living, breathing entity. Here faces seem to come out of the wall, looking down quietly yet imposingly on those below.
Here are various other pictures of the Canyon below.
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