Samantha's site

The next day we ventured out to Antelope Canyon, and finished at Horseshoe Bend. Antelope Canyon is broken up into two different parts – lower and upper. The lower part is actually underground, whereas the upper part is not. We had a tour guide take us through the Lower Antelope Canyon.

Originally, we were going to try to go through the canyon without a tour guide. However, we realized that they would not let us through it without one. When we asked our guide about it, she explained that a few years prior it had been open to the public to walk through alone. However, a group of about 12 people did not listen when they received warning of flash floods because it was still sunshine outside. They unfortunately passed away in the floods, and since then the reservation has not risked anything like that happening again.

After learning this, we understood more of the culture. We had a lot of fun with our tour guide! She showed us different “creatures” within the rocks, and helped take photos of us.

Horseshoe Bend was a beautiful place to visit after Antelope Canyon. I loved the view, and it was a nice break from the fast pace the trip had been at.

This stop was not nearly as fun for me as others were. I hate sand – and that’s all that there is. But I’m happy to say that I climbed halfway up the sand dunes. The great sand dunes has an elevation of 8,200 feet, and the tallest dune stands at 750 feet high. The hike to get to the sand dunes alone is about a mile and a half, and you either have to go early in the morning or late at night because the sand gets so hot. We went to the sand dunes twice – once at night after Mesa Verde, and then again in the morning. It was fun to see the people sledding down the dunes, and I wish we had brought something to do that with. After the sand dunes we took a nice hiking trail nearby to a waterfall, which was a good break from the heat.

The next place on our adventure was Mesa Verde and the Four Corners Monument. Mesa Verde is a national park which has multiple pueblos that around 600 years old. It was an amazing historical site, and I am so fortunate that I was able to see it. In order to get to the pueblos, we had to hike down a trail that was about two and a half miles total. This is one of the few places we visited that did not have a tour guide – the tours were each 4 hours long and we did not book it in time unfortunately. The best part was being able to see the petroglyphs on the rocks halfway through the hiking trail, and being able to see the dwellings.

The four corners was a quick trip to finish off the rest of the day. We were able to stand in 4 different states at once – Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. There were many vendors at the site, and all of them were Navajo people who had actually made the things that they were selling.

Our first adventure in Arizona was white water rafting down the Colorado River. This wasn’t like normal white water rafting – we were in a giant boat that actually had a motor. It was a 10 hour trip where we got to stop for lunch, as well as stopping for a waterfall halfway through the trip. The only inflatable part of the boat were two points sticking out the front of the boat to make sure that we didn’t hit into anything. The rapids went up to a level 9 or 10, and our tour guide told us about each before we went over them.

This rafting wasn’t just about the rapids. Our tour guide knew everything about the river, and explained it very well. He pointed out where miners had been on the river and we were able to see the beds they had created from the rocks, and where they had set off TNT to see if there could be a dam on the river. Our instructor explained that since the dam would have cut off water supplies to a nearby Native Nation, the Navajo people fought against it and won. We were able to look at the Grand Canyon Skywalk from the river, but it was so hard to spot that I would have missed it if it hadn’t been pointed out. The rock formations and where lava had filled in cracks was a really cool geological factor on the river. The list goes on, the only disappointing factor was that it was hard to get pictures of it without risking my phone.

In order to see the waterfall, we needed to hike to it. There were ropes / ladders that we had to climb up. We didn’t get many good pictures of it, but it was an amazing part of the trip as well. The rapids soaked us too!