Antelope Canyon from Lake Powell

When planning an adventure, you start by making a decision to go do something, right? You decide you want to do something. Then you find an adventure buddy. Plans are made. Rooms are booked. Tickets are purchases. Aaaand then monsoons hit the desert and it all goes to shit. Rain is coming down in thick sheets, drenching the desert floor. Lightning is making the sky sparkly all around you. The wind throws sand at you bare legs causing tiny little piercing pin pricks by the 1000’s all at once.

But instead of getting pissed off, you roll with it and alter your plans. And you end up on another epic journey with the best person possible.

A desert monsoon in July is something to behold. And they are common in mid to late summer. The water does not soak into the soil as it does in other types of terrain. It rushes along the surface finding its way to the lowest point of the desert floor, where it usually joins a river, lake, or a pool of some sort. And during a monsoon, the rain can cause flash flooding that has the ability to sweep vehicles away. It is very dangerous to be in any type of valley or wash during a desert monsoon. That said, it is both exciting and scary as hell. And it makes you rethink being in a tiny kayak in the middle of the Colorado River.

And so our story goes…

My adventure buddy and I arrive in Page Arizona one July afternoon. The plan was to hike out to see Horseshoe Bend lookout first, even before we check into our hotel room. We were going to take in the views of the canyon from the top. Then we’d take a day to kayak Antelope Canyon on Lake Powell, followed by our two day camping trip on the river through Horseshoe Bend. The two days would be spent kayaking and camping along the rivers edge. Hopefully snagging a spot at the Horseshoe Bend campsite.

We pull into the visitors center at Horseshoe Bend just as some clouds are rolling in. It looks like rain is coming. We can see a grey wall coming across the desert in our direction. But it’s July… in the hot desert. Rain doesn’t sound too bad to hike a mile in. So we decide to put on rain gear and hike out to see Horseshoe Bend from the top of the canyon wall in the rain. No biggie, right? By the time we get geared up, all hell breaks loose. The grey wall envelops us. There is rain gushing out of the dark sky, soaking us. The wind and sand are tearing at us, making it hard to see. I had only put a rain coat on, so my legs were still in shorts and I am getting pelted! And suddenly we notice there is a ton of lightning. We are at the top of a wide, flat expanse of desert. Are we really intending to be some of the few vertices objects on this desert plateau during a thunderstorm??? I don’t think so. We decided we wanted to live to see our kayaking trip. So, instead of becoming the human version of a lighting rod in this crazy storm, we head to our hotel. But only after we watched said storm for a bit from the safety of Hank (my 4Runner). Let me tell you, I absolutely love July storms in the southwest desert. They are really amazing forces of nature. If you’ve never seen it, google “desert monsoon”. I doubt you’ll be disappointed. Here is a glimpse of what it looked like coming into Page, where Horseshoe Bend is located.

Monsoon headed our way.

We woke the next day to find everything calm, and the sun shining bright. We are a go for Antelope Canyon!!

From my research I found that there is a marina you can launch your kayaks from on Lake Powell near Antelope Canyon called Antelope Point Marina. It seems easy enough, but I have a tendency to overdo things and always bring way too much stuff. So we have coolers, beer, tons of food and water, toys, bubbles, sunscreen galore, baby wipes, phones, GoPro, chargers, solar panel and emergency kits. If you ever get stuck or stranded somewhere you better hope it’s with me. We, however, did not get stuck on this particular day.

I have been on tons of boat ramps in my life. Never have I seen a boat ramp this long. It had to be a quarter of a mile! And wide enough that you could do donuts in a vehicle pulling a trailer. It was HUGE. At the time I was so wrapped up in getting the kayaks unloaded and in the water, and parking Hank, that I didn’t give much thought as to how high up the boat ramp the water must have once been.

In 1983 there was earlier snowmelt runoff than expected and it caused Lake Powell to literally fill over the top of Glen Canyon Dam. It’s kind of unbelievable but they had to rig the top the dam with sheets of plywood to contain the water and avoid a disaster downstream of the dam. This would have affected the Grand Canyon and all of the communities along the Colorado River all the way to Mexico. Luckily, the water started to recede before disaster struck. But it was really close. I read a really interesting book that covers two topics, one being the history of Glen Canyon Dam (and all of the trials they went through during that early snowmelt) and the other was about breaking the speed record to navigate the Colorado River from Lee’s Ferry to Lake Mead, through the Grand Canyon. The book is called the Emerald Mile, and I highly recommend reading it. I actually listened to the audio version, which was great.

Anyways, my point is, at one point the water in Lake Powell was all the way to the top of the boat ramp. Think about it, the Antelope Canyon we which we can find amazing slot canyon pictures of on the web today was full of water. There were no slot canyons. Just a watery finger of Lake Powell. And now the water has dropped so much since the 80’s that the bottom of the boat ramp is above the water line. It dropped lower than the length of that entire, huge, steep boat ramp, making the ramp only usable for people that can carry in their non-motorized craft. The water dropped roughly 150 vertical feet. If you can imagine, a building about 15 stories high..

Back to us putting in our overloaded kayaks. I pull Hank as close as I can to the edge of the boat ramp. There are several other people unloading kayaks as well, some from tour companies. My buddy and I start unloading the kayaks from the top of Hank and get some help from one of the other tour guides. The ramp is steep making it difficult to unload, but we manage. We load up the kayaks to the brim and attempt to carry them to the the last few feet to the edge of the boat ramp, where there is a drop off, than a steep sandy hill to the waters edge. We basically drug the boats most of the way, only carrying it where we HAD to. I park Hank at the top of the ramp and hike the length of the huge ramp to the bottom where my buddy is waiting with the kayaks (it feels even longer when you are walking it). It is really hot out there so we take a quick dip in the lake and hop aboard the kayaks.

The water and landscape are really so beautiful that the stress of unloading fades away really quick. If I am remembering correctly the paddle to the opening to Antelope Canyon was about 45 minutes away for us. We were paddling consistently most of the way. There is no current so you are on your own power to get to there and back. If you are going to attempt this trip, make sure you are physically capable first. Having said that, it was a very easy trip for me and my buddy. I can imagine it would have been difficult in the wind though. Luckily for us, there was no storm in sight this beautiful August morning.

Kayaking in Antelope Canyon

My buddy sizing up the cliffs

We get to the opening of Antelope Canyon and the chop of lake is gone. The water turns to green glass. The beautiful orange walls feel taller because they are close. The two of us paddle quietly in the serene calm of the quiet canyon. As we get closer to the area where the canyon narrows we round a corner and find where the beach is supposed to be. Instead there are tons of kayaks and a boat parked at the entrance to the Dylan part of the canyon. And because it had been rainy the previous days, the water was thick with gunk in the form of foamy leaves, sticks and other natural debris from the slot canyon/wash. There is a narrow walkway between all of the parked kayaks so we pull ours up to an open spot and park as well. Although it is early we reward ourselves with a “we made it” beer. We grab water, snacks and I take a road beer and we set off to hike the canyon. At first it is a wider wash, the ground is wet and muddy in places. But shortly around the first corner it turns to a dry, hot wash that eventually narrows into a slot canyon. Here it is not the slot canyon you’d see if you search the web for Antelope Canyon. Those pictures are taken from the hike-in part of the canyon, you pay a tour guide to take you to. I may be mistaken but you get to them from the water side if you are ok with scaling some boulders and scrambling quite a bit. We did not hike all the way into that area but we went pretty far. The landscape was pretty typical for a wash in the desert. Lots of textures in the formations from the wind and water that had run through the canyon. Along with the constant wetting and drying you see this time of year. It is summer and hot, but the monsoons keep wetting the land, which does not like to soak up the water. So there is surfaces sand, hard packed dirt, mud and dried cracked mud (the kind that is really cool in pictures). The walls are crumbly in some spots and smooth with ridges running lateral to the desert floor in others. There are plants growing, trees full of leaves, lizards everywhere, and utter quiet until you happen upon another hiker. With how many kayaks there were you’d think you’d run into someone every five minutes. But there really weren’t that many people after about 30 minutes into the canyon. We hiked for quite a bit longer than most people, which was evident by the lack of footsteps in the sand.

Emerald green water of Lake Powell

Parked the kayaks and hiked further into Antelope canyon

Me proving I’m still a monkey in my 40’s

Eventually we decided it was time to hike back to the kayaks and paddle back to the marina.

The morning and early afternoon were absolutely beautiful and calm. But alas, it didn’t last. As we paddled out of the canyon onto the lake we noticed the wind had picked up making the water choppy. Paddling was a bit more challenging, but we were able to get to the boat ramp without issue. BUT..just as we are paddling up to the ramp, all desert hell starts to breaks loose. Again. I hike allllllll the way up the ramp and grab Hank. As we start unloading the stuff off kayaks it starts getting really windy. Then it starts raining, followed closely by thunder and lightning. And my silly self is on top of my 4Runner, strapping the two biggest kayaks I own to the top. I am not usually afraid in desert weather, but I was in that moment. I wanted to get down and in the car so bad, but I HAD to make sure the kayaks were strapped down properly in the storm.

In the end, all was good. I remember nervous giggle bubbling out of me. But all I could think about was the fact that we were supposed to be on the Colorado River the next day for an overnight Kayak trip. Hoping for good weather the next day, we went and had some food and made it to our hotel.

I love the little hotel we stayed at. It is NOT fancy. And it badly needs to be updated. But it’s close to Lees Ferry and some great hikes, the people are always super nice, and my favorite part, the restaurant has good burgers and cold beer.

After discussing the weather the last two afternoons turning into utter choas we decided to postpone our kayak trip down the Colorado River for another time.

The next morning we woke up and the day looked stunning, but we were not fooled. It was just as nice in the early hours of the previous day too. We drove down to Lees Ferry and walked around, and took some pictures. Then we went to the Navajo Bridge to check that out too. We got to see a California Condor hanging out on the bridge. So cool!

California Condor

Lees Ferry. This is where most of the white water raft trips through the Grand Canyon start. It’s where my later trip launched. But thats for another entry.

The river, which is normally a clear emerald green, looked like chocolate milk streaming in from all of the desert runoff. The rain definitely left its mark. And would again. Later that afternoon, we had another crazy storm roll past us. At one point was raining so hard you could hardly see in front of the car. And then we went from a rain storm to a haboob, a sand storm (the two picture below). We decided to try our luck in Sedona. So off we went.

Chocolate milk, er… I mean the Colorado River in Marble Canyon.

Monsoon. From crazy rain to a haboob. Look it up, its a word.

If you know me, you know I love the desert. And I love nature and monsoons. But I’ll tell you what; I am fairly certain Mother Nature was testing me this trip, because it was raining and chilly as we rolled into Sedona. IT’S SUMMER! It’s supposed to be hot so we could hike Oak Creek and go down Slide Rock. But no, that didn’t happen. Luckily, Sedona is a cool town no matter the weather. So we smiled and made the best of it. We put our rain gear on and found a bar to get spiked hot chocolate in. We are both great travel companions, that go with the flow, and don’t get upset by much. We giggled about the situation and made plan C over our delicious spiked hot cocoa. We did finally kayak down the Colorado River. It was just much farther south than we thought. And it was still a ton of fun.

Sedona