A Japanese expat once told me that when Japanese tourists come to Las Vegas, they like to visit the Strip and Antelope Canyon. I had never heard of Antelope Canyon. Yellowstone National Park had been on my bucket list for quite some time and when I noticed a bus tour that included Antelope Canyon and Yellowstone National Park, I signed up.
The canyon is popular with hikers, photo enthusiasts, and tourists but now the tours have to be led by guides because of some unfortunate accidents in the past and the danger of flash flooding. Our guide told us that there were five flights of stairs to descend and the third and fifth were like ladders. Although I am 71 and not so limber, it was easy to follow the person ahead of me and we were rewarded by the beautiful rainbow lines and colors in orange, yellow, purple, and gray that were formed by rainwater erosion of the Navajo sandstone over millions of years.
After returning home, I read more about Antelope Canyon and discovered that a well-known landscape photographer, Peter Lik, had sold his black and white photo taken in the Upper Antelope Canyon where light does magical things with the sandstone and dust, for $6.5 million.
I feel that a message was sent to me by the Japanese tourists who have witnessed this gift from Mother Nature to say that an awesome place is in my own backyard.
Photos are by Nobutake Watanabe