Day 08 – Road to Page
Upon waking, we watch the horses roaming free around us and then leave for another canyon. There’s not much driving to do but it’s cloudy today, so when we reach the canyon, we decide to postpone the visit. It’s supposed to be sunny tomorrow and we can definitely use an “off” day to go grocery shopping, do the laundry, fill the camper with water, dump the old one and do a bit of research on the internet to plan the rest of the trip. In the evening, we’ll sleep at the Walmart parking lot. It’s not very glamorous but there’s free wifi there.
Day 09 – Antelope Canyon
Today, the weather is finally nice! There is not a single cloud in the sky. In addition, Côme wakes up first (which has never happened since we’re here!!), so by 8:30 am we are all ready to enjoy this beautiful day. It starts with a short walk at “the horseshoe bend”: a canyon dug by a river. The site is really beautiful. The orange rocks are magnificent under the sun. After enjoying the sand and the views, we set off for Antelope Canyon. A canyon on Navajos’ lands.
The Navajos welcome us and show us around the breach. The exploration is just amazing!! The colors, the shapes, the wavy lines on the stone formed by the water… Our Navajo guide tells us the story of the canyon and takes the most beautiful pictures (including Windows 98 wallpaper and the National Geographic picture of the year). The site is really stunning!! We are impressed. Earth is really a fantastic place!!!
After the visit, we take some time to chat with a Native dancing with hoops. He explains his art with passion and answers our questions about the clothes he’s wearing, the symbols, the dance and kinship among the Navajos. We are super happy to finally be able to learn about the local culture. Here is one of the things we’ve learnt: among the Navajos, the person who first makes a baby laugh must pay the whole community a feast in honor of the baby, otherwise the baby will become greedy. But it’s far from being a punishment. Quite the opposite, it is a great honor to be this person.
We then return to the van to eat and hit the road but we take a pee break first. And that’s when we make a huge mistake… We lock the van, leaving the keys inside… How are we going to do? We return to the site to ask the Navajos for help. Five of them come with a tool case but nothing they try works. They then make a few phone calls and tell us that one of their friends with a “magic kit” is coming to help us. At the same moment, a van just like ours comes to park right next to us. The people inside are waving and honking to “campervan compatriots”. It turns out the two jolly young men inside are from Britany-Belgium. We tell them about our conundrum and they give us their keys to try them out… But they don’t work so we wait for the Navajos’ friend with his “magic kit” and 5 minutes later, the van is opened. We’re really lucky!
We say goodbye to the Navajos, thanking them enormously for their kindness and their precious help and we chat for a bit with our road trip compatriots. They are road tripping on the opposite direction from us. It’s a shame because they are really friendly and we would have loved to go alongside them for a short while.
So we resume our journey towards our next destination. Take a guess… Yep! Another canyon! On the way there, we stop near beautiful red and white cliffs and we realize it is a site to visit. So we take the time to explore it. Côme is delighted. He, who did not want to get out of the car at first, has a lot of fun climbing rocks, playing in the sand, in the mud, jumping, racing Doo…
In the evening, we reach a very nice small town bordered by red cliffs: Kanab. We decide to stop for the night. There is a site nearby we would like to visit tomorrow (a surprise for Côme). Unfortunately, the access to the campsite is closed because of the snow so we start looking for a spot to park in the city. We end up finding a quiet dead end. We will spend the coldest night since the beginning of the adventure (-23 °C).
These past couple of days, Côme:
Did not understand: how the mushroom rock was still standing despite being way bigger and heavier than its stem.
Learnt: that water could carve rocks.
Loved: to leave his footsteps in the mud.
Julia:
Did not understand: why the same family opened two places to visit the same canyon.
Learnt: about the laughter tradition along the Navajos.
Loved: to walk for the first time without her crutches.
Doo:
Did not understand: how the weather could change so drastically.
Learnt: that the Navajos still performed magic.
Loved: being inside of the Antelope Canyon.
Burger counter: 06