Horseshoe Bend & Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

After supper we went to view Horseshoe Bend.  Once you arrive to the parking lot it is a half mile, steep hike uphill in soft sand; that takes you to a spectacular view  of Horseshoe Bend from high atop the canyon rim, where the Colorado River makes a 180 degree turn around a sandstone butte. 

I’m proud to say that even though it wasn't easy, I made it to the top of the hill with Ton and then sat in a covered area while Ton went the rest of the way to the canyon wall.

You can finally see the Horseshoe Bend

 Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. 

Today, we made this a relaxing, less strenuous time.  Glen Canyon is beautiful; but we mainly took a drive through, had a picnic in a pretty area by the Marina and viewed the large houseboats.  

The Marina

 Glen Canyon Dam

The dam was dedicated by Lady Bird Johnson on Sept. 22, 1966.  It took 17 years for the Lake Powell to completely fill for the first time.  At full pool – 3700 feet above Sea Level – the large lake is 560 feet deep at the face of the dam

THE INCREDIBLE ANTELOPE CANYON

May 27

Page, Arizona  - Antelope Canyon

Surprise, Finally I can write a blog again…We have been 3 days here without phone or internet.  At least in Page, they provided cable tv, wi-fi and utilities.  Unfortunately our phones did not work in that area and the wi-fi was only good enough to maybe get one email out if you had to.  Tried to write the blog, but to no avail.

I’ll keep it short and sweet and the pictures tell the story.

We arrived yesterday and after getting checked in we went to Antelope Canyon.  Ton has read about this amazing place for a couple of years and always wanted to see it so this was the year.  You need a guided tour in order to enter and since it is on Navajo land they must be licensed and approved by the tribes.  Ton did the lower canyon.  It involves climbing up and down steel ladders, anchored into the canyon walls.  Some of the passageways are so narrow you can barely fit one foot in front of the other.

  Antelope Canyon is too beautiful to describe, so just enjoy the pictures. 

Notice the sneakers sticking out on the bottom of

the canyon.  This gives an idea on what they are walking through.

Another guide - I'm showing this for an

example of the canyon floor as you move forward.

This incredible canyon has been created over millions of years by the relentless forces of water and wind slowly carving and sculpting the sandstone in the forms, texture and shapes which we observe.

Notice the rock above Ton on the left.  The

Navajo say that is a natural rock formation

of the Indian Chief

This is Ton's guide playing his flute for the 11 people on his tour

The views in the lower canyon change constantly as the sun moves across the sky, filtering lights softly across the stone walls.  These ever moving sun angles bounce light back and forth across the narrow canyon walls, creating a dazzling display of color, light and shadow. 

We hope you have enjoyed the amazing canyon

  

Chapel of the Holy Cross & Red Rock State Park

Chapel of the Holy Cross & Red Rock

Today was awe-inspiring as we drove the Red Rock Scenic Highway on our way to the Chapel of the Holy Cross in Sedona.  It was so beautiful that I couldn’t decide what pictures to share with you. 

Ton liked the little pigs outside the visitors center to the canyon highway

so I had to befriend them:)

Shopping center even had nature all around

When we arrived to the Chapel,  Ton pushed me up the 

long windy ramp in a wheelchair they provided. 

We passed many beautiful natural rock formations

These pillars are dubbed “the Two Nuns”.  To their left is the unmistakable image of the Virgin Mary holding Baby Jesus and it named “Madonna and Child.   We parked the chair and looked around.

The entrance to the Chapel

View from the top

We were told that this home below belongs to Nicolas Cage,

but I'm not so sure

I wouldn't want to live on a road that a millions of visitors drive by

each year.

The interior is Unpretentious and Simple but once inside, you can’t help but get a feeling of joyous peace and a closeness to God

 

The rest is the sculptures story through her own words.

Marguerite Brunswig Staude (A student of the famous architect Frank Lloyd Weber) was the artist and sculpture.  She first thought of it in 1932….in New York City …watching the Newly completed Empire State Building.  When viewed from a certain angle a cross seemed to impose itself through the core of the structure. 

25 years later her vision became a reality, not only as an artist but “a monument to faith, but a spiritual fortress so charged with God, that it spurs man’s spirit god ward!

Built between a twin pinnacled spur, about 250 feet high, jutting out of a thousand foot rock wall, “solid as the Rock of Peter” the building of the chapel was completed in 1956.  The cross is 90 feet tall.

The message of the Chapel “That the Church may come to life in the souls of men and be a living reality” is renewed each day.

 

“ May this chapel spread these same truths a thousand fold… finding Christ through art.”  These are the words of the Artist.

 From here we went to Red Rock State Park and has a picnic lunch. 

 Afterwards, Ton took two trails high up the mountain for about 5 miles.  I made myself comfy again and visited with other visitor’s  waiting for their spouse to get back and enjoyed the scenery. 

Another great Day