Road Trip in U.S, Upper Antelope Canyon

And so the journey continues to Page and Antelope Canyon, which took approx. 3 - 4hrs from Grand Canyon.
A guided tour, only possibility when entering Upper Antelope Canyon, was booked at 12 o'clock so we were on the road rather early. The Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is Tsé bighánílíní, which means "the place where water runs through rocks." Between 11 to 13 it's the prime time to be in the canyon as it's deep and narrow. At this time of year also only time of day when light beams can reach into it.
The tour we took was dedicated to photographers and lasted 2½ h. That is also the only group that can use tripod. You may ask your self why, and there are two reasons. First, as it take 'long' time to put up a tripod and if you are in the canyon short time and moving with the group there is not much time to put it up. Second, that in this group the guides actually clear the sections of the canyon for couple of min so that photographers get a chance to take a shot lower down in the canyon.
Sounds good in theory, but in reality it's very crowded with probably 200-300 people at any point in the canyon. It also got frustrating by the fast pace of the group, it takes time to compose a picture, use long-time-exposure and at the same time not have somebody back into your tripod.
The canyon itself is 30m deep, has its narrowest point at about 1m and its widest about 5m, try to push 200-300 people through that :)) Even with our group of 8 people, there was no room for everyone to put up their tripods. I usually ended up behind everybody sick of fight to get a shot :))Eventhough I sound very frustrated, it was fun and for sure an experience. It still is a holy place for indians who also were the only guides.
We visited so called Upper Antelope, and there is a lower Canyon, but not as nice but for sure more spacious :)) This is saved for next trip.As you might have heard, it's not safe to go into these kinds of canyons in the desert. Many people have died due to flash floods that happen without warning. Imagine all that rain pass through these narrow canyons. Just since June they had 13 flash floods in that area!

Next post, probably the most amazing place on this trip; Zion NP.

Lake District Weekend (Part 1/2)

Last weekend was spent in the Lake District and as I wrote in a previous post, the goal was to climb England's highest mountain, Scafell Pike with its 978m.

We started around 07:30 on Saturday morning with a group of friends, and arrived in Ambleside as the first sightseing place at 10:30.

We went for a walk in the small village that has incredibly beautiful stone houses and it is very picturesque, we also took a walk down to the lake Windermere, which is actually England's largest.

The lake is one of the most popular places for holidays since summer 1847 when the railroad Kendal and Windermere opened.

We then drove to the hostel in Eskdale that was perfectly located between mountains. To get to Eskdale we needed to cross the mountain range and we stopped at a few  waterfalls and a cave called Cathedral Quarries for some photos. After that we continued over Hardknott Pass which was really nice and curvy. The road is not wide, and it was at some places exciting to meet other cars. It was so steep in some parts that cars wheels span on the asphalt when they drove up, the first time I have seen it anyway :))

After checking in at the hostel we went on to more sightseeing, and this time to Wast water located close to where we would start the climb to Scafell Pike next day. We spend couple of hours strolling around, taking pics and just enjoing the nice weather.