The No-Plan Plan

After spending 2 weeks in Hawaii and California, we didn't expect much of Arizona. After all, what can possibly beat the Road to Hana and those awe inspiring waves at the Big Sur?! Arizona was the second last stop before our flight back home so it was always an afterthought. But Sedona changed our minds...

The plan for our last day in Arizona was to take the 2 hour drive to Grand Canyon, explore it for a day and drive to Las Vegas, where we'd spend last two nights of our travels. After spending a day hiking in Sedona, we woke up the next morning thinking "Must.See.More". So we got on the Internet after breakfast and started researching the area. We stumbled upon the most magnificent photographs of the Antelope Canyon, they looked absolutely unreal. We HAD to see it for ourselves! 

But deciding on a crazy spontaneous trip without doing the proper research does have consequences... 

We stuffed ourselves with breakfast like chipmunks, poured 4 cups of free illy coffee into to-go cups and rushed to the car in the hopes of making it to the canyons before dark. 

Thank goodness for the free North American roaming I signed up for with my cell provider before the trip because while we were driving I was researching the place on my phone. And it turned out that you can't just hop in a car, get to the canyons and stroll through them at your own leisure whenever you please (unless you're Britney Spears of course - half of her "I'm not a girl, not yet a woman" music video was filmed inside the Antelope Canyon). The canyon is actually divided into two parts: lower and upper. You must book a tour with a guide in advance and there are specific time slots when you can go. The tours are operated exclusively by the Navajo tribe, they charge a fee and there are only a few tours available (click here for the full list of tour operators). 

So we made a 5 minute decision to visit the lower canyon,  mostly because it is less populated of the two and more complex in terms of all the climbing required. I frantically started making phone calls to reserve our spot with the last 4pm tour and apparently we were lucky, because somebody cancelled and we were slotted in. We were told that sometimes people wait for months to get slotted in. Ohh the relief... we were 2 hours into our drive at that point so turning back would be a serious waste of travel time. 

As we drove deeper and deeper into the Wild Wild West, the mobile signal bars slowly disappeared along with pretty much everything else that reminded me of our modern day world. Our GPS was indicating no directions and our miniature gps-car was traveling into nothingness. We were completely alone driving in the middle of nowhere, it was so eerie and void of life. Ww finally came to the realization that we were lost... with no mobile signal and a useless GPS. 

A word of advice for adventure seekers: paper maps are not historical artifacts and updating your GPS before traveling is a must!

Thankfully, we did stumble upon a trading post along the way and asked for directions. That is when we found out that the fastest road to the canyons was closed due to construction and we had to take the longer route, which meant extra 45 minutes of driving.... we had half an hour left till the last 4pm tour! 

The idea of not making it for this last tour the day before we had to depart for Vegas and after having driven for almost 5 hours was out of the question. Well... I wish the car could fly. Because we got to our destination at 4.05pm!!!! I never treasured 5 minutes more than I did at that point. If we were 30 mins late, I would've accepted my fate and surrendered (maybe), but 5 minutes.... seriously?! SERIOUSLY?!?  We begged and begged for the tour operators to take us in, but the tour had already left and it was too dangerous to follow (because it was starting to get dark and the experienced tour guide had already left). 

We decided not to take it out on the guide or the car and slowly drove off, feeling completely defeated. Ah well, adventures are not always pretty and you don't always make it...

But 5 minutes into our aimless drive we noticed a lake in the distance and what seemed like a conservation area. We decided to check it out and it turned out to be Lake Powell (part of Colorado River) side of the Antelope Canyon, where you can take a boat tour from atop the lake (more about this tour here). We were ecstatic, ready to take whatever is available! The tour turned out to be incredible, with beautiful views of the red rock formations surrounded by serene water of the lake. The boat had just another couple on board, and we got to watch the sunset on our way back to the Marina. It was perfect. 

Enjoy the pics :)

Once the tour was over, we had to make a decision: turn back and drive all the way to the Grand Canyon Village or spend the night in the nearby small town called Page and come back for the tour early next morning, hoping they'd have space for us on the 9am tour. The insane road trip landed us in the most unexpected of places, which turned out to be such a pleasant surprise. We couldn't just abide by the plan and turn back, we had to follow the no-plan plan, otherwise it wouldn't be an adventure! Plus, at that point I REALLY wanted to, HAD TO see the elusive canyons of pre-historic antelopes...

So we booked a room at a small boutique hotel in the centre of town and headed for dinner. I had the best Mexican food and discovered my new favourite Negra Modelo.

What happened the next morning.... will blow you away, in my next post :)

xoxo

-Oliya