Antelope Canyon & Lake Powell, Page Arizona May 17 - 21, 2015

We took 5 days to visit several of the beautiful attractions in the Page area.  First was Vermilion Cliffs, Echo Cliffs and Lee's Ferry off Highway 89 South of Page.  Then Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell Marina where we took a tour boat ride on Lake Powell to Rainbow Bridge.  Next day we toured both the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyons and got some of those beautiful sunbeam post card photographs.  Then we took a plane ride over Rainbow Bridge and across the northern part of Arizona to see Monument Valley. Last day, we hiked to Horseshoe Bend just south of Page.

On our tour to Rainbow Bridge, we saw this houseboat which is like the one we rented back in 2000 with our family and my cousin Joe and his family from Indiana.


Proof that I was on the tour boat:

Our tour boat driver assured us that the boat would fit through this narrow gap.  I was concerned, but
she was right!  However, she did have to drive very slowly and honk her horn to be sure no one was coming from the other direction.

Rainbow Bridge.  390 feet tall and 378 feet wide!  Formed when a horse shoe bend in the river got so much water and wind erosion that it finally connected through which stopped the erosion to the sides because the river then flowed through the center of the arch.

Tina was here too!

Horseshoe Bend was beautiful in the early morning!

Tina's phone will do these wonderful panorama shots.  Horseshoe Bend at 7AM
It is WAY down there to the Colorado River.  Can you see the camping party of river rafters on the inside of the river bend at the lowest part of the big rock the river goes around in the photo.  Look for their blue tarps right at the edge of the river.

 Tina gives the wonderful view some scale.

The trucks and our driver "JR" that took us through Upper Antelope Canyon:

John at the entrance to Upper Antelope Canyon.  The trucks took us on an exciting open air 3 mile ride down the dry river bed and dropped us right at this entrance.

The colors and lighting inside both canyons were unbelievably beautiful.  The water flow during rainy season is really strong and carves out these fantastic shapes.

Our tour of Lower Antelope Canyon was with Ken's Tours:

Lots of stairs to get down into Lower Antelope Canyon

More stairs, this just like at home when Tina and I walk our stairs at the parking garage...Only scarier!

 

This big crack in the earth is where the last ladder takes us up and out of Lower Antelope Canyon.

Note the person barely visible coming up out of the crack on the last step of the ladder.

Our trusty Red 2004 Corvette is not the fastest car on the road when I am driving, but we sure enjoyed how smoothly it rode and how big its trunk is!!

Dylan Remy DeCamp, born May 19, 2015

Our first grandchild, Dylan Remy DeCamp was born on May 19, 2015 to Trey and Ashley DeCamp in Los Angeles, CA.  We are so happy that they have a wonderful healthy child and we have a grandchild.

Grand Canyon, Bearizona, Canyon Lake, April 3 to 9, 2015

My niece, Katie and her family (Chuck, Holly and Bridget visited us in April for a week of Arizona sightseeing.

Ecuador and Galapagos March 1 - 16, 2015

We took an Overseas Adventure Travel ( www.oattravel.com ) guided tour of the Ecuadorean sights, including:
   Ecuadorean Mountain Highlands
   Amazon Basin on the Rio Napo, a large tributary to the Amazon River
   Galapagos Islands
   Quito (Capitol of Ecuador)

We had a GREAT time, and have posted photos taken by us and by our new Ecuador travelling companions.  See the headings on each of our Ecuador pages for what the photos are showing.

Galapagos Islands Snorkeling and Fish

John L. captured this beautiful shot of a sea turtle.

Connie took this next series of pics of a sea lion that befriended Connie and Mary Ellen.  The sea lion brought Connie a blowfish as a gift.  Note the blowfish in the sea lions mouth in one of these pics.  Connie was using an Olympus TG-3.

This sea lion swam playfully with several of us that day and sometimes would stop right in front of us and look us in the eyes.  It was as if the sea lion expected us to play with him and clap for his antics.

Blowfish is either dead or running for its life.        Blowfish in the sea lion's mouth.

Connie C. took these great photos of us snorkeling in the Galapagos Islands.
Tina snorkeling.  Note her red gloves and the marvelous reflections from the surface of the extremely clear water.

John snorkeling.  Note his gaudy swim trunks.

John front view.

Three more more fish pics by Jim M.
Yellowtail Surgeonfish, http://www.elasmodiver.com/Yellowtail_Surgeonfish_Pictures.htm

Frigate bird over our "Treasure of Galapagos".  He heard about our wonderful meals prepared by Wilson and Katy and was hoping for a hand out.

School of fish.  Maybe a needle fish??  We snorkeled over many schools of fish.  The only school we snorkeled over that I knew their name was when we were over a school of White Tipped Reef Sharks.  I kept a very close eye on them and made no derogatory remarks about sharks.

And here they are, the White Tipped Reef Sharks!  They were about 6 feet long, but Jessica said they did not want to eat us.  Photo by Maggie D.

They usually slept at the bottom during the day and were more active at night.  On this day, some were swimming and some were sleeping.  Note the white tips on the dorsal and tail fins of this guy.

More photos to come!