Waterholes Canyon

I wanted to really test out my new 7-14mm wide angle lens in a slot canyon.  Antelope Canyon seems a bit too touristy for me, and often requires extra photography fees, on top of entrance fees, along with the required tour guide fees.  I decided that a better alternative and much less used area would be Waterholes Canyon.  I figured it would be worth staying up on one of my days off to go play with my camera setup.  Several attempts were made in a drive out to LeeChee where there is a Navajo Chapter house where I could obtain a hiking permit for that area.  Every instance I arrived there, the entire building was gated up, and a closed sign was visible from the front window.  Even though the listed hours of operation were displayed out in the open.  It didn’t make sense.  I knocked on a nearby door at another building and asked a lady if that office would be open soon.  She informed me that they should be open now, but to try again later.  I did again on Friday, and again it was closed.  Angered, I figured I’d ditch the idea of getting a permit, but reevaluated my decision since the parking location for Waterholes Canyon is just a few feet off of the main highway.  Any patrol car could easily see that I didn’t have a permit in my window.  I didn’t really think my record could use a federal trespassing offense on it, so I drove on out to Antelope Canyon.  When I pulled up, there was a tour group leaving, and some guides packing things up to leave.  I was able to obtain a permit from a Navajo lady there for Waterholes Canyon.  I accidentally gave her the date for Saturday instead of Sunday.  I didn’t see the point in trying to correct this matter since Saturday was supposed to have clear skies whereas Sunday was going to be partly cloudy and later turning to overcast.

I woke up Saturday morning after getting a few hours of sleep after my shift.  I packed my photography gear, some water, a few snacks, then headed on out.  It was easy to find a way down to the base of the canyon, and start walking through the sandy wash.  In about a half mile or so the walls started to get narrow, and scenic.  A pair of ravens strafed by making excellent echoing whooshing noises with their wings.  Too bad I didn't own any nice audio equipment to record that sound.  One of my top 5 favorite noises.  I took a few photos, but kept wanting to move onward to see what else was around the next bend.  All the sudden, there was a nearly vertical 14 foot section.  A few steps were chopped into the sandstone, but would still require some other support to climb on up.  I figured, I could remove my backpack, attach a rope to it, shimmy my way up the canyon walls and get to the top, and then pull my backpack with my gear in it.  I thought about this for some time before figuring out that it might not be a good idea in case I fell, or even if I got to the top and saw another large impassible step.  The canyon wasn’t very deep, and about a quarter mile back, I remember there being a shallow section of the canyon I could get out on.  I took some more photos, and backtracked.

I got on top of the canyon rim and followed it for a bit longer.  I found a way back down and backtracked to where I had to turn around.   There really wasn’t anything worth seeing along that stretch, so turned around and continued along the unexplored section of canyon.  It seemed to get shallow, and I was almost thinking that I reached the end of the canyon.  My disappointment disappeared when I saw a slot form to my right and it was back to some crazy slotted goodness.  I had to remove my pack, and climb up a few places with slight concern about how I was going to get back down.  I continued on up further until there was another huge wall, and what appeared to be another one beyond that.  Since I was alone, and didn’t want to fall and break something, I stayed in that area taking photos.  A few descents were a bit sloppy, and involved me freefalling for a bit to make a loud OOMPH noise when I hit the sandy bottom.  Just scrapes and scratches.  I took more photos, and headed on back.

 I followed the rim on my way back to see some interesting sandstone formations similar to The Wave called The Great Wall.  When I got back to where I first descended to the canyon bottom, I went down the canyon further towards Glenn Canyon.  I made it to right about the highway bridge, where there were two very steep drops in a row with what appeared to be a mangled car wedged between the canyon walls.  I shortly thereafter returned to my car, and got back to my hotel with enough time for a few hours of napping before my next shift.