I first learned of the Arizona Slot Canyons from a workshop I attended in 1985 with noted photographer Bruce Barnbaum, who first learned of these bizarre wind and water erosion canyons on New Years Day a few years prior to the ’85 workshop.   I still remember Barnbaum’s quote about these incredible natural forms, “this is the #1 Wonder of the World, every other Wonder must begin at # 3” That is how incredible these masses of sandstone are to anyone with an interest in all things needed to be seen to be believed !!

     During the ’85 workshop, we visited Upper Antelope Canyon on 2 separate occasions and I returned once alone after the workshop.   In those days you simply turned off the main road right before the Navajo Generating Station just outside of Page, AZ.   Traveling in a sandy wash for over 2 miles you would encounter an outcropping of Navajo Sandstone that stood about 50 ft. high and approximately 100 feet long before emerging to another open sandy wash on the back side.  The interior canyon floor was sandy but perfectly level as it wound around strange and incredibly bizarre shapes of sandstone.   I returned home fully knowing I would be back to these incredible formations.   See this link for some color renderings of Antelope Canyon.   Photoshop enhanced Antelope Canyon 

     I returned to the Page AZ. area in ’87 with my wife and wanted to show her some of the bizarre erosion common to the Arizona Strip, a plateau that cuts across northern Arizona and southern Utah.   I remembered from the ’85 workshop going to an overlook where Barnbaum told us there was an even more bizarre canyon just below the overlook.   I remembered the location and decided, at the risk of disturbing the delicate vacation mantra of “happy wife, happy life” to go off-road with the Mrs. in a rented Pontiac Gran Am.  I drove a ½ mile or so in loose sand dodging an occasional sandstone outcropping and came upon what I remembered from ’85.   I had found my way back to the overlook but could see I was too high to get down from the side I was on if I could find my way back to the other side of the canyon the descent down to the bottom would be much more gradual.   I backtracked and came around from a point that did, in fact, access the area with easier access down to the canyon floor.   

     I left my wife in the car, locked the doors and said I’d be back in a little bit while she occupied herself with a book.  I switchbacked down the incline to a sandy canyon floor,  tucked back up in the shade of the hill was a man a bit older than me with his young son, I’d estimate to be 12 or so.   As it turned out I had stumbled upon the bottom exit point of Lower Antelope Canyon.  The man and boy were finishing up their snack and water break and said they were going to continue on and climb out of Lower Antelope Canyon.  The father was clearly at home rock climbing, his hands being twice the size of mine.   He motions to the wall and asked if I wanted to follow them up ?    I said I have no climbing experience, he said no worries I’ll belay you up and you can use the Moku Steps which are small hand and foot holds seen in the below picture to the left of a present-day ladder.  As I watched the young boy scamper up the wall like a gazelle, seemingly oblivious to my fear of heights, I said sure I’ll give it a try !    He handed me a climbing rope, tied some fancy knot around my waist and slide the rope up under my arms.   He said he was going up and would guide me up while I used the hand and foot holds, he tethered the rope as a safety measure if I slipped.  Naturally, in 1988 there was no ladder, just these small depressions the Navajo’s had carved out of the sandstone wall so they could easily traverse the wall themselves.    The  Moku Steps are seen to the left of the ladder in the photo below. 

     At only 35 years old I had a bit more strength than brains at that point and slowly, very slowing climbed the wall using the hand and foot holds, at one point I remember, although not seen in the picture I had to shift direction on the wall and kind of go sideways to grab another handhold.  As I recall harrowing at that moment but I did manage and finally continued my ascent, never looking down I got to the top and pulled myself over the ledge and turned to view the approximate 40 ft. high wall I had just scaled.  I remember my heart absolutely racing yet an incredible feeling of euphoria came over me for actually conquering the wall, and at least for a moment my fear of heights.   My new hero untied his rope, said there were a few more drops you’ll have to climb out but nothing like what you just did and quickly set off with his son, somehow convinced this kid from the East would be OK getting out on his own.  He told me to just double back over the rise to the right of the crack in the ground where the canyon starts and I’d find the car and my incredibly understanding wife.  30 years later I was foggy about what happened when I returned to the car, so I asked my wife what she recalled about her time alone in the car.  She told me that the Navajo Tribal police came by the car, wanted to know what she was doing there alone, 30 years later she added a little flavor to her response that’s really not necessary to repeat here.   Seems there had been 2 young Navajo girls accosted near that location a few weeks prior so we needed to leave NOW !  All other times I have visited and entered Lower Antelope Canyon via the “crack” in the ground seen below, as it were, my exit point that day in 1987.   

     The featured Black and White image was made the last day of March 1988, a few days before a workshop I was teaching with Jack Holowitz.   Unlike exposures in the other Antelope Canyon where my exposures were typically one hour long this exposure was only 1 minute 20 seconds long as Lower Antelope Canyon is much more open at the top the further the canyon boroughs it’s way down the more open the top becomes. As it happens this image is only a few steps away from the top of the wall with the Moku steps I had traversed the year before.   During the early ‘90’s I returned to several Slot Canyons in and around Page, AZ. and always the two Antelope Canyons before they became overrun with tourist and non-Navajo tour companies who simply took advantage of the unknowing landowners as to just what a natural phenomenon was sitting on their land.  

     I have witnessed the Antelope Canyon area go from, staying in the canyon all day and possibly never seeing another soul, to tour companies charging $65.00 for a 90-minute tour and scores of amateur photographers standing shoulder to shoulder with no tripods allowed pointing their handheld cameras upward.  Tragically, in 1997, only a few years removed from my annual visits to this very canyon a tour group ventured into Lower Antelope Canyon against prevailing wisdom on the threat of pending thunderstorms only about 30 miles away.   You can read the horrific account of 11 lives lost as told by the one lone survivor of the July 17, 1997 tragedy here:  Antelope Tragedy

     One thing I always remember the BLM Rangers telling us about going into the Slot Canyons, watch the general weather forecast in the area because “it’s not the rain falling on your head that will kill, it’s the rain miles away”.    This photograph of the author in Lower Antelope Canyon taken during one of the many workshops I gave is much more representative of the color and tone of the natural Navajo Sandstone.          

     About 2 years after making the feature photograph and still a member of the Connecticut Professional Photographers Association in 1990 I entered this image in the annual print competition where it scored a perfect 100, a feat only done once before in the history of their annual print competitions.    As it happens that one other Perfect Score was by Nancy Holowitz, my mentor and traveling partner’s wife and a dear friend who’s been an inspiration to me since we met in the early ’80’s.  The following year the Connecticut Professional Photographers Association chose to put my Lower Antelope Canyon on the cover of the 1991 annual convention program book’s cover in honor of that Perfect Score.