Grand Canyon - Antelope Canyon   November 2016
After a wonderful and very busy summer with family and friends we crossed the border on October 21, 2016.  The weather in Mesa has been uncharacteristically warm for this time of year so we decided to take advantage of it and take a trip up to the Grand Canyon and Antelope Canyon.  These have been on our bucket list for a while so it was awesome to get to do both.  We went with Ruth and Wayne and we all headed for the Grand Canyon on November 9, 2016.

It is a little tricky getting photos of the Grand Canyon as it is  . . .   well, pretty Grand!

We only had a few hours in the Grand Canyon and on hindsight we should have stayed at least 2 nights in this area - but hey, now we can come back again.

if you look way way down you can see the Colorado river which looks like a tiny little snake .  A fellow told us it really is a raging river but we are nearly a mile away so really hard to get perspective.

this was later in the day and the dust and pollution made for some pretty shadows

After that we drove to Page, Arizona and spent the night at the Comfort Inn. We went to a cute little BBQ restaurant that even had an outdoor band. As we were kind of wimpy and chilly we ate inside. We drove through some beautiful scenery which we didn't notice as it was dark by the time we got there.  Luckily we had to back track the next day and saw it.  We had signed up for a tour of Antelope Canyon on line and our tour time was 9:20    We had a nice warm sunny morning.  If there is rain in the area tours can be cancelled as this area has totally flooded as recently as 2012.  In 1996 they used to have self guided tours and 11 people actually drowned in the canyon.  This canyon is on Navajo land so we had to pay per person to enter their land and then had to have guided tours of the canyon.

The tour was an hour and a quarter long but it felt like 15 minutes.  We had to descend down into the canyon on 5 flights of fairly steep step metal step/ladder type things. Then we walked along the canyon and we were in awe with every step.  They do offer photography tours as well and I think you get more time.   On this tour we had to keep moving and not much time to dilly dally which is my specialty.

hard to imagine that this is rock!  The water has carved out beautiful shapes in the sandstone.  there are some bumpy parts which we were told are calcuim deposits.  you can also see breaks in the layers where the earth has shifted.

The guides were really great and stopped to take pictures of all the groups.  They would also help you with your camera settings etc.  We used Ken's tour company which was suggested to us by Dennis and Gloria who had visited the canyon in October.  They did not lead us astray and we were equally impressed with our tour.

I cant begin to tell you how many times we turned a corner or looked up and were amazed at the beauty of this canyon.

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The sun makes the rock look like gold.

              Another one off the bucket list!

 It was a great summer.  The time flew by and looking back we accomplished a lot.  I worked part time in a grocery store  (I guess I did not learn my lesson the first time I did that).  However it did give me a ton of exercise and either strengthened or killed my back - jury is still out on that! 
We managed to visit with our family a lot which was fantastic.  I got in quite a few walks in the woods which is always something I love to do.  I even got to be in on a secret location of a rare orchid found in the boreal forest near Prince Albert - how cool is that?
We had a very successful gardening season at Kylie's house despite having to cover due to June frosts.  It was also very dry which led to a number of forest fires a couple of hours north of us as well as very smoky air. 
It was really cool to see Glen and Maureen, Ruth and Wayne and Brad and Clare - these are all friends we met in Mesa.
And most exciting of all Kylie and Kyle got engaged while on their trip to New Mexico and Colorado.  We are very pleased with both of their choices of partners and look forward to planning a wedding with them (if they ever decide what they are going to do  - LOL  hint hint)

We spent a few days in Estevan visiting with family before leaving Canada on October 22/15.  We saw most of  Don's family, some of whom we had not seen for quite some time so we were super happy about that. Also visited with my mom and dad and youngest sister.  Also Kylie and Kyle came for the weekend so they could visit everyone as well.  The days flew by and we spent a few fun hours playing scrabble, delivering flyers for my nephew, goofing off, eating and just generally having a great time.
We went through the port at Noonan and stayed in Miles City, Montana the first night.  The next two nights we stayed in Livingston, Montana.  It is such a pretty area and we stayed here as it is close to drive for a day trip into Yellowstone.  The first day we went to a pretty park for a walk after all the sitting we had been doing the last 2 days.

 There were lots of geese and ducks.  I couldn't believe my luck to see a number of these beautiful little wood ducks.

And some beautiful mountains too.
While driving through Montana we saw a lot of corn and sugar beet crops.

They pile the sugar beets in huge piles after harvesting.  I assume trucks come and pick them up to take for processing. There are also a lot of cattle in this area.  We saw a lot of cows out grazing.  We went past a totally grass fed beef farm as well.  Hopefully we will see these more and more.
And today we went to Yellowstone.  We left as soon as it got light out this morning and had a really great day.  It was right around the 0 C mark when we left and there was a wind so it was chilly on the ears.  The thought crossed my mind to bring my ear muffs but I was not smart enough to act on it. Also at over 7000 elevation it isn't to toasty this time of year.   Luckily you can drive the loops there and see most everything you would want to see.  Of course, we did not get any hiking in nor did we have much time to spend in the visitors centers.  There was so much information and wonderful displays available to see.

Yellowstone is quite amazing.  The scenery is like nothing you would see anywhere, or even imagine. There are all kinds of different hydrothermal features.  But yet, it has scenery that you would see in many different areas as well, such as pastures and waterfalls.  Its like the park that has EVERYTHING!

This was called fountain paint pots geysers.  It was very thick (like paint) and the bubbles looked really cool.

this pond was really quite deep and such a pretty blue.  Look at all the minerals around the outside of the pool of water.  There was steam everywhere throughout the park.  Coming up from little holes in a field to huge geysers.

 The minerals made for some interesting designs in the water.  Also as the landscape changes due to the steam, water and minerals there are lots of old dead trees which make it interesting.   This park has also had a number of fires and they let nature do the re- seeding.  There are some part of the forest that is only 10 years old and some that are 25 years old.  Very interesting contrast.

 Of course no trip to Yellowstone would be complete without seeing Old Faithful.

This is the mud volcano.  That is one big pool of bubbling mud

 this was called dragons mouth.  It was a very good name for it as you could hear the roar of the steam coming out.  Sometimes as we were standing there it spewed out so much steam you couldn't see anything.  this area was also pretty smelly 

In this area there were tons of old dead trees.  A series of earthquakes in 1978 shook the area.  The trees all managed to survive the shaking but the ground super heated to 200F and cooked the roots.

 These two waterfalls were just beautiful.  The top one has a lot of travertine banks from the limestone deposited by the mineral springs.

This was along the Yellowstone River, the little island had a smooth covering of ash??

 I mostly saw this guy from the back.  I have  a number of pictures of his butt as a matter of fact.  He was walking along parallel to us as we drove along the road and I was having a hard time getting a good picture.  All of a sudden he sort of turned towards us and looked me in the eye and took a step forward, which is when I rolled up the window and missed a possible great shot.  He was scary looking tho!  LOL  I thought it was a black bear and Don said he thought it was a grizzly.  I sort of think he is right.

There were lots of bison all over the park as well as elk, antelope and deer.

The mammoth hot springs was just amazing to see.  It sort of looked like an ice sculpture.  Amazingly the water runs all the way down and then just seems to disappear into the ground.

It was a great day and I am super glad we got to go to Yellowstone!  Following are some videos - I have a lot to learn about taking videos  :)