It was a foggy morning, we could not see 20 meters ahead. It was the first time when the weather would have changed our plans dramatically. We applied the tactic: wait and see. So we took the time for a long lunch.

Continue reading Canyonlands National Park →

Notre baptême d’arche, c’est grâce à Wilson ci-dessus.

Continue reading Arches →

She is Navajo native. Her grandmother discovered the entry of the canyon while going with the sheep on her family land. She was very scared, but as well very curious. She took her horse and ran through the canyon, about 500 meters. Then she ran to her family to shout about her amazing discovery. Everyone knew about the canyon. She asked:

– but why you didn’t tell me ?

– everyone will discover some day, if it’s meant for her.

This is another way of thinking. To let other generations to discover. As Blaga was saying, ‘don’t crush the corolla of wonders of the world’.

It remain like this. Rumours spread. Groups of students were visiting the canyon from time to time. And in the 90s, a woman started to come on a regular base with groups of religious people. She made the grandmother sign a paper. She got more and more groups of people. The site started to degrade, lots of garbage and names or signs carved on the walls.

The family wanted to stop this state of things. They saw the signed paper, where the Grandmother gave a lot of rights to that woman. They had to have a trial to stop her, to build fences to protect the property in order to make the visits in a organized way.

Now there are 3000 daily tourists. We paid for a ticket 50$. A big part of the money goes to non-profit organisation to provide water in Africa.

It resembles a little with the story in Mesa Verde, where abandoned native villages were kept in peace for hundreds of years, and since XIX-th century, treasure hunters disturb the places.

The girl was a bad guide. She said only to the people where and how to take the photo. We spoke at the end of the visit. She said that if she feels that the people are interested in the story, she tells it. She gives only what people want. If they want nice selfies and photos, she helps them. She gave advice where and what to shoot, in order to see some forms, like Dragon’s eye, … . People share the photos with friends, and like this they make a huge publicity to the site. Antelope Canyon is not yet on the route of mainstream tourists.