Today we visited Antelope Valley which is a poor mans The Wave. Antelope Valley is a wash where at two points water is funneled into very narrow canyons that are almost caves. These flash floods make for an incredible variety of shapes and the light from the very narrow opening at the top adds spectacular colors. It is mandatory to use a Navajo tour guide to enter the wash where the canyons are.
Ron rode up front with our guide, and he gave him the history of the valley. Up to 1997 it was virtually unknown and little visited. Two things happened around then that changed it to a heavily visited attraction under control of the Navajo. In a great bit of marketing the Navajo invited National Geographic to do a photo shoot around then and when it was featured in the magazine the interest spiked considerably. Then later in the year a guide entered the wash with 10 customers despite the gates being closed. It turns out that while it was not raining in Page at the time, it was storming up in the mountains, and while they were in the canyon a flash flood swept thru and the only one that survived was the guide.
Today they allow up to 70 people into the wash per hour, and it is run with military precision, as all of the tours are booked months in advance. While they keep you moving and it is a little bit of a cattle call, it is very much worth doing if you are in the area.