First of all: no, I´m not trying to compete with the famous images of the Canyon. These are photos of the place as we saw it on a late and cloudy afternoon.

I was told that it was tough getting good images of the Canyon, as the popular midday tours are often sold out in advance, and even if you´d get on one, the scuffle and shoving of other photographers trying to get the right angle, would be quite unbearable. Not for me, I thought, as we were staying in Page, AZ for a couple of days, we didn´t see the necessity of booking a tour in the first place. We got there and caught a couple of Navajo-Guides relaxing and slowly preparing to close down the business for the day. Not a lot of people, no queuing and nothing. Five others wanted to take the tour, so it was really an almost empty truck taking us down the dirt road until we reached the inconspicuous entrance to the upper Canyon. 

Our tour guide was in no hurry seeing us through the couple of hundred yards to the other end and back again. We were the only group, so there was no pressure. The cloudy weather didn´t attract many people that late afternoon, yet we were lucky to get a few sun rays through the clouds, which again gave the Canyon a more sanguine atmosphere. All in all a great excursion without the photographic rat race. 

The starting point of most tours.

Close to the entrance point.

Light seems to sway and flow through the narrow alley.

Just a minimum of additional light or some sun rays transform the colors of the washed out sandstone.

Erosion is an ongoing process as flash floods still occur every once in a while.