X Canyon

Morning came in bright and sunny, and I wasted no time getting ready, packing, checking out and going for a quick local breakfast: a real one, totally unhealthy but very satisfying!

All that settled, I once more made my way to the nearby Canyon X tour operator. The lady responsible for driving and bringing us there was looking at some paperwork and looked at me with a quizzical look: “what did you say your name was, sir?”

SIGH…

Well, my name was on a list indeed, but not on the X Canyon list (not sure of the difference), and as the guests started arriving, I resigned myself to wait on the sideline, once more, until I could be processed. What was going on…?

My turn finally came, and although there definitely was a problem with my registration and the small lady operation, there was one last seat available on the all-terrain truck to the canyon, and that was in front next to the lady driver’s seat. I’m in! And we had a fantastic time driving there, as she generously gave me additional information on the place and surroundings. And the drive, once off the main road, was pure desert sand delight, leading to a rock wall, with just a vertical opening in the center, through which we would be walking into the next! 

This was quite a bit different from the Lower Antelope Canyon walk, as in a bit darker, while being a bit more spacious inside and earlier in the day, between the smooth, eroded sandstone rocks, over millions of years.

As we snuck our way through the underground canyon, we were all trying to look for some of the famous rock formations and went through the religious process of taking memorable selfies and shots. Some of those tunnels and walls clearly bear the mark of recent floods, with branches and trees’ roots still lodged in crevices and bends: a clear reminder to always watch the weather, locally but most importantly upstream, before adventuring in those canyons. Anyhow, i believe it is forbidden to go alone, and only tours accredited with the Navajo Reservation can take tourists in: despite a few accounts of forbidden excursions ending in tragedy. 

As for me, I got the X, but not the famous one, although mine looked much more like the one from the X-Files logo… the Lower Face, etc… But apart from those formations, and a definitive case of pareidolia (human tendency to recognize shapes in natural formations, such as seeing faces in clouds or patterns in rocks), I was mostly interested in the smooth weather patterns carved by wind, water, sand, rock, and a multitude of debris. 

Still, this had been a fantastic walk into Earth’s history, and after almost an hour, we remerged into the desert and walked back to our trucks, which would take us back to the operator centre, where I was to wait for my bus to come pick me up for the final leg of my tour: the famous scenic Horseshoe Bend Canyon!

The bus eventually arrived, and the small lady came out, looking at me with a mixed expression of surprise, horror, and relief. Good gods, what now… 

“We were looking for you! Did you manage to do the X Canyon tour?”

I have no idea what the confusion was about, and maybe she was supposed to pick me up in the morning to conduct the tour, but nobody was there, and the other operator took me since I was listed. So what the heck was this all about… I refused to argue and climbed on board. Good to know it was only one more stop before the drive back to Las Vegas, and I would be off this very disorganized, not guided tour.