A few weeks ago Deb and I were on vacation in Arizona. Our first day was spent mostly traveling and stopping at Munds Park for the night. The next morning we made the long drive to Page Arizona near the Utah border. We had scheduled to tour Antelope Canyon that morning. Well, the slot canyon tour was awesome and I got to meet some very nice folks. Deb was on the standard tour while I took the “photographer’s tour”. Well worth the time and cost.

However… just days before we left I discovered that Horseshoe Bend was in this same town and from everything I saw it looked amazing. So after the slot canyon tour and getting cleaned up, (We were covered in red sand and it was in every nook and cranny of all our belongings… including my camera.) we took the short drive to Horseshoe Bend. There were wind advisories out that day and it was windy. The 3/4 mile hike to the canyon was like walking through a sandstorm. It was actually painful as the sand was quite course here. We made it to the canyon and it was magnificent. But the wind gusts coming out of the canyon were quite honestly, life threatening. I got on all fours and crawled to the edge and took some shots. Backed away and stood with Deb for awhile. At times we held on to each other as the wind gusts came. Yes, they were that strong. At one point, prior to leaving, we were separated and a wind gust came and pushed Deb away from me. She ran to keep up with it and I ran after her. I could only watch in fear as she was carried and eventually fell to the ground. I could not stop due to the force of the wind and went right by her until I myself fell about 20 feet beyond. I went back to Deb and she looked at me with a face covered in blood. I helped her up and we made the journey back to the car and to the hotel where she got cleaned up. It was apparent she needed medical attention. She ended up getting one stitch in her nose and bruising far beyond anything I have ever seen. Most of her face was black and blue 48 hours after the accident. She did not sustain any major injuries but enough minor ones to prevent her from doing any hiking while we were in Sedona.

All in all we were so grateful we both walked away with our lives. Would I do it again? Yes, but alone next time if the weather was like that. If you head to this site heed any warnings of wind. Be careful and enjoy the view.

Here is one of the images I shot of Horsehoe Bend. Copies of the image are available here (click link).

Horseshoe Bend by Bill Raab