Lauren

This is, hands down, my personal favorite photo of 2013.

I took this at Antelope Canyon near Page, Arizona while on vacation with my husband in the Grand Canyon area. While perfectly content with the grandeur and beauty of the Grand Canyon, we went to Antelope Canyon per the suggestion of an acquaintance who said that it was one of the most beautiful things she'd ever seen. We went in relatively blind, assuming that this was just another state-run natural wonder, there fore your casual exploring pleasure, as there are many in the area.

What we encountered upon arriving, however, was something of a modern day sideshow. After paying a $50 admission fee, we hopped on the back of a pickup truck and held onto our seats as a young, female tour guide drove the truck over gigantic sand dunes en route to the canyon.

Upon arriving there--completely covered in red sand and totally dehydrated--we realized that we had a tight 40 minutes in the canyon with hundreds of other eager tourists who seemingly materialized out of nowhere and who were all there expressly to take hundreds of photos at 25 or so carefully predetermined spots.

Those around us has expensive SLR cameras and had planned their trip around getting that "perfect shot" of, among other things, a sand waterfall, a bear, and something that vaguely looked like Salvador Dali, all created by the interplay of light and shadow on the canyon walls (note, these images can be easily Googled).

My husband and I, on the other hand, came to the canyon with only our iPhones in tow--hardly the ideal camera for this carefully-curated camera experience. The whole experience was so hokey (although the space was undeniably beautiful) that I just gave up on capturing the carefully-curated shots altogether and turned my iPhone around on all of the tourists vying for the same shot.

This photo is the result, and I think it is my favorite from the entire trip.