Antelope Slot Canyon Pictures

Before our trip, I knew nothing about Antelope Canyon, slot canyons or Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon caught my interest and I knew I had to see it, especially since it is only one state away. I started researching tour companies, reaching out to other bloggers and turning my day dreams of Antelope Canyon into an actual trip (check out our itinerary here!). I quickly learned that while Antelope Canyon is praised for it’s beauty, it is also notable for being crowded. Really, really crowded. Luckily I discovered Page has quite a few slot canyons, and so we decided to visit more than one. Here is my round up of the best slot canyons in Page.

Antelope Canyon.

To start off, Antelope Canyon is long, it actually goes on for miles. The famous pictures come from two sections, Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon. Both of these sections are on Navajo lands and require tours with a Navajo guide. You can also access part of antelope canyon from Lake Powell, which we did on a kayak tour. This part isn’t as beautiful, but kayaking is fun so I would still recommend it.

Kayaking and then hiking into another area of Antelope Canyon.

ANTELOPE CANYON TOURS. Click here to call +1 855-574-9102 +1 855-574-9102 Click here to email tours@antelopecanyon.com tours@antelopecanyon.com Click here to view. We used Antelope Slot Canyon Tours. They are the #1 company offering tours to Upper Antelope Canyon. The meeting point is at their office in Page. From Page, it is a 10 minute drive out to the slot canyon (included in your ticket price). Both of our guides were great, teaching us about the canyon and pointing out the best photography spots. Slot canyon photos Our stock files of slot canyons include Lower and Upper Antelope Slot Canyons, Canyon X and Secret Canyon in Page, Arizona. Stock Photos of Arizona.

You can visit both Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon on a “sightseer” tour or a “photography” tour. Both have their pros and cons. Photo tours require that you have an interchangeable lens camera and tripod, and provide you with some crowd control. There will be two guides who take you to different spots along the canyon and the hold the crowds for 2 minutes while you shoot. Photo tours are more expensive and move at a slower pace, so take a little bit more time. Sightseer tours are a larger group and can have any kind of camera/phone and prohibit tripods/monopods/selfie sticks. They move much more quickly and do not provide the same level of crowd control, but are significantly less expensive.

Falling sand in Upper Antelope Canyon with a sun beam shining in behind it.

Upper Antelope Canyon.

We visited Upper Antelope Canyon as part of a photo tour with Adventurous Antelope Canyon Tours. If you are going to do a photo tour, I would recommend doing it for Upper Antelope Canyon. This is the canyon famous for sun beams and sand running down the canyon. To get these shots you really do want to use a decent camera, tripod, and shutter release, but most importantly you need crowd control! Upper Antelope Canyon is more easily accessible than lower, with no stairs/ladders and is wider than lower so it is more popular and gets very crowded. It is gorgeous and I definitely think worth seeing, but my advice is to go early to avoid the crowds or do a photo tour, especially if you want shots of the famous sun beams. While on the subject of sun beams, if that is your primary goal, avoid visiting the canyons during the winter months and book your tour around noon.

Lower Antelope Canyon.

Lower Antelope Canyon is equally beautiful as upper and requires a bit more physical exertion. It has various stair cases that you climb up and down as you navigate through narrow passages. The stairs are pretty steep at some parts (almost like a ladder) and the canyon gets significantly more narrow than upper requiring single file passage at times. For me, this added to the fun and made it a bit more adventurous. However, it does mean that if one person stops to take a picture or enjoy the view for too long, it stops everyone else from moving. For this reason, the tour guides move you through relatively quickly. Don’t get me wrong, they definitely give you time to take pictures, but this isn’t a take your time and self explore experience. However, because of how narrow it was, I actually thought it was easier to get people free pictures than it was in Upper Antelope. I also thought Lower Antelope had more purple coloring than Upper, but this might have been just the time of day I was there. We used Dixie Ellis’ tour company and booked a sightseer tour for about $25/person. Looking back I’m glad we spent the extra money on the photography tour on Upper and DIDN’T spend it on lower. We still got great pictures in lower and carrying a tripod up and down the stairs would have been a pain. Again, I read about 2 hour long waits to get into the canyon, so I recommend booking your tour earlier in the day.

A narrow passageway in Lower Antelope Canyon.

Owl Canyon.

As part of our Upper Antelope Canyon photo tour, we also visited two other slot canyons, Owl and Rattlesnake. We were literally the ONLY people at Owl Canyon and had complete freedom to explore at our own pace. Upper Antelope is very structured (they literally draw a line in the sand on where you set up for pictures), so the freedom of being to move about Owl Canyon at our own pace was great. Owl Canyon gets its name from the owls that live there. We were lucky enough to get to see three of them! Since Owl canyon is wider and doesn’t have any stairs, it is a great option for all ages and fitness levels. I actually think it would be the most fun out of all the canyons for kids, as they could easily explore and might even get to see the owls.

Baby Owl in Owl Canyon 🙂

Rattlesnake Canyon.

Rattlesnake Canyon was our absolute favorite. It had the narrowness of Lower Antelope with the exclusiveness of Owl. We shared it with about seven other people during our visit and so felt like we had it to ourselves. If I could pick only two canyons to visit they would be Upper Antelope and Rattlesnake. Upper Antelope to see the sunbeams and Rattlesnake to get to enjoy the experience without all the people. Unlike Owl Canyon, Rattlesnake doesn’t get it’s name for being home to a family of rattlesnakes. If you look at it from above it winds around like a snake, hence the name Rattlesnake Canyon. Rattlesnake does require climbing a ladder and gets fairly narrow at parts. It is not the best option for those who use wheelchairs, strollers, or who have with difficulty walking/going up stairs.

Other Canyons.

We had a few other canyons that we considered visiting on our second to last day in Page. However, mother nature had other plans and we got rain and wind instead. Slot canyons are prone to flash floods and are very dangerous during rain. Tours are usually cancelled for safety reasons (people have died!). Monsoons usually occur in the afternoon from roughly end of June through August, so please plan your visit accordingly. The other canyons we were interested in were Canyon X, Cardiac Canyon, and Secret Canyon. Canyon X and Cardiac Canyon require tours, but the Secret Canyon does not (to my knowledge). If you are able to visit one of these, I’d love to here about it!

Antelope Canyon is 100% a must see, but you may find you love the other slot canyons even more. Do you have any other canyons to add to my list?

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Page Arizona is home to the famous Antelope Canyon, but also other impressive slot canyons as well.

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Glen Canyon National Recreation Area is located at the center of the Colorado Plateau and certainly ranks as one of the most beautiful and historically controversial areas under the guardianship of the National Park Service. When Glen Canyon Dam was completed in 1966, it backed up the water of the wild Colorado River to form magnificent Lake Powell, a reservoir capable of holding 24,322,000 acre feet of water. The waters of Lake Powell have created over 2,000 miles of shoreline along the Kayenta and Navajo Sandstone cliffs of Glen Canyon and resulted in the flooding of nearly 100 unique and beautiful side canyons.

Controversial dam

The controversy concerning Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell began when the dam was first proposed in the early 1950s. Conservationists and environmentalists vehemently argued against the dam's construction and the resulting flooding of beautiful Glen Canyon. Author Edward Abby championed the opposition to such dam construction and the inevitable destruction of the natural landscapes, archaeological ruins and historic sites in his famous 1968 book, 'Desert Solitaire.' The proponents of the dam and lake won the political debates, resulting in the submerging of Glen Canyon, many side canyons and the creation of Lake Powell.

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area encompasses some 1.25 million acres (50,5857 hectares) of water and backcountry-related recreational areas. The recreational area stretches from the shores of historic Lees Ferry located below Glen Canyon Dam to the spectacular red cliffs of southern Utah — a distance of some 186 miles (299 kilometers). The land offers an endless display of dazzling vistas and endless geological phenomenon.

Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend is one of the unique geological phenomenon found within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area. Located only 5 miles downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, Horseshoe Bend is, in geological terms, a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Colorado River. It is a classic and spectacular example of water following its natural path of least resistance.

The sheer cliff rock walls are made of dense Navajo sandstone and act as a natural barrier to the river flow, forcing the waters of the Colorado River to make a sharp turn and travel through softer rock. But Horseshoe Bend is not the only geological phenomenon in the area. Just a short 15 miles from the Lake Powell marinas is another spectacular geological treasure — a place simply known as Antelope Canyon.

Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon — a geological curiosity of tiny canyons formed when water seeps its way into fissures of the bedrock. Slot canyons are most common in desert areas. They are the result of many millennia of weather extremes. Antelope Canyon was thus formed over thousands of years of flash flooding of the intermittent creek running through it, wearing away the Navajo sandstone rock-face before emptying into the Colorado River and now into Lake Powell.

During the long periods of drought, windblown sand would polish the narrow slot walls into a striated, swirling finish. Antelope Canyon is famous for its ever-changing play of light upon its walls and the flowing sandfalls that cascade into the depths of the slot canyon.

Exceptional view

From the surface of the Earth, the fissure that opens across the Navajo sandstone is narrow and not exceptional to view. But first views can be deceptive. In the depths of the canyon, the walls can be 15 to 20 feet (5 to 7 meters) apart like that shown above and the slot canyon itself can be a 100 feet (30 m) deep. Navajo sandstone of Antelope Canyon was formed by aeolian depositions — sediment deposited by activity of the wind. Such depositions at Antelope Canyon began around 191 million to 174 million years ago during the Jurassic period. Iron oxide deposits were mixed with the windblown sands, resulting in layer after layer of varying shades of orange and red.

The canyon's heart

Rainwater near Antelope Canyon collects in an extensive basin above the beginning of the slot section. As gravity draws it downward toward Lake Powell, it picks up speed and sands while rushing into the narrow passageways of Antelope Canyon. Such annual and continual scouring of Antelope Canyon's walls mean the canyon is in constant flux, slowly changing after each flush of gushing water that passes through it. Unique shapes are formed within the slot canyon like the one shown above that is known as 'the heart.'

Where Water Runs Through Rocks

Antelope Canyon is actually divided into two sections — an Upper Antelope Canyon and a Lower Antelope Canyon. The Upper Antelope Canyon is the most famous and the easiest to access. The Navajo name for Upper Antelope Canyon is 'Tsé bighánílíní,' which means 'the place where water runs through rocks.'

Upper Antelope Canyon is only about 100 yards (91 m) in length. It is located at an elevation of 4,000 feet (1,219 m), and the walls of the Upper Antelope Canyon can rise some 120 feet (37 m) above the normally dry streambed. Thousands of tourists visit Upper Antelope Canyon each year, partly because it is an easy, flat walk through the slot canyon.

The Crack

Upper Antelope Canyon, also affectionally known as 'The Crack,' is famous for the wave-like structure of the canyon's walls. Upper Antelope Canyon is also known for the glorious light beams that penetrate into the depths of the canyon in the summer months between March 20 and Oct. 7. The summer light beams that radiate into Upper Antelope Canyon result in this slot canyon being the most photographed slot canyon in the southwestern United States.

The Corkscrew

Antelope Slot Canyon Pics

Some 4.5 miles (7 km) northwest of Upper Antelope Canyon is Lower Antelope Canyon — a slot canyon 1.1 miles (2 km) in length. The biggest difference between the two slot canyons is the size of the canyon floors. The upper canyon is wider at the bottom, while Lower Antelope Canyon is much smaller at the bottom, almost V-shaped.

The Navajo name for Lower Antelope Canyon is 'Hasdestwazi,' meaning 'spiral rock arches' and is sometimes called 'The Corkscrew.' Entering the lower canyon requires a short walk over uneven rock surfaces, before descending a series of five sets of stairs, shown above. Because of the challenging stairs, Lower Antelope Canyon usually sees fewer tourists than the upper canyon. But the fact remains that both Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon are a part of a complex, multi-faceted ecosystem with multiple drainage streams that transport local moisture runoff into what is now Lake Powell.

Origin story

Antelope Slot Canyon Pictures Black And White

The exact story of the discovery of Antelope Canyon seems to be lost to history. One Navajo tradition holds that a group of Navajo refused to join the 'Long Walk' of 1864 and took refuge in Antelope Canyon, where spiritual beings watched over them.

Another story suggests that a young Navajo girl, while herding her sheep, walked into the slot canyon and was amazed by the shafts of light she saw there. For a fact, we know the canyon was first documented by a Utah photographer who began publishing photos of Antelope Canyon in the 1930s.

Canyon tours

Access to the slot canyon of Antelope Canyon is today under the control of Navajo Nation. Authorized tour companies provide a variety of adventures for visitors to see and experience both the Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon. During the summer months, demand for the tours can be heavy and early morning tours are best to avoid the large crowds that at times gather.

Antelope Slot Canyon Pictures For Sale

Eighth Wonder of the World

Antelope Slot Canyon Pictures

Antelope Canyon is believed to have received its name from the herds of pronghorns, Antilocapra americana, that once grazed along the canyon's rim during the winter months. The incredible slot canyons that laid below the grazing herds have been described by modern-day visitors as the Eighth Wonder of the World. 'Absolutely breathtaking,' 'awe-inspiring' and 'words can't describe it' are all comments from those who have seen and experienced this geological jewel and treasure of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area.

Originally published on Live Science.