Antelope Canyon Slots Arizona
Water Holes, Lower Antelope, Upper Antelope. Are these the names of hiking trails? No, they’re Arizona slot canyons located on the Navajo Reservation near Page, Arizona. Alan and I discovered the photogenic gems while on a photo workshop. But you don’t have to be a boomer photographer to enjoy exploring canyons carved by nature’s power. Walking through the twists and turns of Arizona’s slot canyons will spark the imagination of any active travel enthusiast.
Yet, there’s a slot canyon near Page, Arizona that hasn’t made it onto the radar of most tourists who are following the masses to the famous Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon in the American Southwest, on Navajo land east of Page, Arizona. It includes two separate, scenic slot canyon sections, referred to as Upper Antelope Canyon (or The Crack), and Lower Antelope Canyon (or The Corkscrew).
.jpg "Antelope Canyon Slots Arizona")
Upper Antelope Canyon: an easy-to-explore Arizona slot canyon.
Upper Antelope Canyon is the easiest Arizona slot canyon to maneuver. After paying a hiking and permit fee (around $21 on our last visit), a truck takes visitors from the starting point off Highway 89 near Page, Arizona, to the canyon’s opening. Access is via a level, sandy path—no stairs or climbing involved. A Navajo guide accompanies travelers through the canyon on a one-hour trip where a combination of water and sand has etched the walls into a wonderland of texture and curves. Beams of sunlight shine down from the cracks in the canyon overhead. When the wind blows, dust drifts in swirling through the light in a ghostly dance.
Lower Antelope Canyon: adventure and photography fun
Adventure seekers will prefer Lower Antelope Canyon. Located on Copper Mine Rd. off Highway 89, entrance requires a permit and hiking fee (around $21 at the time of my visit). To reach the slot canyon, visitors follow the guide along a crack in the earth’s stony surface until it widens, leading to stairs that descend into the canyon. Warning! This is not an adventure for claustrophobics. They way is narrow but oh so worth it. Alan and I spent almost three hours exploring this photogenic fun house, slipping through narrow passageways, maneuvering several short drops via stairs, craning our necks for the view above us. When the light peeps in through overhead cracks, the textured walls turn into purple, yellow and orange curtains of rippling stone.
Water Holes Canyon: know where you’re going
Water Holes Canyon involves a bit of orienteering. A permit and hiking fee is required to access this Arizona slot canyon located south of Page on Highway 89. There’s no signage on the highway to direct you so it’s best to go with someone who’s familiar with the area. After a short hike, the canyon is accessed by walking down its sloping walls. The portion of Water Holes that we visited is not as dramatic as Lower or Upper Antelope and has a more rugged feel to it.
Need a place to stay? Start your research for hotels in Page with us.
Exploring Arizona’s slot canyons is one of our favorite adventures in the American Southwest and a boomer travel experience that Alan and I will be repeating. But, we won’t be going during monsoon season when flash floods make hiking in the canyons a dangerous endeavor.
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.
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.
Antelope Canyon Slots Arizona Resorts
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 Slots Arizona City
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?
Sharing is caring! If you liked this post please pin it for later 🙂
Page Arizona is home to the famous Antelope Canyon, but also other impressive slot canyons as well.
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save