Lower Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon is located on the outskirts of the town of Page in northern Arizona, which is also home to Lake Powell and Horseshoe Bend. Visitors can tour either Lower or Upper Antelope Canyon - but only by guided tour! The tours can book up months in advance, so it’s recommended to book early if you can. We booked our tour with Ken’s Tours. It is recommended to make reservations, but walk ups can work to fill in spots.

We checked in at the window at the front of the building and were directed to wait inside in an air-conditioned waiting room with a bit of a gift shop and snack bar. After about twenty minutes, they directed us outside where we were separated into groups of ten. Each group had its own tour guide. Then we all lined up in a covered queue that ended in a series of steep staircases descending into the slot canyon.

Visitors are not allowed to stop and take pictures while on the staircases. There is a long line of people both behind and ahead of you; some are going down the staircases facing forward, others facing backwards, and if someone gets knocked over everyone could fall and get hurt! You should definitely wear comfortable shoes and not a skirt or dress unless you have shorts on underneath (due to the many staircases).

Once down the stairs, all the groups are herded into a large chamber in the canyon. At this point (and while going down the stairs), it’s a little disconcerting how many people are all in one place, and we wondered how we would be able to enjoy the canyon in such a crowd! However, past this first part of the canyon, each small group travels individually, and you won’t see anyone else besides the ten in your group, your guide, and maybe every once in a while the tail end of the group ahead or behind you.

It is insanely gorgeous inside the slot canyon, which was formed through the force of erosion by water and sandstorm. The walls arc up toward the sky in majestic swirls of rosy-hued orange sandstone. Shafts of sunlight from the thin streak of blue sky above highlight different warm hues in the rock face. There is endless variation in the rock formation as the path wends its way between the two steep sides of the canyon. Though the sides are steep, they are not flat. The rock seems almost to flow like water that has been frozen in time, with many rounded curves and sharper peaks jutting out from the face of the rocky sides of the canyon. The bottom of the canyon is wider than the top; at many places the two sides nearly meet overhead.

Along the way our guide showed us the best spots to get a photo of places where the shape of the rock seems to resemble things like the profile of George Washington, a turtle (we thought it looked like a kaiju from the movie Pacific Rim!), an eagle, the shark from Finding Nemo, and the chief’s face to name a few. There were also images to be seen in the negative space formed by the outline of the rocks against the sky, like a seahorse!

The leisurely walk through the slot canyon took about an hour. There was plenty of time for pictures as well as just gazing at the sheer beauty of the scenery. It was quiet, and the height of the canyon walls made us feel small and appreciative of the majesty of nature.

At the end of the tour, we climbed up out of the canyon through a narrow slit in the ground. When we looked back at the canyon, it was nearly impossible to tell that there was anything beneath the surface of the rock at all - just a thin crack in the ground, nothing to mark the wonderful sights that lay underneath.