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.

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Come with me on a walk through Antelope Slot Canyon located near Page, Arizona.The beauty of the canyon is accentuated by the changing light, as the light changes, as the sun moves, the canyon walls change and there are new visions. Starting with arguably the most popular slot canyon, Antelope Canyon is actually divided into two: Upper and Lower. Both areas feature the gorgeous curvy walls that beckon visitors from all over the world but you’ll find the tourist traffic significantly less in Lower Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon Arizona – this world-famous slot canyon is of the most beautiful places on Earth. This other-worldly place is an enchanting landscape that took water and winds thousands of years to create. You’ve probably seen Instagram posts of a place with beautiful, orangish, magical rock formations on your feed a time or two.

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.

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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.

Antelope Slot Canyon Page Arizona

×Antelope Canyon is located near Page on Navajo Nation land, just outside Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and close to AZ 98 a few miles east of town (at milepost 299). Antelope is the most visited slot canyon in the Southwest, partly because it is easily accessible and by far the most publicized, and also since it is extremely beautiful, with just the right combination of depth, width, length, rock color and ambient light; many other slot canyons are deeper, narrower or longer, and some have rock that is even more colorful and sculptured, but here conditions are ideal.

Location

The seasonal stream of Antelope Creek flows into Lake Powell 3 miles east of Page in far north Arizona. Most of the watercourse is wide and sandy, but it forms two sections of accessible slot canyon near the lake (Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon), separated by several miles of flat desert terrain. Both may be approached from AZ 98; the upper canyon (also known as Corkscrew Canyon) is reached at the end of a very sandy 2 mile 4WD track south of the road beginning near milepost 299, and it is this part which is most often visited. Lower Antelope Canyon extends between AZ 98 and the lake, and is reached by a short track northwards leading to a parking area from where the escorted tours depart. This is slightly more demanding to visit, requiring climbing up and down several ladders.

Fees

To visit either part of Antelope Canyon is expensive. There is a fee of $8 for a standard permit required to enter Navajo territory, and an additional charge is due to the families who own the land around the canyons and regulate all access - the cheapest is currently (2020) around $60 for the shorter but more popular upper section and a little more for the longer lower canyon. As of 2018 all visits are only allowed as part of organized tours, preferably booked in advance, though there may be availability on the day during less popular months. The price may be higher for peak time visits, departing 10 am to midday. The fees will doubtless increase as the Navajo continue to exploit the ever-growing popularity of the canyon.

Route Description

Upper Antelope Canyon

When approaching upper Antelope Canyon, there is no obvious clue as to its location. The trail seems to end at the base of a red sandstone plateau about 20 yards high, but the sight of an Indian jewelry stall soon indicates its position - the entrance is a narrow curved slit in the cliffs only a few feet wide. Once inside, the temperature drops as much as 20 degrees as the visitor enters one of the most beautiful of all natural formations. The sunlight filtering down the curved sandstone walls makes magical, constantly changing patterns and shadows in many subtle shades of color. Some sections of the canyon are wide and bright, while others are narrower and more cave-like, with no light reaching the sandy floor. After only 150 yards or so, the canyon becomes suddenly much shallower near the top of the plateau. It may take only 3 or 4 minutes to walk through, but the canyon is well worth the arduous trek or expensive journey required to get there. Pictures taken here adorn camera shops and photographic manuals throughout the world, and usually there will be many people waiting with tripods and light meters trying to compose the perfect shot, and grumbling when other people walk in front of their two minute exposure. There are other equally short but pretty narrows further upstream, though these are not open to visitors.

Lower Antelope Canyon

The lower canyon is longer and deeper than the upper section, but also slightly more challenging, requiring climbing down ladders in some places to descend several sheer drops. It was here that 11 people were drowned in a flash flood in August 1997, when water 50 feet deep from a thunderstorm 5 miles away swept through the canyon, eventually deepening it by 4 feet. Lower Antelope Canyon was closed for 9 months before reopening with improved safety features, and now all visitors must now be accompanied by a guide. Both parts of the canyon are still beautiful, but any sense of adventure or tranquility is long since gone - best to try one of the hundreds of other Southwest slot canyons for these qualities. The nearest alternatives, only requiring a $6 daily permit, are Buckskin Gulch and Wire Pass.

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Other Canyons

The short slot of Upper Antelope Canyon is six miles from Lake Powell but only about half way along the drainage, which to the south extends across empty desert land, initially as a sandy wash, then as a rocky gorge as the land gradually rises. Tributaries join from both sides, some also containing slot sections, while the upper end splits into two main forks, both deep and narrow. Several other segments of the drainage system have received semi-official names, and may be visited as part of specialized tours, charged in the range $80 to $250. Closest to Hwy 98 is Owl Canyon, which joins Antelope from the southwest, one mile from the road; this has a 900 foot-long slot near its lower end and much longer narrows 2.5 miles upstream, a section also known as Mountain Sheep Canyon. A little further, the uppermost stretch of the drainage is Ramshead Canyon, in which the walls partly overhang above the streambed. Another short slot known as Ligai Si Anii Canyon is also in this area, accessed from Copper Mine Road. The next major tributary south (0.7 miles before Upper Antelope) is Rattlesnake Canyon, the lower end of which forms a 500 foot slot, with two small arches. Wind Pebble Canyon is a longer tributary with several enclosed, photogenic sections, named for the stones embedded in the walls; it joins Antelope from the west, nearly 6 miles south of the highway. The two upper forks are Canyon X (east) and Cardiac Canyon (west) - both are cliff-lined for around one mile, containing slots alternating with more open passageways. The latter is rather more strenuous to explore.

Map of Slot Canyons of Antelope Creek

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