Beauty Nature: Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Antelope Canyon, Arizona, USA

In the Navajo desert of Arizona, Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon made up of stunning cracks and corkscrews, creating a wonderful light show. A must see for any amateur photographer or Instagram addict.

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.

Permit :

To visit either part of Antelope Canyon is expensive. There is a fee of $6 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 (2015) $25 for the either the popular upper section or the longer lower canyon.

This is the cost to travel to the canyons in a Navajo jeep, organized tours with a guide cost rather more, as do peak time visits (departing 10 am to midday). For the upper canyon the fee is paid to officials at the side of AZ 98 near the start of the track, and is now apparently only good for 2 hours, with longer visits costing an extra $5 per hour. The fee to enter the lower section is collected by attendants at the car park near the canyon edge. These amounts will doubtless increase as the Navajo continue to exploit the popularity of the canyon.

Beautiful but commercialized slot canyon, visited by hundreds of people on a typical day in summer. Two sections are open to visitors, the 600 foot long upper narrows, south of AZ 98, and the deeper lower narrows to the north.

Length:

600 feet (upper canyon, to which visitors are driven in 4WD vehicles), 0.5 miles (lower canyon)

Difficulty:

Easy, ladders and railings are installed in the lower canyon

Management:

Navajo Nation

Rocks:

Navajo sandstone

Season:

All year

Trail head:

Parking areas south and north of AZ.

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 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 usually 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.

+Google Maps