Antelope Canyon
 

Has anyone been here? The photo I've seen looks stunning, but I've read flash floods took lives and it was closed a few years ago. Apparently, Navajos will now take you in a very expensive bus.Any comments please?
On the search, I see that Utahtea is planning to go this August. Look forward to hearing how it went.

Antelope Canyon is really in two parts. The Upper section is only several hundred feet long and you can easily walk into it. The Navajo will drive to you the entrance and pick you up. The Lower section which is some distance away from the Upper is the one where the deaths occurred. One of the reasons for their deaths is they did not listen to their guide when he told them it was time to get out. Permanent ladders now are in place. If you are looking for a guide to the area would highly recommend Jackson Bridges of Page, UT. He is a photographer with his own 4x4 and can take you to Antelope and many other off the beaten path places.

I took the Antelope boat tour, it was awesome! My report is buried somewhere on this site. You can search for it if you want.

Thank you for your answers. Are we talking about the same canyon - is the one on the boat trip the narrow, red-gold schism I've seen photos of?

No, these are two different things albeit both accesible from Page.

The Antelope Canyon is visited by boat on Lake Powel.

The Antelope Narrows are the slot canyon with the magnificent colors.

Just returned from a southwest vacation which included a tour of Antelope Canyon.

We arranged our tour through Roger Ekis' Antelope Canyon tours (www.antelopecanyon.com). The tour begins at the company's office in Page, AZ. From there, you ride in an open air bus to the canyon (15 minute ride). The canyon is small but stunning! I felt that our guide did a very poor job of telling us about the canyon. She walked us through the canyon (it takes less than 10 minutes to walk through), pointed out a few areas of interest, and then told us to meet her back at the front of the canyon in about 20 minutes. Several times she mentioned things that we would have seen had we taken the 11:30am tour. The canyon changes dramatically depending on how the light is hitting it and apparently 11:30am - noon is prime time (our tour was at 1:30).

I saw other guides who were going into much more detail about the canyon and really personalizing the tour. I also though the cost of $120 for a family of 5 was steep.

I would recommend going, but do some research to find a good tour company.

Two years ago, the cost was a very reasonable $17.50 a person if you paid the friendly Navajo woman at the entrance to Antelope Canyon. For the money, she drove you to the canyon and picked you up an hour later. The guided tours were also in the canyon at the same time, and I did feel they added significantly to what I had already read on the Internet.

It can become crowded in Upper Antelope Canyon so getting a great shot is difficult; it has been photographed from every conceivable angle anyway. With that said, people on this board know I highly recommend going to Upper Antelope Canyon - it is easy to get to, it is short and manageable, and photograph come close, but don't truly capture the beauty of the canyon.

I have a few pictures at http:\\www.mikehoneycutt.com

Have fun.

Mike Honeycutt

Just got back from our vacation yesterday. We did the Antelope Slot Canyon tour with Grand Circle Adventures. We chose them because we wanted to go at 10:30 and we wanted to be driven in an air condition suburban. One nice thing about this tour is the fact that a suburban is limited to 7 and the tour guide. Other tours that came in after us had a lot more people in their groups. We were able to find times when we could get some pictures without other people in the shot.

Only two of the tours offer the suburban. It was HOT in August when we went so that was a big plus!

The tour was great. You have to be guided into the upper canyon now. Our guide pointed out many interesting formations. We walked pretty fast from one end to the other then we were allowed to take our time coming back. Our guide let us have a few extra minutes, but some people on another tour were told to come NOW and they missed a good sunbeam into the canyon. The sunlight was coming in a lot more on the way back and I got some really good pictures. The canyon was a lot cooler than the outside!

Utahtea

Welcome home Utahtea! I'd love to see some of your pictures from the slot canyon. If you get them into your website, holler, if you don't mind us peaking!

If you went in at 10:30, what time were you out by? Do you feel you had enough time? We are toying with that as part of our Thanksgiving trip this year. Would love to see it but then...I really hate tours too so I've got mixed emotions. May just have to enjoy it through others photographs.

I wonder if it has become more and more popular, resulting in the entire trip being guided now to get people in and out to allow for other groups?

Hi Olive Oly,

Yes, I will be putting some of my pictures of the Antelope slots canyon on my web site when I get things all sorted out. I'm an amature so some of them didn't turn out in the canyon. I took a total of 670 digital pictures on my 2 week vacation! OY!

We had a little over an hour IN the slots canyon. Since the deaths a few years back, they don't allow people into the canyon without a guide. It's not that big of a deal. We went with our family of 5 and our tour guide pointed out things and I mostly stayed back getting pictures. Like I mentioned she took us thought the canyon to the other side really fast pointing out features and then we had most of the hour to stroll back at our own pace and our guide just kept an eye out for us.

Utahtea