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Antelope Canyon Arizona • What to Expect

Barbara — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 00:56:33 +0000

What to Expect in Antelope Canyon Arizona

Expect to be amazed at the beauty of Antelope Canyon in Arizona! With its stunning colors and mysterious formations Antelope Canyon is truly awe-inspiring. It can provide photographers with fascinating and colorful images like nothing you have seen before. The slot canyon is located on Navajo land near Page, Arizona, and it’s the most visited and most photographed slot canyon in the American Southwest.

What is Antelope Canyon?

Antelope Canyon is in two parts, Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon are they are both slot canyons. A slot canyon is a deep, narrow canyon that has been formed mainly by water and wind rushing through the rock or sandstone. This eroding action on the sandstone created a long, winding passageway throughout the canyon. The canyons name comes from the pronghorn antelope that roamed freely in and around the area years ago.

The Navajo Sandstone inside the canyons has taken on amazing shapes and colors due to light and many years of erosion.

Where is Upper Antelope Canyon?

Upper Antelope Canyon, also known as “The Crack” is located on Navajo Nation land near Page, Arizona. A ticket booth located at the park entrance can be reached along AZ 98 at milepost 299. Limited access is allowed, so if you’d like to hike the canyons you must park your car, pay a fee to the Navajo Nation and have an authorized guide take you to the canyon entrance. There’s a two hour limit in each canyon. Photo tours are also available for an additional fee allowing a longer time in the canyon.

Your guide will drive you in a 4 wheel drive vehicle to the entrance of the upper canyon approximately 3.5 miles away. The ride itself is somewhat of an adventure. You and a group of other visitors will be driven along a bumpy, very sandy route that is actually a wide, dry wash or riverbed that happens to be dry at the moment. Hang on and have fun!

Upper Antelope Canyon is the most popular of the two canyons mainly because the conditions are ideal here. You enter the canyon on a flat, level surface with no climbing required and the passageway inside the canyon is wide and easy to navigate. The canyon is a ¼ mile long with walls rising 130 feet above you.

Light beams can be seen piercing through the canyon around mid-day between March 15th and October 7th. When the light beams are visible your guide may toss a handful of sand in the air making the shafts of light more visible in your photos.

More Places to Explore in Arizona, Utah & Colorado!

As you walk along the canyon floor you may notice logs, branches and tumbleweed that have become stranded on ledges or lodged in crevices high above the canyon floor. The force of the water that rushes through these canyons during times of flash flooding is powerful and will carry everything in its path along with it.

The amount of carving and polishing to the sandstone canyon walls due to erosion and time is hard to believe. Stunning colors are especially visible during the summer months.

Swirling colors and amazing light in the canyon will capture your imagination. It’s almost like being in a fantasy land but it’s real.

Where is Lower Antelope Canyon?

Lower Antelope Canyon, also known as “The Corkscrew” can be reached along RT 222, a flat dessert road off of AZ 98. The upper and lower canyons are separated by only a few miles.

A Navajo Nation Park welcome sign is located near the ticket booth where you can park, purchase your ticket and get a guide.

After purchasing your ticket your guide will take you along a flat, sandy wash to the entrance of the lower canyon. The entrance to the canyon is a narrow crack in the ground measuring only 1 to 2 feet across. It is more challenging to enter and navigate through than the upper canyon.

Be prepared to lower yourself into the canyon and climb down the metal stairs that have been anchored into the canyon walls. The climb is not difficult if you are in reasonably good physical condition and is well worth the effort once you have entered the canyon. The metal ladders have been installed in the canyon for added safety. Weather miles away can affect the conditions in the canyon due to rain and flash flooding. In 1997, a thunderstorm 5 miles away from the canyon caused a 50 foot deep flash flood that ripped through the canyon killing 11 tourist. ALWAYS check the weather anytime you plan on entering ANY slot canyon.

The canyon has some amazing and colorful formations like this one known as Windswept Woman. The canyon is a ½ mile long, with walls approximately 150 feet high.

Take your time exploring the canyon, you may be surprised at what you find. We were surprised to hear birds singing and see them perched high above us on the canyon walls. We stumbled upon this fragile birds nest lined with pale blue feathers. The nest must have fallen from a cliff high above the canyon floor. It looked so out of place deep inside the canyon.

Antelope Canyon is a place hard to put into words; you need to experience it yourself to truly appreciate its mystifying beauty.

Where to Stay When Visiting Antelope Canyon?

We love to stay in the town of Page, Arizona when we travel to the Antelope Canyon area. Page is the perfect base camp for visiting Antelope Canyon as well as many other amazing attractions such as Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell, Horseshoe Bend and river rafting down the Colorado River. Page has all the conveniences of lodging, restaurants and shopping. You’ll also find tour guides, outfitters and house boat rentals as well. You can find lodging deals for any season in Page on Booking.com.

Visit the Navajo Tribal Parks website here for Hours and Fee information https://navajonationparks.org/tribal-parks/lake-powell/

We’d like to hear from you!

Have you been to Antelope Canyon or are you planning a trip there? Give us your thoughts in the comments below, we love hearing from you!

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Visiting Monument Valley

Barbara — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 21:00:28 +0000

On our way to Monument Valley we decided to take the Moki Dugway, UT-261, considered to be the “scenic” route. It was indeed the scenic route to Monument Valley! Constructed in 1958 to transport uranium ore, the Moki Dugway is a 3 mile, narrow gravel road with tight switchbacks (hairpin turns) and a 10% grade. The sign reads 10 mph; I think 5 mph is more than enough thank you!

This is the view from the top of Moki Dugway, that’s a 1,100 foot drop. Yikes – we’re really going down the dugway!!?? You can see one of the tight switchbacks we’ll have to navigate in the bottom left of this image. Just go slow, it’s not that bad and we made it down just fine! Blood pressure check please!

Where is Monument Valley?

Monument Valley is located on the Arizona–Utah state line on the Navajo Nations Reservation. It is in the Colorado Plateau region and can be reached by Hwy 163. The sandstone formations rising from their relatively flat surroundings was similar to what we saw when we visited Garden of the Gods in Colorado.

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US Route 163, gives you a glimpse of what’s in store for you long before you arrive. You may recognize this scene from the movie Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks. This is where Forrest, running north on US Route 163, decides to stop running and ends his cross-country run.

Don’t be surprised by what you see along the way…we passed very inquisitive donkeys

and watchful chipmunks as we drove along this road, very cute!

At the entrance to the Navajo Tribal Park you will pass this beautiful sculpture depicting a Navajo family.

What is Monument Valley?

The Navajo Tribal Park is best known for it sandstone buttes, some reaching as high as 1,000 feet. It is a park within the Navajo Tribal Reservation. A 17 mile dirt road takes you through the park, a 2-3 hour trip that offers spectacular views of the stunning scenery. Guided tours and horse rides are also available for an additional fee.

The park puts on a spectacular display of red sandstone formations known as mesas, buttes and towers. You may recognize the scenery from the many movies that have been filmed here which include; Stagecoach, Easy Rider, National Lampoon’s Vacation, Back to the Future III, Thelma & Louise, Forrest Gump, Cars as well as 100’s of Westerns.

Spires and buttes viewed along the 17 mile loop drive within the park are brightly colored. Iron oxide in the aged siltstone gives the valley its red color while manganese oxide in the rocks gives them their blue-gray color.

Horse rides and guided tours are available in the park. Due to its location on tribal grounds you will need to make arrangements for a guided tour to visit areas outside of the 17 mile loop road. Arrangements can be made for a group tour or a private tour. Only Navajo people are authorized to take visitors off the loop road and into the back-country.

The Left and Right Mittens are iconic buttes that you may recognize from movie scenes filmed here. When visiting you may recognize many other areas from movies that you have seen.

The Navajo Hogan is the sacred traditional home of the Navajo people. Every Navajo family, even those living in newer style homes would have a Hogan for ceremonies according to their religious and cultural beliefs.

John Ford’s Point displays a dramatic view of the valley. Hollywood film director John Ford found inspiration at this overlook while filming his many Western movies at this location.

More Place to Explore in Arizona, Utah & Colorado!

Antelope Canyon – Arizona
Bryce Canyon National Park- Utah
Canyonlands National Park – Mesa Arch – Utah
Zion National Park – Canyon Overlook Trail – Utah
Mesa Verde National Park – Colorado

Huge buttes surround you along the drive in the valley.

Monument Valley Hotels

The View Hotel is located inside the Navajo Tribal Park.

Goulding’s Lodge is located across from the entrance to Monument Valley. Check Booking.com for deals in any season at Goulding’s Lodge.

Goulding’s Museum & Trading Post located next to Goulding’s Lodge has an outstanding collection of movie memorabilia from the many movies that have been filmed here as well as many other interesting exhibits. Monument Valley was the filming location for many John Wayne movies as well as numerous other movies.

Sunrise was stunning. This was the view from our room at Goulding’s Lodge. It was the beginning of a spectacular day for us!

Things to Know Before You Go

For current admission prices, hours of operation and directions you can visit Navajo Nation Parks & Recreation

Have you visited this spectacular park or do you recognize these scenes from a movie you seen?

Let us know about your experience in the comments below.

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