Antelope Canyon Guide

If I were to have a bucket list, Antelope Canyon would be on it. The dad of a close high school girlfriend of mine was a photographer.  Prominently featured in their dining room was a photo in Antelope Canyons. As I got more into photography, I often recalled that photo and wished I'd go see it for myself. This past spring, my wish came true! 

I pulled together this guide based on my research for the trip and our experience from going on the trip in April 2022.  I get into how to get there, potential add-on trip to Zion, and most importantly, which tour to join for Antelope Canyon.  Hope this is useful to you as you plan yours!

Flying in

Las Vegas, NV (LAS) or Phoenix, AZ (PHX)

To get to Antelope Canyon, you either have to fly into Las Vegas, or Phoenix AZ.  We opted to go via Las Vegas.  

If you want to visit Zion National Park and/or Bryce Canyon Park on the same trip, flying into Las Vegas is the better option since those parks are roughly halfway between Las Vegas and Page, AZ.

Driving from Las Vegas

The drive from Las Vegas to Page, AZ (the town you'd stay in for Antelope Canyon) is ~4.5 hours drive to Page AZ.  On the way there, we stopped ~halfway, at River Rock Roasting Company (La Verkin, UT) for an early dinner; it was a nice stop-off point with decent food/drinks.

Where to Stay

Antelope Canyon

Page, AZ is the town you will stay in to visit Antelope Canyon. All listed tours are within ~10-20 minutes from Page, AZ>

We stayed at Hyatt Place Lake Powell for 3 nights for the 4 tours we joined.  I picked this place as it’s highly rated on Tripadvisor, it also comes with hot breakfast daily. The hot breakfast is fairly basic, but it’s convenient.  The hotel is also close to a couple of vista points, which is also convenient. It’s ~10-15 minutes from restaurants or any of the Antelope Canyon tour operators.

View from Grandview Overlook, minutes from Hyatt Place Lake Powell

Zion National Park

At Zion, we stayed one night at Under Canvas Zion. I think I saw them in a Travel & Leisure or Conde Nast article and it looks pretty cool...and it is!  As a city girl, I've never gone camping and didn't really have a desire to. This glamping option is a great way to experience the wilderness with all the amenities.

We opted for the Stargazer tent, it's not worth the extra $.  If you are considering Under Canvas, avoid the summer months (more negative reviews in summer months from what I read) and I recommend asking  for a tent with a parking spot next to it.  The thing I liked about Under Canvas is that they have a private bathroom + shower inside the tent; there's also a fireplace!  The camp also has a restaurant which is quite decent, as well as staff on-site in their hospitality tent 24x7. You’re able to content camp staff via text.  

https://www.cntraveler.com/gallery/where-to-stay-in-zion-national-park 

[Left] Inside the Stargazer tent. [Right] View from our tent on a cloudy night.

If you decide to stay at a hotel, I suggest considering one of the ones closest to the park entrance so that you don’t have to either take the Springdale shuttle in, or find another spot for your park to walk or take the Springdale shuttle to the park entrance.  The parking fees close to the park is hefty, at $40/day when we visited, so take that into consideration as you look at hotel costs.

Antelope Canyon Tours

You must join a tour to see the sights as the canyons are on Navajo Indian Land. Given it takes some effort to get there, and the tours being pricey, one of the top questions I had was which tour(s) to sign up for to make my trip worthwhile?

Our recommendation is to go on Dixie’s Lower Antelope Canyon Tour, and the Secret Canyon + Horseshoe Bend Tour.  Do book early; they get booked up. I recommend booking tours as you’re looking at flights.  You’ll find more details on the different tours we went on below.  Here’s a map with the different tours’ meeting points.

1. [Highly Recommended] Dixie's Lower Antelope Canyon Tour is by far the top of the 4 for us. Experienced tour guide, lots to see and take in. While there was a tour right behind us (so you do have to move along), we didn’t feel overly rushed.  The canyon is a good length with some narrow points, and does require some climbing up/down of "ladders". These ladders are basically steeper stairs w/tall risers and short treads, i.e. the type of stairs that's easier to go down backwards (as if you're climbing down a ladder).  

2. [Recommended] Secret Canyon and Horseshoe Bend Tour: Very good, and a bit different than Lower Antelope Canyon.  

1. Secret Canyon is pretty cool - you go off-roading a little in the tour operator’s vehicle to get to the Secret Canyon site.  From where the vehicle is parked, you walk through a trail into the canyons, hearing some stories of the tribe.  After the tour guide walked us through the canyon, we had ~30-45 minutes to explore on our own.  We saw one other tour group while we were there, and it felt roomy enough for each of us to explore without getting into each other’s way.  The initial photos I posted were from this tour. 

2. Whereas you can go see Horseshoe Bend yourself (w/a small parking fee), the tour operator has a private site where it's not as crowded, and we had ~30-45 minutes to explore the area.  

Secret Canyon

Horseshoe Bend

3. [Good option] Upper Antelope Canyon: While Lower Antelope Canyon is narrow on the bottom and wide on top; Upper Antelope Canyon is wider on the bottom, and narrow on top. It's famous for rays of light shining through, which is more likely during their "premier" tour times.  Granted we didn't book one of those (all sold out by the time we booked), going with the regular time slot was still decent. The experience felt a bit superficial; we thought it was not worth the money. Lengthwise, it's about half the length of Lower Antelope Canyon and almost double the price ($258 for this Upper Antelope Canyon Tour vs. $132 for Dixie's Lower Antelope Canyon Tour for 2 ppl)

1. Similar to Secret Canyon, after meeting at the tour meeting location, we hopped on one of the tour operator’s vehicles to get to the site with minor off-roading.

2. Only go to the Upper Antelope Canyon tour if you can't go to the Lower Antelope Canyon whether due to tour availability, or your preference to not deal with climbing up & down.

4. [Skip] Canyon X: Our least liked of the 4 tours.  Tour guide was inexperienced, and the space was overcrowded / not well-managed.  Skip it!

Three additional tips on tours:

• Most tours do not allow bags. Wear clothing with pockets to hold your belongings.
• Time zone of tours is the same as the time in the town of Page, AZ.
• On most tours, you can expect another tour group coming up right after you, so be prepared to take your shots quickly.  You can always sort and delete unwanted shots later.  Do have your camera set up in advance so you don't need to fidget while trying to keep up with the tour group.  Set your ISO to 800 or higher given it's darker inside the caves

Zion National Park

https://www.npca.org/parks/zion-national-park

Zion is one of the national parks recognized by Dark Sky, i.e. great for stargazing!  If this is important to you, do spend more than one night, in case you run into a cloudy night, as we did. Pick up the annual pass especially if you plan to be there for multiple days, or will be visiting other national parks. 

Two free shuttles available:

• The Springdale shuttle gets you from where you parked to the park entrance

• The Zion shuttle takes you from the main park entrance to the Riverwalk

The park extends beyond where the shuttle takes you, and you’re able to drive to those other locations (e.g. east entrance, or Kolob Canyon, where Under Canvas Zion is).

Hikes:

• Since we only had ~half day in Zion, we went on two of the easy trails: the Pa’rus Trail and the Riverwalk. Both are easy and enjoyable.

• A couple other popular hikes we read about:

• The Narrows/Subway Trail is a popular hike, where you literally hike in the river with water up to anywhere from your legs to your waist.  Zion Outfitters at the entrance of the park has gear you can rent for this hike. 

• Another popular hike, also rated as “strenuous”, is Angel’s Landing. It requires a timed-entry reservation, made well in advance.