"This place is the highlight of my US mid west holiday."
I know I've probably said this quite a few times already on my other US mid west posts, but there's always going to be a highlight of all highlights, the ultimate highlight, and this is it - the Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona.
The Antelope Canyon is located on the Navajo Tribal Parks. The area is owned and managed by the Navajo tribe, who are the largest tribe in USA. If you want to see the Antelope Canyons, you have to join a guided tour, you can't just roll up when you feel like it, and ideally you should pre book in advance as these tours are very popular. If you look at the photos you'll know why.
There are different sections of the Antelope canyon you can see and tours are run by various operators. The Upper Antelope tour is the most popular. It's very near Page town, involves no climbing and is a mostly flat 100m walk. I'm told by my tour guide it's very beautiful. At USD120, it's the most expensive but that doesn't seem to deter visitors, making it very crowded. The Lower Canyon is a little bit further out from town, involves climbing down many flight of stairs to get into the canyon. This cost about $60 - $70. And finally there's the Antelope X which is the one I ended up going. Taking into consideration of the price, crowd, distance and scenery, my group agreed this was the best option. It's not as stunning as the others, but still more stunning than anything we've seen before. The choice between something very very stunning with lots of people in your photos, vs something stunning with no one else in your photos was a pretty easy decision.
Ok, enough talk, let's start our canyon tour.
Visitors have to make their own way to the Antelope X site. It's about 20 minutes drive away from Page, in the middle of nowhere. From here, we're taken to the canyon entrance in a shuttle bus. It's bumpy ride (it's a good thing Snowpea didn't come) on a dirt road which takes about 10 minutes as we had to go very slow.
Then we had to walk down to the canyon entrance. Despite the sun shining above us, it was an easy walk. Everyone was full of energy and looking forward to see the beautiful canyons.
There are two sections here and the 50 odd people in our group were split into 4 smaller groups each led by a tour guide. Two groups went into each of the sections and the tour guide spaced us out so we weren't too close to any other groups.
By the way, do you know why this part of the canyon is called Antelope Canyon X? It's got nothing to do with the platform X of course! The real reason is because when visitors first enter the canyon and look upwards, they will see the letter X formed by nature. Pretty remarkable, hey?
In fact these canyons are nothing short of remarkable. They are the result of million years of wind and water erosion creating the unique wavy walls. Every step we took, every corner turned, every look sideways or overhead we'd see a different hue, a different aspect. Even what we saw moments ago may have changed since due to the light coming through the canyon cracks.
Our guide was very good, he's from the Navajo tribe and was telling us about how there are actually many of these canyons around, just that they're not open to the public. He said his grandma has one behind her house. Lucky her, and him, but I guess he might be sick of seeing them every day!! Our guide also gave us some photo tips like phone camera settings, and best positions to take photos. We spent an hour in the canyons and took loads of wicked cool photos which didn't have anyone photo bombing us. It was truly a great experience and definitely the highlight of the highlight, the best of the best for me even though I ended up with dusty boots.
My first pin on the Worldmappin map. Great to see you guys up and running!
Friend, is camping allowed?
I believe you can, but you have to buy permits as the Navajos are very strict on who goes on their land and what you can do
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Wow!
Yup
Wow awesome captures. What a place. Stunning. Great to have such a nice and knowledgeable guide 😁
It's absolutely stunning there, very surreal
Yes, that is a perfect word to describe that place… surreal.
Have a great weekend Pauline!
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That's really awesome! I knew there was a park somewhere that you had to have an appointment to visit, but I couldn't remember where it was. This was definitely it. I'd love to make it down to Arizona to see these caverns one day. Probably not for a while though!
We only got to see this little bit of Arizona as it was sort of a detour so we can see the canyons. Well worth it despite having to plan ahead with the booking as they sell out quite quick
I can only imagine. It looks amazing!
Totally agree.
This place is absolutely fantastic, the highligh of all highlights!!!
In the end, your boots and pants and the rocks were all of the same colour 😆
I wonder how much time did you spend there? I think you wish you could stay there longer...
The whole tour was about 1.5 hours including the shuttle ride, and we got a full hour inside the canyons. The canyons aren't very long, maybe a few hundred meters, but one can spend ages inside taking photos and the hour went by very quick
Am I the only one thinking that's something fluffy in the first image there 😅. Looks like your guide tips worked really well about the images.
The letter X thing was fabulous 😍. And I see ya in there looking like a permanent resident of canyons
It's the camera settings on the phone to bring out the dessert sandstone colour. Sometimes I forgot to set it that's why a few photos look quite dull, but in real life they look much sharper
That place is nature at its finest...what a beauty!!!! The second and photo #14 are from another dimension. Thanks for sharing with us your journey to such extraordinary places 🤗.
I think it's absolutely amazing what nature can create,it all looks so effortless but takes million of years to get to what we have seen today
With the first pin, a high standard has been set for each subsequent one 🙂
Beautiful contrast of blue sky and rocks.
Haha! I still be have loads of travel content to post, but sadly not many will beat this
Yay! Arizona made it to the best of the best....just not in the summer. LOL. Really, your pictures are awesome. I know I told you I was born in Page. What you said about your guide and grandma reminded me that I have a lot of older siblings and they would play in the caves a long, long time ago. Now you can't do that. I am glad to know about Antelope x.
You went to Upper Canyon if I remember correctly? Is that a lot more beautiful? Even the guide said that, but I saw some photos online of the crowds everywhere and didn't want to chance it.
I'm so glad I got to visit your home town Sara 😊
Wow, it looks really amazing! If that one is so impressive I can't imagine what the most expensive tour will be like. But I would have chosen that tour too, definitely the point of enjoying it without people is a big plus.
I think part of the reason Upper Canyon is the most expensive is accessibility. Even elderly people can easily go in. As to how the two compare, I guess I'll never know because online photos don't really do them justice. I'm very happy with how things turned out
Wow that is really cool to give advice so you can capture the best of the experience via photos. You really took some beautiful ones, btw 😍 I like how the tour was broken down into smaller groups. Like you said no one can play a photo bomber 😊
Amazing photos! Your photography skills really did justice to the beauty of the place.
Thank you for sharing this. I wish I could visit there soon.
Hello, your photos are very beautiful, can you explain to me why the visit is not open to the public?
Awesome😊
As a person who always had this place on her bucket list, and actually, the first place that created my bucket list as a kid.. it's really hard to say something. But only stop and stare at the images until it will become a dream coming true :)
How to respond to this post and not start with a WOW? hmmmm... impossible! So: WOW!!!
The wind, water and sand caressed that landscape for millions of years making it unique, giving it awesome shape. I think Mother Nature did a perfect kindness rock 😉
Also, I think you did well to visit this not-so-crowded part of the canyon. But how strange you haven't met Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner at least 😁
looks magical, the colours and strata are really in your face good!
I see you managed to photo bomb though!! LOL
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This is the most fascinating location in the whole world in my opinion (Grand and Antelope canyons). The formation of those canyons is remarkable and truly worthy to see and explore. 2 years back my sister went to Grand Canyon and back then she took some photos that were so beautiful. Antelope Canyon seems like Grand Canyon but obviously, both are not the same and the location is also different. I think the Grand Canyon is a little bit crowded... The photos you took are just gorgeous and I am sure it was an amazing feeling walking among these remarkable Canyons...
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Before reading your article the first picture was enough to make me wonder who had carved this beauty. Apparently this happened naturally millions of years ago, ah you are very lucky to be there I can feel the different color images in each curve you describe. This is amazing I usually see this in movies and the first time to find this here!.
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