ANTELOPE CANYON – LOWER
There’s not much to say about Antelope Canyon because it is all around an experience that needs to be seen. There are 2 different trips here. One is the Upper Antelope tour which much more famous and therefore busier. It is a lot larger and can handle larger crowds. There are also more “colors” that show up in this canyon vs the lower — however, with that being said the Lower Antelope Canyon is just magnificent. I cannot speak to the upper and therefore won’t but either tour is going to be amazing.
The Upper is more expensive vs the Lower so pay early and online so you do not have to do it there… There is a “Reservation Fee” because this is on tribal lands so make sure you either have paid that or have cash to pay. They do not take credit cards! I believe it was about $8 a person.
NOTE: We could not get into the Upper Canyon even 1-2 months out from booking. One day I just happened to go online to look at times and saw that everything was booked. If you had a small group you could chance it closer to your trip but anything over 2 people, I wouldn’t. Even the lower was booking up fast.
NOTE: Both canyons are subject to flash floods. Flash floods can form miles away but wreak havoc further away when the flood builds. The canyons are amazingly carved from these floods but be aware during the late summer and rainy season you could get screwed out of a trip!
LOWER ANTELOPE CANYON –
We booked our tour through Ken’s Tours which is part of the Navajo Nation Parks & Recreation. https://lowerantelope.com When we got to the park we parked the car and headed into the building to check in. To my surprise the building was very nice with an awesome gift shop a ton of snacks and drinks and places to sit while you waited for your tour.
Ken’s tours starts their tours on the half hour. The other tour group (Dixie’s) starts on the :15 & :45. So our time got called and about 50-60 people went outside. This made me nervous that it was going to be sooooo packed down there that we would be herded through the canyon like sheep. The tour guides who are Navajo teens/adults placed people in groups of 10 from there. We got lucky and only had 7 in our group. So we all headed down to the small crack where you lower yourself into the canyon via metal stairs.
From here the group of 60 dispersed and we all went in waves down into the canyon. Aside from a few overlaps we hardly saw the other groups down there which was perfect!
The tour itself was an hour or so… and it was just beautiful. Our tour guide was fantastic, knowledgeable and he even took our phones to make sure they were on the right settings & took photos of us. We even learned how to do panorama vertical instead of horizontal here!!!
Below are some photos of the magnificence of it and I highly encourage you to visit one or the other or BOTH!