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Photo of the well know shaft of light in upper Antelope Canyon Arizona taken on a custom tour with Tour The Southwest
Upper Antelope Canyon
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Antelope Canyon Navajo Nation Park Tours

We CANNOT offer any Custom Private guided tours into Antelope Canyon. We CAN go with you into Antelope Canyon as a participant on one of the regular scheduled local tours that are guided by a Navajo Native American into both the upper and lower Antelope Canyons. Antelope Canyon is composed of two separate canyons. Tours of "upper" Antelope Canyon do not change elevation and do not require any ladders or climbing. Tours of "lower" Antelope Canyon on the other hand require a significant decent into and out of the Canyon with many steep ladders.

One of our Antelope Canyon tours can be part of one of our "Day" tours throughout the Page Arizona area or part of one of our Custom Private Multi-day Tours. They are often "photography" oriented tours. The Native American tour guides are very familiar with the challenges that confront any photographer in Antelope Canyon and are very helpful with useful suggestions. They will point out many of the unusual formations and some of the better areas to photograph. They can also tell you about some of the folklore of the canyon.

The cost of our Custom Private DAY TOURS that start in the Page Arizona area begin at $760 per day for one to four tour participants. Our day tours can include one or more of the following locations:

Entry fees, meals, accommodations and a few other expenses are NOT usually included as part of our “Day” tours

Our company does NOT generally provide tours to just Antelope Canyon. Our tours to Antelope Canyon do NOT include a “private entry” into the canyon. We do NOT have any special access to the canyon. You will usually be in the canyon with many other people. For “upper Antelope Canyon” we make our reservations with one of the local Navajo Nation Park approved tour companies out of Page Arizona just like everyone else does. Email us and we will email you a list of the local Page, Arizona Antelope Canyon tour companies. You can no longer hire a company (such as our company) or a guide (local or otherwise) to do a “private” tour into either the upper or lower Antelope Canyons. There will always be lots of other people in both Antelope Canyons, except for maybe the winter season.

Here is some tour and other information about Antelope Canyon that might be helpful:

Upper Antelope Canyon: You will need a tour reservation for “Upper Antelope Canyon”. You will need to make that reservation with one of the Navajo Parks approved Antelope Canyon tour companies out of Page Arizona.

Lower Antelope Canyon: You do not need and cannot make a small group or individual reservation for “Lower Antelope Canyon”. Access to Lower Antelope Canyon is on a “first come” “first served” basis. Anyone can drive to Lower Antelope Canyon (Five miles, 8K, from Page Arizona), pay your fees on location, and wait in line for them to call you up for your Navajo guided tour.

Casual tourists often overlook Antelope Canyon Navajo Nation Park because it is not a national or state park. However, Antelope Canyon is instantly recognizable as one of the most-photographed slot canyons in the American Southwest. Its narrow passages, intricately carved sandstone, gently undulating curves and hollows varying from 3 to 9 feet (1 to 3 meters) wide, and occasional shafts of radiating sunlight piercing through the soft colors and shadows are unsurpassed in breathtaking tranquility.

In Navajo, the canyon names are Tse' bighanilini, meaning "the place where water runs through rocks," and Hasdestwazi, or "spiral rock arches." Its English name comes from the herds of wild pronghorn antelope which used to roam freely throughout the area.

Antelope Canyon was primarily eroded through the soft Navajo Sandstone by countless flash floods. During the monsoon season, rainwater runs into the extensive basin 7 miles upstream from Antelope Canyon and then funnels into its narrow passages, deepening and smoothing the already flowing rock walls. Rain falling even dozens of miles from the canyon can funnel into them with very little prior notice, making a trained guide a requirement for all visitors. Antelope Canyon’s safety systems have been heightened and flood-proofed since 1997, when eleven tourists were killed in the Lower Canyon by a sudden flash flood that swept away the wooden ladders. Today’s ladder systems are bolted into the rock face, and deployable cargo nets are ready at all times.