Back in April, Shae and I took my parents to Lower Antelope Canyon when they joined us on our road trip for a month. We’d also wanted to visit Upper Antelope Canyon, but those tours seemed to be in much higher demand as there wasn’t any availability for the Upper portion while they were here.
Shae and I still wanted to visit it though, so we booked the earliest date we could make which was at the end of May. As a result, after spending a couple of weeks in Salt Lake City, we drove back down to Page, AZ to go on an Upper Antelope Canyon tour with Antelope Canyon Tours.
The tour meets at their office in Page, then they drive each group to Upper Antelope Canyon in their shuttles that reminded us of the Songthaews that we used to ride in Thailand (which we knew as Can Cars.)
The journey from downtown Page to Upper Antelope Canyon took ~20 minutes. We traveled there in groups of 10 people or so, with each group staggering their entry into the canyon so that each group could take photos without the next group being in them.
Our tour guide was Lynette and she was fantastic, providing the right amount of information about the canyon along with photography tips to catch the right angles in order to capture certain images and formations. For example, this formation is called The Lady due to how the rocks create the shape of a woman in the bright blue sky.
Another formation was The Candlestick. It seemed like one or two people got it at the perfect angle; mine wasn’t quite as good, but you can still make out what would be a flickering flame atop a candlestick.
The canyon led through to the First Chamber which is the widest part of Upper Antelope Canyon.
The canyon felt like it was narrower at the top. As a result, the best time to visit Upper Antelope Canyon in the summer is a tour at 12pm. That’s because the sun will be overhead and you’ll get light beams down into the canyon rather than the somewhat dark nature of the canyon on our tour from 8am-9am.
The slot canyon then led through to the Second Chamber, the second widest part of the canyon.
The canyon has some remnants of past flash floods that rushed through the narrow space. At one point there was a branch that was lodged in place…
…while later on there was debris stuck even further up, giving a better idea as to quite how high the water level can get.
Even that doesn’t give a true idea as to how high the water levels were though. Due to drought in the area, it’s been many years since there was a flash flood. That’s resulted in 20-30 feet of sand building up on the canyon floor. The tour guide therefore said a flash flood is needed in order to wash away all that sand. Otherwise the sand will continue accruing and make the canyon shorter and shorter.
The most incredible rock formation/angle was The Antelope. Antelope Canyon gets its name from Navajo stories about antelopes that once roamed the area, so it was mind blowing – and a little bit creepy – when our tour guide pointed out The Antelope that you can see at one point.
In case you can’t see it, here it is circled – it’s an antelope facing to the right.
Another formation later on is known as King Kong, but looked more like a giant gummi bear to me.
Another formation Lynette highlighted was The Canyon’s Eye.
The tour continued a little further, allowing us to enjoy the views in the slot canyon for a few more minutes before we reached the end.
Final Thoughts
We enjoyed our Upper Antelope Canyon tour, particularly because Lynette was such an excellent guide. Based on our two Antelope Canyon experiences though, I think I preferred Lower Antelope Canyon simply because we had better lighting on the day and time when we visited. If we managed to get a midday time slot for Upper Antelope Canyon though, that could be better due to the ideal lighting conditions.
Cost
We paid $97.50 per person for our Upper Antelope Canyon tour with Antelope Canyon Tours. For comparison, our tour of Lower Antelope Canyon with Ken’s Tours was $64.66 per person. If budget is a concern, I don’t think you’d be disappointed with only visiting Lower Antelope Canyon.
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