If you have ever seen pictures or video from Antelope Canyon, you probably want to visit it in person. The area outside of Page, AZ is otherworldly, basically looking like a crack in the earth. It is actually a dramatic slot canyon that is almost always shaded at the bottom due to the fact that the walls are so high and close together that only light from directly above can make it to the floor of the canyon. At specific times of year at at specific times of day, the sun will actually make sunbeams that will make it to the canyon floor, creating dramatic photographic opportunities that are both beautiful and quite difficult to expose correctly. They can be made even more dramatic by throwing sand from the canyon floor through the beam just as you are snapping the pictures. The walls of Antelope Canyon are a rainbow of reds, browns and oranges and are rough to the touch. This is because they are made of sandstone which can be scraped away quite easily. The drama of the area will generally lead to a sense of eerieness when you notice that there is no river running through the bottom of the canyon. It is perfectly dry sand and dirt, so how exactly was Antelope Canyon created if not for flowing water from a river. The answer is startling, it comes from flash flood water rushing through the area from rain in distant places. The rain that creates the canyon can actually happen many miles away, not able to be seen from the canyon itself. Yes, you do have a chance of being swept away and harmed if you are in Antelope Canyon when there is a flash flood from rain happening far enough away to not be able to be seen from where you are standing. This is why Antelope Canyon can only be toured by a guided tour, and why they have their own weather service that monitors the situation for any potential for rain in the area. If there is even the slightest chance of rain, you are not allowed to tour.
Our tours of Antelope Canyon come as part of larger tours that travel to multiple parks. This choice was made because the driving time from Las Vegas to Antelope Canyon is more than 4.5 hours, and the weather can change even during that time frame. Essentially, there is no way to assure guests that you are going to be able to tour the canyon until you are only a few hours away, so we find it better to put the tour in a package of other parks that will put us into that proximity. If there is a potential for danger from flash flooding, we modify our tour to travel to an alternative area. There is no way to assure guests that the tour will be able to happen on the day they book it, so we choose not to offer Antelope Canyon as a standalone tour.