One of the most discussed topics on Tripadvisor with regard to southwestern United States tours is if there are day trips to Antelope Canyon available from Las Vegas. While there is plenty of discussion about Antelope Canyon itself, the majority of the answers fail to address the reason WHY there are not any day trips available, and why all of the touring companies (ourselves included) offer Antelope Canyon as part of a larger National Parks tour. There are really two reasons for not offering Antelope Canyon as an individual tour, and both actually apply if you are planning the trip yourself or if you are using a professional touring company. The reasons are weather and distance.
Antelope Canyon is located to the east of Page, Arizona. It is located on land owned and managed by Navajo Nation, and the immediate vicinity has little as far as services available. The closest places to stay overnight or find restaurants is in Page, and the distance from Las Vegas is somewhere between four and five hours driving. This would give you two options, to stay overnight in Page after you have toured Antelope Canyon and drive back the next day (which extends the trip to a two day) or attempt to drive almost ten hours in a single day while also touring the area for a few hours. The driving time involved makes the possibility of a day trip relatively unmanageable.
The second reason for not offering independent Antelope Canyon tours is that the weather is unpredictable, even a few hours out from the time you would be arriving. Antelope Canyon itself is a slot canyon that was carved through sandstone rocks by flash flooding which gains tremendous speed as is passes through. These flash floods are difficult (if not impossible) to predict more than a few hours from the time you would be touring the area, as flooding can be caused by even minor rainstorms even miles away. On a perfectly clear day in Page, a rainstorm almost five miles away can produce enough of a flash flood to make the canyon dangerous, and as a result the stewards of the area choose to only allow guided tours by professional companies who will heed the warnings put forth on a moment to moment basis by Navajo Nation and the National Weather Service. If there is even a possibility of flash flooding, there should be no consideration of touring Antelope Canyon. There have been several deaths and injuries over the years as a result of unexpected flash floods, and although safety measures have been installed directly into the rocks, there is still a need to suspend tours if there is any possibility of danger. For this reason, it is quite difficult to plan a trip to Antelope Canyon more than a day in advance and assure that you will not find the area closed when you get there. This is the main reason that we offer our Antelope Canyon tours as part of a larger tour that visits several other National Parks.
Our Antelope Canyon tour is offered as part of our National Parks three day tour that also visits the Grand Canyon, Bryce, Zion and Monument Valley. We can make it to Antelope Canyon within a few hours of the other parks (as opposed to the five hour trip directly from Las Vegas) which gives us the ability to guarantee that there will be touring available when we get there and there is no inclement weather that might compromise the tour. If there is a possibility of flash flooding in the area, we will cancel that portion of the tour and spend extra time at one of the other parks that we are visiting on the circular tour. This gives us the ability to guarantee our patrons the most for their time and money.