NOTE: As of 2018, tour operators can no longer offer both general tours and photography tours because Lower Antelope Canyon has gotten so popular in recent years.

But a friend I met the day before was able to join me, so don’t fret if you didn’t book ahead of time. I booked my tour ahead of time as I figured that at a prime time like that, it would be all booked up. I visited the Lower Antelope Canyon first since at the time that I visited in May, 10:10 AM was the optimal time for light. If you’re trying to choose between the two, here is an honest firsthand account of both Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon: Lower Antelope Looking up in Lower Antelope I only saw Navajo guides, which made it feel more authentic and connected. You have to see it to believe it, and even then you still might not.īoth canyons are located on Navajo land and the only way to see them is by taking a guided tour. It was a crowded and claustrophobic but also a must-have experience because of the way that those canyons swirl and curve into some kind of trippy corridor that feels like it’s leading you to the bowels of Earth. This probably also means I visited at the most popular time of day, and in one of the most popular months (May). The photographer in me couldn’t resist photographing both and the writer in me couldn’t resist covering both here on the blog, so I visited each at their respective best times of day for lighting. Then came the question of which to choose or if it made sense to visit both.

They are accessed via different locations and have quite a few things that set them apart from each other as well. When I first started doing my research for visiting Antelope Canyon during my American Southwest road trip, a striped and bright orange Navajo Sandstone canyon in Arizona carved by flash flooding and erosion, I realized that there are two – upper and lower.

Dixie ellis vs kens lower antelope tour