Upper vs Lower Antelope Canyon

With its glowing, red canyon walls and beams of lite shining through the dusty air, Antelope Canyon is a scenic destination. Ii different slot canyons brand up Antelope Coulee and both offering very different experiences. If you can but visit one, how practise you decide which one?

Upper or Lower Antelope Canyon?

Antelope Canyon is located in Page, Arizona. Both slot canyons are located on Navajo lands and can only be visited on a bout.

Tim and I toured both canyons on the same day in early May 2017. We had a neat feel at both of them and we each had our favorite. Tim loved Lower Antelope Canyon; my favorite was Upper Antelope Canyon.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of both canyons.

Upper Antelope Canyon

When people refer to Antelope Coulee, they are usually referring to Upper Antelope Canyon. This is the more popular of the two slot canyons. With its calorie-free beams, falling sands, and very high canyon walls, this is the more photogenic of the two canyons.

Antelope Canyon Photography

Upper Antelope Canyon is shaped like an upside-down "V," narrow at the pinnacle and wide at the base of operations. This coulee is wider at the lesser than Lower Antelope Canyon, so it feels less claustrophobic and it's easier to walk through. The narrow canyon walls at the height are what helps create the lite beams when the sun is at the correct angle. These loftier, narrow walls as well makes the upper canyon darker and feel libation.

Click here to learn more well-nigh Upper Antelope Coulee.

The Good

It's More Photogenic

Both canyons are stunning, but when you encounter photos of Antelope Canyon, they are usually of Upper Antelope Canyon. If you desire photos of the light beams, you desire to visit the upper canyon midday, preferably between 10:30 am and i pm.

Falling Sand

Antelope Canyon Too

Canyon Walls

The Bad

It'southward More than Expensive

A full general bout costs $68 – $78 for the Upper canyon versus $forty for the lower Canyon.

Tours Sell Out Months in Advance

Fewer tours are offered in Upper Antelope Canyon, which ways that tours sell out months in advance. If you want to visit the upper canyon during the magical hours betwixt 10:30 and 1 pm, you should programme to brand your reservation as much as 6 months in advance. Aye, it'due south that popular now.

It's Darker

Because of the narrow coulee walls at the peak, the upper canyon is darker than the lower canyon. This makes paw held photography more difficult. Upper Antelope Coulee is brightest between 10 am and 1 pm. During my 3 hour photography tour (which started at 1 pm), the canyon got noticeably darker equally the afternoon stretched on.

Antelope Canyon Heart

Lower Antelope Canyon

Lower Antelope Canyon is shaped similar a "V." It is very narrow at the bottom and wide open up at the meridian, making the lower coulee feel brighter and warmer than the upper canyon.

Click here to larn more nigh Lower Antelope Canyon.

Lower Antelope Canyon

The Good

It'southward More Fun

Of the two canyons, many people agree that Lower Antelope Coulee is more fun, with narrow passageways to squeeze through and ladders to climb. The narrow walls at the bottom, twisting and turning their style through the coulee, are fun to walk through, sometimes even slide through.

Tim in Antelope Canyon

Exploring Antelope Canyon

Antelope Slot Canyon

This is the Canyon with Ladders

This is also the coulee famous for its ladders. You will descend down into the canyon on a serial of ladders and as you make your journey through the coulee, you will climb several more. People either dear them or hate them. We loved them.

Antelope Canyon Ladder

It'south Less Likely to Sell Out

With tours running every 30 minutes between the hours of eight am to four pm, spots should be available one-time during the solar day, fifty-fifty in the busier summer months. However, in the past year, the popularity of these canyons has skyrocketed. I would recommend booking your bout severall months in advance just in example it does sell out.

The Bad

It's Getting More than Crowded

If you read other, older blog articles, they may tell y'all to visit Lower Antelope Canyon considering it is less crowded. This was non true in our example. Nosotros visited both canyons on the same day and both had identical crowd levels.

Crowds at Antelope Canyon

In fact, Lower Antelope Coulee was so popular in 2017 that they experienced wait times of 1 to 3 hours only to enter the coulee. And that was even if yous had a reserved time slot!

Since 2018, both Ken'southward Tours and Dixie Ellis' Tours offer fewer tours per day to cut downwardly on waiting times to enter the lower canyon. They conceptualize waiting times of no longer than xxx minutes to enter the canyon (equally opposed to 1 to three hours) for meridian flavor. This too means that fewer tours are offered daily. Now it is more important and so ever to book your tour in advance.

And so, Which One Do You lot Choose?

If you are looking for a fun experience and like the idea of exploring a narrow coulee, and then Lower Antelope Coulee gets our vote. To avoid the worst of the crowds, visit this canyon early on or after in the 24-hour interval, if you don't listen missing out on the ideal lighting.

For photographers I recommend Upper Antelope Coulee. Personally, I plant the upper canyon to have more of a "wow" factor than the lower canyon. And if you want to take a photographic tour, bank check out Adventurous Antelope Slot Canyons.

If you lot want to visit both canyons, I recommend visiting Upper Antelope Canyon at 10:30 am (all-time chance to see those light beams only make sure you book your tickets well in advance!) and Lower Antelope Canyon at 1:30 pm (even with a reservation, you might have to wait xxx minutes or longer to enter Lower Antelope Canyon midday when crowds are at their biggest).

If you want to avert the crowds at Lower Antelope Coulee, consider booking one of the last tours of the day (although you will be sacrificing the better lighting conditions).

Whichever canyon you choose, look large crowds of people, especially midday. The bout groups go ushered through the canyon rather quickly, making it experience similar a rushed experience.

UPDATE: The popularity of these canyons has skyrocketed in contempo years.To avoid disappointment, make your reservations far in advance (at a bare minimum, four months in advance, but up to six months in accelerate during the summer season). People accept been writing in that May time slots are selling out in early February!

Canyon X

Several of our readers have let usa know about a 3rd slot canyon called Coulee Ten. If you are having problem getting a time slot at upper or lower Antelope Coulee, if you want to take a photographic bout, or if you simply want to visit a less crowded canyon, accept a await at Canyon X. We have no personal experience but I think this one is worth a consideration, since upper and lower Antelope Canyons have become so pop and overcrowded.

Click hither to learn more than about Canyon X.

For more information about Canyon Ten, scroll downwardly to the annotate department and read Beth Wulf's comments about what information technology is like to tour Coulee X. Thanks Beth!

If y'all have been to Canyon X and would like to share your experience, allow us know in the annotate section below. It would assist our future readers! 🙂

Important Links:

To see more than of Upper Antelope Coulee, click here.

To run across more of Lower Antelope Canyon, click here.

We used Antelope Slot Canyon Tours for our bout of the Upper canyon.

We used Ken's Tours for our tour of the Lower canyon.

You tin too purchase entrance tickets through GetYourGuide to Upper Antelope Canyon, Lower Antelope Canyon, or Canyon X. I recommend doing this if tours are already booked for your dates of travel …you might be able to still become an archway ticket from this tour provider.

Tours of Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon makes a dainty day trip destination from Las Vegas, Flagstaff, or Sedona. Information technology'south a long twenty-four hour period just with these tours, you can sit back and relax during the drive. Plus, your tickets are included on these tours.

Note: This postal service contains affiliate links. When you make a purchase using one of these affiliate links, we get paid a small-scale committee at no extra toll to yous.

Upper or Lower Antelope Canyon

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