Antelope Slot Canyon

Thanks to my dear friends Leslie and Her Dan we made a last minute alteration to our itinerary to include the Antelope Slot Canyon in northern Arizona.  It’s located on Navajo Nation land and was only opened to the public in 1997.  It was closed for over a year due to Covid but has recently reopened with strict protocols, including mask wearing inside the canyon.

Like me, you’ve probably seen a Microsoft screensaver taken there or other famous photos of this incredible place.  Nothing prepared me for the impact it would have on me.




The minute I entered the first chamber I began to cry, surprising myself and Dan, but not Leonard, our Navajo guide.  He just nodded, and gave me a little pat on the shoulder.  “It takes some people like that.”








It was utterly overwhelming and I don’t want to try to figure out why.  






At one point Leonard asked for my phone and told me look up, and then took this photo of me.


Water.  It’s all down to water and its unstoppable power to change and destroy and create.  From the Grand Canyon to Bryce to tiny Antelope Canyon. Unlike the first two, at Antelope you are present at the birth of what will one day, millennia from now, be a mighty canyon. You get to witness the otherworldly beauty left in the wake of its violent creation.  For it is violent.  The flash floods that carve this canyon claimed the lives of 11 tourists back in 1997.  

Entrance to the Upper Canyon

That’s the top of the Lower Canyon.

Here’s a YouTube video of a flash flood at the Lower Canyon.  It’s hard to reconcile the beauty that’s left in its almighty wake.



The water is constantly changing the walls of the canyon so today’s visit will be different from tomorrow’s.  Leonard pointed out places that were newly carved - rough and jagged compared to the smooth, sinewy walls surrounding us - and logs that were wedged in high up, borne along by the raging water.  The floor of the canyon also changes after each flash flood, and sometimes becomes impassable.  We were lucky.  No flash floods and no rattlesnakes dropping from the sky which sometimes happens in the warmer months.  Go if you possibly can.  It will exceed expectations.




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