Antelope Canyon, Arizona

Tim and I were initially at a loss of where to stop to break up our 10-hour drive to Telluride. My brother suggested Lake Powell and after investigating a bit further, I realized that although we wouldn’t have time to actually enjoy the lake, but we would have time to check out Antelope Canyon! You may remember a photo of this piece of rock from the now "vintage" Microsoft desktop wallpaper. The canyon is located just over the Arizona state line, near the city of Page, on Navajo Indian land. This small crack in the earth, known as a slot canyon, was super under wraps to tourists until the late 90's, when National Geographic published a photo of the canyon on the cover of their magazine and figured out that the famouS desktop wallpaper was not from the Grand Canyon. Having seen the incredible photos, we were super pumped to take a tour ourselves and enjoy the sights of the crazy cool shapes and colors inside the canyon.

Enroute to Arizona, we spotted a small sign on the side of the road that read “Coral Sand Dunes”. Super intrigued after seeing the National Sand Dunes parks in Colorado, we decided to take the almost dirt road 15 miles off our route to check it out. Although not nearly as grand as the park in CO, it was still pretty awesome to take in a canyon filled with loads of bright pink sand! Imagine all of the sand that the wind whips off of Zion and Bryce, and put it here!

Almost to the town of Page, we noticed a glimpse of Lake Powell and turned off to a vista point that did not disappoint. The Lake is actually massive, complied of tons of smaller fingers, deltas a dam and super bright blue water. Clearly another item to add to the bucket list, a weekend on a house boat on Lake Powell. Dreaming of cooling off, we headed to town to check into our hotel.

A couple of tips we learned about Antelope Canyon that are important to share, should you ever make the trek:

Lodging: There are no campground close by, and if it’s summer time, it’s blazing hot so opt for lodging with AC. We stayed at the Motel 6, the cheapest option around, which was still $180!

Access: Because the Canyon is on an Indian reserve, the only way to see it is though a “guided tour”. There are a bunch of different companies, which all pretty much do the same 1-hour tour. If you have a fancy camera you can book a photography tour, but everyone has to have a camera and a tripod. We chose the classic Lower Antelope Canyon Tours because they had availability.

Canyon Options: There are 2 options, lower and upper. The lower canyon is better in the morning when the sun is just coming in and the upper canyon is better mid afternoon to get the bright rays of sun.

When to go: This being said, here’s the MOST important information. It’s insanely hot in the summer, especially mid afternoon and you have to wait outside for your tour time to be called. Also, tour buses have found the canyon and drop off several loads of buses during peek hours. Tim and I booked at tour at 3pm, showed up next to loads of buses and were told tours were running late and we wouldn’t get getting into the canyon for 2 hours. We asked the tour guides and they suggested we reschedule for first thing tomorrow morning. GENIOUS!

THE ANSWER: Book a tour in advance for first thing in the morning (7am) so you can enjoy the canyon without the riff raff or the heat! Oh, and of course, don't go when it's raining to avoid flash floods.

The experience is worth it and so are the photo ops. It is unlike anything you’ve seen, plus it likely will be over run with tourists soon and destroyed over time. While you are in the area, grab BBQ at Big John Texas BBQ, and if you’re lucky they’ll have some live music.

After our 7am tour, filled to the brim with how cool nature can be, we had one last stop before Telluride. Four Corners Monument was on our way and of course we had to stop! I will say, monument is a very loose term. Other than a line of people waiting to take photos (3 per family only), vendors selling memorabilia and medallion in the ground, there’s not much to see.

Regardless, after a check off the list, 3 photos and a magnet for true documentation, we were halfway to Telluride. We were looking forward to seeing our families, listing to loads of live music and a comfy bed.

Restaurants: Big John Texas BBQ,
Fun Stuff: Coral Sand Dunes, Antelope Canyon, Four Corners Monument