Finely carved from the Navajo sandstone, across thousands of years, by Mother Nature, Antelope Canyon is the most visited and most photographed canyon in the United States of America.

Antelope Canyon

Located on Navajo Land, in Arizona, Antelope Canyon has been open to the public since 1997, when the Navajo Nation turned it into a Navajo Tribal Park. Since then it has become one of the most popular tourist attractions in America and gained the reputation of “the ultimate photography challenge”. Amateur and professional photographers alike gather here to take photos of this natural wonder, but due to the wide exposure range, created by the light reflecting of the colorful canyon walls, few manage to get a decent shot.

Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon presents tourists with the opportunity of visiting the Upper or Lower Antelope. Both are very beautiful but also very different. The Upper Antelope, or “the place where water runs through rocks” as the Navajo call it, is a lot easier to access, requiring no climbing. That’s one of the reasons it is frequently visited by casual tourists that simply want to witness nature’s design mastery first-hand. The famous light beams are also a lot more common in the Upper Antelope, especially in the hot summer months, when the sun is up in the sky.

Antelope Canyon

The Lower Antelope, or “spiral rock arches” is visited mostly by professional photographers, chasing the ideal lighting and angles for their perfect shots, while the casual tourists hardly ever venture down here. The Lower Antelope Canyon is a lot harder to access, requiring climbing several metal staircases and slipping through very narrow corridors. It’s also a lot more dangerous due to flash floods. 11 people lost their lives here in 1997, when a thunderstorm hit seven miles upstream, although it hardly rained at all over the canyon itself. If heavy rains fall miles away upstream, flash-floods funnel through the canyons without warning, sweeping everything in their paths.

Antelope Canyon

Since the tragic accident of 1997, access to Antelope Canyon has been allowed by guided tours only and the fragile wooden stairs that allowed the descent into the Lower Antelope have been replaced with sturdy metal staircases bolted into the sandstone. Deployable cargo nets and alarm horns have also been installed. Any sense of adventure is now gone forever, but safety is most important.

This jewel of the Navajo Nation gets its name from the pronghorn antelopes that once roamed free through the narrow tunnels. In the old days, this was a tranquil, sacred place to all Navajos, where they could witness Mother Nature’s power and show respect for something greater than themselves.

Antelope Canyon

If you find Antelope Canyon somewhat familiar, it might help to know this is where Britney Spears shot her “I’m not a girl, not yet a woman” video and where many scenes from the hit movie “Broken Arrow” were filmed.

Photo credits: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5