Written by: the Warrior

A few months ago, while visiting my local library, I saw a book on display called “Lonely Planet’s Wonders of the World”.

Always on the lookout for new travel inspirations, I flipped through the book to see which destinations made the list, which ones I’ve been, and which ones I should added to my already very long personal list.

Not surprisingly, more US destinations made the Lonely Planet list for North America than any other North American countries, including Yosemite Valley, New York Harbour, Antelope Canyon, Grand Canyon, Hawaii Volcano National Park, Redwood, Mesa Verde, Smithsonian Institutions, and Niagara Falls. And for Canada, besides the joint honour of Niagara Falls, only Haida Gwaii and Lake Louise made the list.

I was already planning a trip to southwestern US, so despite never having heard of Antelope Canyon, I added it to the itinerary.

Antelope Canyon is located in northern Arizona, near the town of Page, a nondescript town in the middle of no where. (It does have a grocery store with real fruits, which trust me, after weeks of National Park grocery stores, is a huge luxury!).

Page is also the gateway to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a 1.25 million acres area consisting of the enormous Lake Powell, created by the Glen Canyon Dam… where according to the National Park Service, provides abundant opportunities for boating, fishing, swimming and paddling.

It is also a 10-minute drive from Horseshoe Bend, a jaw droppingly beautiful area accessible via a 0.6-mile paved trail (with zero shade).

Antelope Canyon is situated on the north western corner of Navajo Nation. Navajo Nation encompasses an area of more than 27,000 square miles across the states of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico.

According to Wikipedia, Antelope Canyon was formed when the Navajo Sandstone in the region eroded over millions of years by actions from rain and flash flooding.

There are 6 famous slot canyons within the area, including Upper Antelope Canyon, Rattle Snake Canyon, Owl Canyon, Mountain Sheep Canyon, Canyon X and Lower Antelope Canyon. All are located in Navajo Nation, which means they can only be visited on a guided tour. (The US National Park Service provides a list of tour operators on their website.)

We ended up visiting 3 of the slot canyons during our stay.

Upper Antelope Canyon is the most famous of the bunch, and under the right lighting conditions (aka summer), it is considered to be a photographer’s dream. But since we visited during the winter, our version of Upper Antelope Canyon was that it was a much darker version of the 3, even with a whole lot of camera filtering.

Slot canyons are characterized to be narrow and deep, and since Upper Antelope Canyon has a narrower opening compared to the other two canyons we visited, less light penetrated onto the canyon floor in the winter.

We visited Owl Canyon as part of the Upper Canyon tour, and it was a much wider and lighter experience.

Lower Antelope Canyon was my favourite of the 3.

We were able to walk to the entrance from the tour office instead of a long bumpy bus ride. The tour was longer, so I was able to learn more from our guide about the history of the canyon, the geology, the Navajo Nation, that it was named after pronghorn antelopes that was once abundant in the area, and how to set up my camera filters. The canyon had a wider opening, so a lot more light penetrated onto the canyon floor, even in the winter.

After the tours, my family debated the merit of Antelope Canyon being included on the Lonely Planet’s Wonders of the World list, and whether it was able to hold its own against such heavy weights as Lalibela (Ethiopia), the Pyramids of Giza (Egypt), Ngorongoro Crater (Tanzania), Amazon rain forest (Peru, Brazil), Machu Picchu (Peru), Taj Mahal (India), Mt. Everest (Nepal), the Great Wall (China), Pompeii (Italy), and many others. To be fair, we also debated whether Lake Louise (Canada) should have edged Glacier National Park (Canada) from the list.

At $55 US a pop for the Lower Canyon tour, and $110 US a person for the Upper Canyon tour, the Dragon and the Tiger Princess thought that the cost of the tours dampened their experience.

In my case, I was also on the fence.

On the one hand, I agree with the Dragon and the Tiger Princess that the cost of the tours were on the steep side. And even though I was glad that they provided employment opportunities for the Navajo people, I think that they operate way too many tours. There were just way too many people crammed into the narrow canyon floor.

On the other hand, when I descended the steep staircase into the slot canyon for the first time.

There are no adequate words to describe the sense of awe I felt looking at the stunningly beautiful red sandstone cliffs surrounding me.

List or no list, there’s no question that the canyons are absolute wonders.