I never used to consider myself a fan of road trips. But now they are my favorite way to travel. There’s just something so liberating about being on the open road and taking in the scenery. Road trips offer chances to stumble upon off-the-beaten-path sites, unplanned adventures, and unique discoveries. Often there are hiccups with road trips like “are we going to run out of gas?”, “are we going to starve before the next restaurant?”, “where are other humans?” or  just simple “where are we?” (especially when you have no cell service or GPS.) But that’s what makes road trips so exhilarating! They can be spontaneous, mysterious and eye opening and a welcomed opportunity to see life in between the big cities.

My Southwest road trip led us farther from civilization and city life into the remote area surrounding the Grand Canyon. We left Sedona in the late afternoon on Saturday and spent the next six hours driving with little cell service but loads of grand sweeping landscapes. It’s hard to not picture yourself in the Old American West galloping on a horse alongside the mountains, mesas and plateaus. We arrived at our hotel in Page, Arizona in the evening and asked for a recommendation on the best Mexican food in the city. After stuffing our faces with yummy food we were off to bed for an early start the next day to beat the crowds at Antelope Canyon.

A glimpse of Lake Powell outside of Page, Arizona

There are actually two parts of Antelope Canyon: Lower and Upper. Very confusing to keep straight lol ;). I did some research on which to visit and you get the same experience at both. The choice comes down to accessibility basically. Upper Antelope Canyon is at ground level and easier to traverse, and thus more popular for visitors;  while Lower Antelope Canyon has ladders to climb and parts of the canyon are very narrow and has uneven footing, so therefore, it tends to be less crowded. I decided to visit Lower due to less crowds, but there were still about 15 people in our group that day and with groups equal or bigger in size departing every 30 minutes Lower Antelope Canyon is growing in popularity too! With the Internet becoming more and more global every day, there are few hidden gems left in this great big world, and that includes the once remote Lower Antelope Canyon. 🙂

So how did I learn about Antelope Canyon in the first place? Well, have you ever found yourself staring at those Microsoft Windows landscape desktop backgrounds and dreamed of visiting one of those idyllic locations? Have you seen the one of the slot canyon and pictured yourself traversing through the narrow and winding canyon walls? That is what happened to me many moons ago and I began my dream of visiting Antelope Canyon one day! Those places in the Windows desktop backgrounds are actually real and my day of visiting the slot canyon finally arrived!

I made reservations weeks before with Ken’s Tours at Lower Antelope Canyon to ensure we would not get sold out since we were visiting on Thanksgiving weekend. I highly recommend Ken’s Tours and our guide Brian was awesome! Brian is very knowledgeable of the canyons and knew the coolest spots and best angles to take great pictures! He was also very patient with the hundreds of pictures we all took and showed each of us the best settings on our cameras and phones. Brian was very engaging when I asked questions and happy to take my travel crew’s picture (even multiple times haha!)

Enough rambling right, you guys want to see pictures of this incredible natural wonder! After this paragraph I am going to let the pictures speak for themselves. It’s very difficult for me to describe the majesty and awe I felt in Antelope Canyon. It’s a place everyone needs to experience for themselves and it’s proximity to the Grand Canyon, Zion National Park and Bryce National Park makes for an easy trip I hope more people incorporate when they visit Arizona and Utah. My travel crew and I were in Antelope Canyon for a couple hours but it felt like no time at all because every narrow corner I turned there was another breathtaking and picture worthy sight! See for yourself!

(Click on the first picture to view in a slideshow)

A view of Lower Antelope Canyon from the top.

A peek down into the slot of Lower Antelope Canyon

The beginning of our descent!

Unfortunately it was a cloudy day when we visited so the light was not the most optimal, but the majesty of the rippling canyon walls is undeniable.

I spy one of my travel crew peaking around the corner!

There is a face in this rock formation.

Do you see the creepy baby in this photo?!

There are so many nooks and crannies in the slot canyon.

The canyons can be washed out from the rain and it takes the guides a day or two to clean out the slot canyon.

The Egyptian Queen rock formation!

The Egyptian Queen

I think I took more photos of myself here than for my senior pictures haha!

This formation looks like an eagle!

The Eagle!

This rock looks like a monkey!

I took at least several hundred pictures because every turn in the canyon seemed like a picture worthy moment! Then narrowing them down for this blog was really difficult!

The colors are just fantastic here!

Can you spot the Siamese cat?

Time to ascend back to the surface.

Though there are several ladders to climb, they are easy to navigate!

The top of Lower Antelope Canyon.

Goodbye, Antelope Canyon!

A dinosaur print!

Hope you enjoyed my time in Antelope Canyon as much as I did!!

Hopefully I did not overwhelm you with too many pictures! But as you can see, Lower Antelope Canyon is a breathtaking work of nature and I hope all of you can visit someday! I look forward to returning with a nice digital camera and a sunny day to capture even better photos! Part 3 of my Southwest road trip is still to come and I visit another epic location! If you missed Part 1, check it out here.