In shortAntelope Canyon X is the third section of the Antelope Canyon system, east of Page: two separate slot passages visited on one guided walk, run by a single licensed operator, Taadidiin Tours, with check-in at Milepost 308 on Highway AZ-98. The standard hike lasts about 1.5 hours; a photography option runs about 3 hours, ages 8 and over. Access is a railroad-tie staircase about 200 feet long.
About 1.5 hoursStandard guided hike
About 3 hoursPhotography option, ages 8+
About 200 ftRailroad-tie staircase
Milepost 308Check-in on Highway AZ-98
What Antelope Canyon X is
Two narrow passages, walked one after the other on a single guided trip. The standard Antelope Canyon X hike stays inside the X system and never enters Upper or Lower Antelope, so treat it as a third destination and not as a back door into the famous two.
Navajo Nation Parks lists one licensed operator here, Taadidiin Tours, LLC, which also handles Cardiac Canyon, and Navajo Parks & Recreation sends visitors for this section to that company. Six licensed operators sell Upper Antelope and two sell Lower. That gap in the number of companies feeding groups through the rock is the clearest explanation for why Antelope Canyon X feels emptier on an ordinary morning.
The rock is the same as next door: Navajo Sandstone, roughly 8 to 60 million years old, cut mainly by flash flooding, with the canyon about 120 feet (37 m) deep and the floor at 3,704 feet (1,129 m). Neither the park nor the operator publishes a length in feet for the two X passages, so plan by time on site.
Searches for a secret Antelope Canyon tend to land on side canyons like this one. Nothing here is unofficial. Taadidiin Tours holds a licence because that is how the whole system works: no part of the Lake Powell tribal park area, X included, opens to anyone without a Navajo guide walking alongside them, and the booking has to go through a licensed operator.
Antelope Canyon X vs Lower Antelope Canyon
Corridor length is where Lower pulls ahead, at about 1,335 feet (407 m), and you pay for that on the way in: five flights of stairs, then ladder sections whose handrails are bolted straight into the sandstone. Navajo Parks says plainly that Lower is narrow, that the stairs are steep, and that it may not suit anyone who is claustrophobic.
Antelope Canyon X asks something different of your legs. Entry and exit use one staircase built from railroad ties, roughly 200 feet long, with no ropes or ladders on the route. The floor is sand, uneven in places, and you have to walk it unassisted.
Upper is the beam section: 660 feet (200 m) walked one way, with a two-hour cap on time inside that has applied since 1 May 2011. Beams do reach the floor at Antelope Canyon X as well, though only in summer, from May through early August, and only on clear sunny days. The popular visiting window here falls between 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m.
Come out here if crowd level is what decides it for you. Lower still wins on sheer length of corridor walked with a guide, and Lower is the section the tours listed on this site go into.
| Section | Inside the canyon | Way down | Licensed operators |
|---|
| Antelope Canyon X | Two separate slot passages, sandy and uneven floor | No ropes or ladders; one railroad-tie staircase about 200 feet long | One |
|---|
| Lower Antelope Canyon | About 1,335 feet (407 m) of corridor | Five flights of stairs plus ladders with handrails bolted into the walls | Two |
|---|
| Upper Antelope Canyon | About 660 feet (200 m), walked one way, two-hour limit inside | Sandy and level at the start; 150 steps back up to the vehicles at the end | Six |
|---|
The shortest guided walk into Lower Antelope
If the longer corridor and the stairs-and-ladders descent appeal more than the quiet, this is the one-hour guided walk through Lower Antelope, from $94 with all fees and taxes included.
★ 4.9/5 · 7,729 reviews
The 1.5-hour walk or the 3-hour photography option
Take the shorter walk unless photography is the real point of your morning. It runs about 1.5 hours, check-in is 30 minutes before the booked time, and all ages are welcome. It covers both passages and leaves your afternoon in Page free.
The longer option runs about 3 hours and takes ages 8 and over. It is a tour format. Navajo Parks & Recreation no longer issues photography or filming permits for Upper or Lower Antelope, and it is not accepting applications for Antelope Canyon X either, so anyone picturing a solo shoot with a tripod and a permit letter should drop that plan now.
Gear rules split the same way. No bags of any kind on the hiking tour, hydration packs included, so water, phone and camera ride in your pockets. Photography guests may bring one camera bag each.
For beam season, aim for the middle of the day between May and early August, and accept that cloud cover cancels the effect for everybody in the canyon that hour. Tour times here run on Arizona time, which skips daylight saving while the surrounding Navajo Nation observes it, so the midday window stays where it is through the summer. No full departure timetable is published for this section, so treat any posted start time as something to confirm on the day.
- Shorter walk: about 1.5 hours, all ages, check-in 30 minutes early
- Photography option: about 3 hours, ages 8 and over
- Beams: May through early August, clear days only, popular window 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
- No bags on the hike; one camera bag each on the photography tour
Driving out to Milepost 308
Check-in is at Milepost 308 on Highway AZ-98, farther east of Page than either of the other two entrances. For reference, the Upper park entrance sits about three miles out of town on Highway 98, and the Lower site is on Indian Route 222, under ten minutes' drive east, so a trip to X adds road time at both ends of your morning. There is no pick-up service from town either, which means you need your own vehicle to get out here.
The ground inside is sand, and the only vertical part of the route is that railroad-tie staircase, which you have to manage unassisted. If stairs are out of the question, skip all three slot sections: the Horseshoe Bend leg of the long day tour listed here is a hardened, ADA-accessible 1.5 mile (2.4 km) round trip, with the Colorado River about 1,000 feet below the overlook.
Dress as you would for the other sections. Closed-toe shoes make sense on sand and timber steps, and take a light layer: the slot holds the air cool while Page averages a daily maximum near 96.0 °F in July.
Rules that apply on this property
Conduct rules here are short and enforced. Alcohol possession and consumption are prohibited across the whole Navajo Nation, smoking is banned on the Antelope Canyon X property, and anyone under the influence is escorted off. Pets are not allowed at any Navajo Tribal Park location, this section included, and Navajo Nation Parks also prohibits littering, rock climbing and drones on its park lands.
Budget the tribal park entry separately. Driving out to Milepost 308 still means entering Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park, and entry costs $15 per person each time you go in, counted outside whatever a guided tour costs. Drivers coming off the Glen Canyon side sometimes assume their pass stretches this far: it does not, because Antelope Canyon lies beyond the national recreation area boundary, and neither America the Beautiful nor a Glen Canyon pass is worth anything at the gate.
Weather closes canyons at short notice, a point Navajo Nation Parks makes in capital letters. Monsoon dates matter when your canyon sits this far out on Highway AZ-98: the National Weather Service counts the Arizona season as 15 June to 30 September, northern Arizona usually waits until the first week of July for the moisture to arrive, and roughly 40 to 50 percent of the region's annual precipitation falls inside that span. Book a morning slot in those months, keep a spare half-day in July, August and September, and build the rest of your Page time around that.
Summer opening on the tribal park's own page runs 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., with four dates blanked out of the calendar: Thanksgiving Day, Navajo Nation Family Day that follows it, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Winter hours are not published, so ask when you book a December morning.
- No alcohol anywhere on the Navajo Nation; no smoking on the property
- Dogs and other pets stay behind: the ban covers every Navajo Tribal Park site
- Drones, rock climbing and littering are prohibited on Navajo Parks land
- Lake Powell tribal park entry: $15 a head each time you go in, on top of tour prices
- National park passes are not valid for Antelope Canyon
What to book once you have decided
Come out here if quiet matters more to you than corridor length, you have a car in Page, and you can handle a 200-foot timber staircase and uneven sand. Peak season runs March to November and slots go early, so fix the date before anything else in Page.
Readers who decide the longer corridor beats the quiet can swap to the Lower Antelope Canyon Hiking Tour, from $94 for 1 hour, 4.9 ★ (7729 reviews); all fees and taxes sit inside that price, and cancelling is free up to 24 hours ahead. It is the quickest way inside for anyone already in town with their own transport.
No car in Page rules Antelope Canyon X out, since nothing collects you from town. What does come to the hotel door is the Award-Winning Lower Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend Tour, 14 to 15 hours from $160, 4.9 ★ (8468 reviews), carrying round-trip transportation from select hotels, the Navajo Nation Permit Fee, Lower Antelope admission with its guided walk, Horseshoe Bend admission, a deli lunch and Wi-Fi on board. Gratuities are not included, and free cancellation applies up to 24 hours before departure.
Questions people ask
Can I visit Antelope Canyon X on my own?
No. Nothing in the Lake Powell tribal park area, this section included, opens without a Navajo guide beside you, and the only way in is a tour booked with a licensed operator. One licensed operator covers this section, Taadidiin Tours. There is no self-guided route and no walk-in-on-your-own access.
Do light beams reach the floor in this section?
They do, but only in summer. The operator states that beams appear from May through early August and only on clear, sunny days, with the popular visiting window between 10:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. Times run on Arizona time with no daylight saving, so that window does not move. Beams are never guaranteed.
Can I bring a camera and a tripod?
Cameras and phones are fine. On the hiking tour no bags of any kind are permitted, hydration packs included, so carry water and a camera or phone in your pockets. Guests on the three-hour photography tour may bring one camera bag each. Navajo Parks is not accepting photography-permit applications for this section.
Is the Navajo entry fee included in what I pay for a tour?
Navajo Nation Parks charges $15 per person, per entry, for Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park and counts it apart from guided tour prices, so check what your ticket covers. Among the tours listed here, the Lower Antelope Canyon Hiking Tour quotes a price with all fees and taxes already inside it, while the 14 to 15 hour day tour names the Navajo Nation Permit Fee among its inclusions. A national park pass will not stand in for that fee.
What happens if the canyon closes for weather?
Closures come with little warning, and Navajo Nation Parks puts the point in capital letters: bad weather shuts the canyons, with flash-flood risk the reason behind it. Afternoon storms are the normal monsoon pattern between 15 June and 30 September, so book a morning and keep a spare half-day in July, August and September. The tours listed on this site allow free cancellation up to 24 hours before departure.
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