In shortAntelope Canyon sits east of Page, Arizona. The Upper entrance is about three miles out on Highway 98, where tour vehicles collect visitors; Lower Antelope is on Indian Route 222, under 10 minutes' drive east; Antelope Canyon X checks in at Milepost 308. Flights into Page Municipal Airport run daily from Phoenix, and rental cars are picked up at the field itself. A Navajo guide is compulsory everywhere.
3 milesPage to Upper entrance
Under 10 minPage to Lower Antelope
Milepost 308Antelope Canyon X check-in
MSTArizona stays on standard time
Page, Arizona to Antelope Canyon: where the entrances are
Page is the base town, and every canyon entrance lies outside it. The short answer to how to get to Antelope Canyon is that you reach Page first, by air or by road, then head east on Highway 98 to whichever section you have booked. There is no single gate for the whole canyon and no central ticket hall. Each section has its own check-in point, several miles apart.
Upper Antelope is entered through a park gate roughly three miles out of town along Highway 98. You leave your own vehicle there and the licensed operator's 4x4 trucks carry the group over the last stretch of sand to the canyon mouth. Lower Antelope is the shorter hop: turn off Highway 98 onto Indian Route 222 and you are there in less than 10 minutes from Page, with free parking at the site according to the official operator information, and you walk in from check-in rather than transferring by truck.
Antelope Canyon X sits farther east again, with check-in at Milepost 308 on Highway AZ-98, and its operator states that it runs no pick-up service from town. That matters for planning: with no vehicle, Canyon X is the hardest of the three to reach on your own.
For orientation in town, the Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park office is at 337 N. Navajo Drive, Page, AZ 86040. Two practical rules apply at every section, however you arrive. Whichever of these entrances you drive to, you cannot walk in on your own: a Navajo guide goes with every group, and the tribal park collects $15 a person for each entry on top of what the guided tour itself costs. The pass in your glovebox does not carry over either, because this is Navajo Nation land rather than Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and neither America the Beautiful nor the Glen Canyon pass is accepted at these gates.
| Section | Where you check in | Distance or time from Page |
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| Upper Antelope Canyon | Park entrance on Highway 98; tour vehicles take groups in | About 3 miles east |
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| Lower Antelope Canyon | Site on Indian Route 222, off Highway 98, free parking | Less than 10 minutes' drive east |
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| Antelope Canyon X | Office at Milepost 308 on Highway AZ-98; you drive out to it | Farther east than Upper and Lower |
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| Antelope Point Marina | 537 Marina Parkway, reached by Marina Parkway off Highway 98 | 9 road miles, about 15 minutes |
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The nearest airport to Antelope Canyon
Page Municipal Airport (PGA) is the nearest airport to Antelope Canyon, and it sits inside the town itself at 238 10th Avenue. The field covers 536 acres at an elevation of 4,316 feet, with one runway, 16-34, that is 5,950 feet long. Scheduled commercial service is operated by Contour Airlines, with daily flights to Phoenix, and rental cars are available on site.
Charter and air-tour companies based at the same airport include Antelope Air, Grand Canyon Airlines, Papillon Helicopters and Westwind Aviation, serving the wider Grand Circle. None of that replaces ground transport to the canyon entrances. If you fly in and want to drive yourself out to Highway 98, book the rental car at the same time as the flight.
Cal Black Memorial Airport, the other airfield near Lake Powell, is about 10 miles from Halls Crossing on the Utah side. Halls Crossing is 230 road miles and roughly four hours from Page by road, so treat that option as irrelevant for a canyon visit.
Flying into one of the large hubs and driving north is the common alternative. The honest measure of what that costs in time is the length of the organised day trips: the tour from the Phoenix area runs 13 to 14 hours door to door, and the long day tour with hotel pick-up runs 14 to 15 hours. If you are staying at Wahweap, 8 road miles and about 14 minutes from Page, Lake Powell Resort runs a complimentary shuttle to and from the Page airport as part of its resort fee.
Roads into Page and what sits along them
Two roads do all the work. Highway 98 runs east out of Page past every Antelope Canyon check-in point, and US Highway 89 is the north-south route through town that long-distance drivers arrive on.
Heading south on US 89 you pass the Horseshoe Bend trailhead and car park between mile markers 545 and 544, about 5 miles south of the Carl Hayden Visitor Center, where the walk to the overlook is a 1.5 mile (2.4 km) round trip on a hardened, ADA-accessible path. Parking there is charged by the City of Page, and National Park Service passes are not valid for it. Keep watching the mileposts as you drive on: 541.5 is where the Waterhole Canyon office stands, 5.5 miles south of town, and milepost 542 is the point on Highway 89 for Lower East Waterholes.
Drivers coming up from the south on US 89 cross Navajo Bridge, where the interpretive center stands just before the Lees Ferry turnoff, 43 road miles and about 50 minutes from Page.
- Highway 98 east: Upper entrance at about three miles, Lower Antelope off Indian Route 222, Antelope Canyon X at Milepost 308
- Marina Parkway off Highway 98: Antelope Point, 9 road miles and about 15 minutes from Page
- US Highway 89 south: Horseshoe Bend between mile markers 545 and 544, then Navajo Bridge and Lees Ferry at 43 road miles, about 50 minutes
- Wahweap and the lake shore: 8 road miles, about 14 minutes from Page
- Round the lake from the Utah side: Halls Crossing is 230 road miles and about four hours away, so do not plan on it
From Phoenix or Scottsdale in one day
If the drive north and back is the part you want to skip, this 13 to 14 hour day covers pick-up and drop-off, lunch, Horseshoe Bend and a guided hour inside Lower Antelope Canyon, from $390, rated 4.9 ★ (115 reviews).
★ 4.9/5 · 115 reviews
Arriving without a car
No scheduled intercity coach or bus service into Page is confirmed by a carrier's own information, so do not build a trip around finding one on the day. The town's own airport, with daily service to Phoenix and cars on site, is the reliable public route in.
Canyon check-in offices in and around Page handle check-in and nothing else. One licensed Upper Antelope operator states plainly on its own site that it does not provide long-distance transport from other cities, and the Antelope Canyon X office says it has no pick-up service from town. Arriving in Page by air with no rental car therefore leaves you several miles short of every entrance.
The clean solution is a tour that carries you the whole way. That is what the Award-Winning Lower Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend Tour is built for: a 14 to 15 hour day from $160, rated 4.9 ★ (8468 reviews), with round-trip transportation from select hotels, a professional driver and/or guide, the Navajo Nation Permit Fee and Lower Antelope Canyon admission with its guided walk, Horseshoe Bend admission, a deli lunch with a granola bar and bottled water, and Wi-Fi in the vehicle. Gratuities are not included.
If your base is the Phoenix area, the day tour from Scottsdale or Phoenix covers pick-up and drop-off, lunch, Horseshoe Bend and a guided one-hour walk through Lower Antelope Canyon with a Native American guide, from $390 over 13 to 14 hours, rated 4.9 ★ (115 reviews).
Set your watch to Arizona time
Departures run on Arizona time, Mountain Standard Time with no daylight saving, and operators say so on their own sites. The surrounding Navajo Nation does observe daylight saving, so a phone that has picked up the local network signal can read an hour ahead of the clock your tour runs on. Work from a watch you set yourself and read your booking against it.
Add the check-in window to your drive time. Every section asks you to be at its check-in point ahead of the departure time, and the tours listed here state their own arrival requirement at booking. In summer the tribal park's published window runs from 8:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m., and four dates take it off the calendar completely: Thanksgiving Day, the Navajo Nation Family Day that follows it, Christmas Day and New Year's Day. No winter hours are published, so check your date before committing to the drive out.
Navajo Nation Parks puts the warning in capital letters: bad weather can close the canyons with little notice, and flash-flood risk is what sits behind it. The dates worth weighing before you plan the drive come from the National Weather Service, which puts the Arizona monsoon between 15 June and 30 September, notes that the moisture usually takes until the first week of July to reach northern Arizona, and attributes roughly 40 to 50 percent of the annual rain in much of northern Arizona to that span. Make the drive out early in the day in July, August and September, leave a spare half-day in the itinerary, and remember that cancelling a tour listed here costs nothing up to 24 hours before departure.
Choosing between self-drive and a tour with transfers
With a rental car in Page, drive yourself to the check-in point and book one of the shorter guided walks listed here. The canyon still has to be entered with a Navajo guide, but the driving part is easy: Highway 98 east, then either the park gate at about three miles, the Indian Route 222 turn, or Milepost 308 for Canyon X. Allow extra minutes for the check-in window and for parking, which is free at the Lower Antelope site.
With no car, or starting from a gateway city, take the transfer and let someone else drive the 14 to 15 hour day. That is how to get to Antelope Canyon without a rental agreement, a long solo stint on US 89 and a check-in time you have to beat.
March to November is the peak visitor window and slots sell out, so fix the tour before the flight or the hotel if your dates are tight.
| Way in | Price | Duration | Where it starts |
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| Award-Winning Lower Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend Tour | from $160 | 14–15 hours | Round-trip transportation from select hotels |
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| Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend Day Adventure from Scottsdale or Phoenix | from $390 | 13–14 hours | Pick-up and drop-off from Phoenix/Sedona |
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| Fly or drive to Page, then a guided walk listed here | Set by the walk you choose | About an hour or two on site | Canyon check-in points east of Page on Highway 98 |
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Questions people ask
Can I drive to Antelope Canyon and walk in by myself?
No. Navajo Nation Parks opens every part of the Lake Powell and Antelope Canyon park area only to people on a guided tour booked with a licensed operator, and a Navajo guide stays with the group at each canyon location. Driving to the check-in point is fine; entering the slot without a guide is not possible. Tribal park entry is $15 per person for each entry, charged separately from tour prices.
Which cities can I fly to Page from?
The confirmed scheduled service at Page Municipal Airport is operated by Contour Airlines, with daily flights to Phoenix. Charter and air-tour operators based at the airport, including Antelope Air, Grand Canyon Airlines, Papillon Helicopters and Westwind Aviation, cover the wider Grand Circle. Rental cars are available at the airport, which is inside Page at 238 10th Avenue.
Is there parking at the canyon entrances?
Parking at the Lower Antelope Canyon site on Indian Route 222 is free according to the official operator information. At Upper Antelope you park at the entrance area and the operator's vehicles take the group in from there. Horseshoe Bend is the exception nearby: the City of Page charges for that car park, and National Park Service passes, including America the Beautiful, are not valid for it.
Do my national park passes cover Antelope Canyon?
They do not. The land here sits outside Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which is why an America the Beautiful or Glen Canyon pass gets you nothing at the canyon. What you pay instead is tribal park entry of $15 a person for each entry, added to the guided tour price. Doing Upper and Lower on one day, hold on to the receipt from the first gate so that $15 is not taken from you again.
What happens if I drive out and the canyon is closed?
Closure at short notice is possible whenever the weather turns, and Navajo Nation Parks says so itself; flash-flood risk is the reason. Official monsoon dates for Arizona are 15 June to 30 September, though the moisture normally takes until the first week of July to reach the north of the state. Book a morning slot across that period, hold a spare half-day in reserve, and remember that tours listed here can be cancelled without charge until 24 hours before departure.
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