Antelope Canyon and the sculpted walls near Page

Antelope Canyon near Page is carved into Navajo Sandstone, with narrow walls and shifting bands of colour that change the view.

Antelope Canyon near Page is a sandstone slot canyon on Navajo Nation land in northern Arizona. Its narrow passages cut through Navajo Sandstone, a Jurassic formation, and the rock surface carries layered bands and smooth curves.Jurassic formation

Sandstone walls east of Page

The canyon lies east of Page within Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park, and the broader setting belongs to the Colorado Plateau. The name covers a slot canyon formed in fine-grained sandstone, where the walls rise close together and the passage narrows into a rock corridor.Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park

The Navajo Sandstone here records ancient desert dunes. Cross-bedded layers are visible in the stone, and the canyon’s surfaces show the marks of long erosion by water moving through fractured rock.Cross-bedded layers

Geology inside a slot canyon

Antelope Canyon belongs to the family of slot canyons, which are much deeper than they are wide. The walls are made of sandstone, and the passage turns and tightens as the rock face closes in above the streambed.slot canyon

The canyon’s visual character comes from the rock itself: pale layers, warm colour bands and carved grooves. Those forms belong to Navajo Sandstone, a sedimentary rock laid down from desert dunes before erosion opened the narrow corridors seen today.Navajo Sandstone

Antelope Canyon as a Navajo landscape

The canyon sits on Navajo Nation land, and its immediate setting links Page to a larger landscape of desert rock and tribal territory. The geological story is older than the town beside it, with the sandstone shaped long before present-day roads and settlements reached the area.Navajo Nation land

Flash flooding has been the main force cutting the canyon’s narrow channels, and the walls remain smooth where water repeatedly passed through them. The result is a confined sequence of rock chambers and bends rather than an open valley or a broad gorge.Flash flooding

Visiting Antelope Canyon: what travellers from Western Europe should know

• Antelope Canyon lies east of Page in northern Arizona. The town of Page is the usual base for reaching the canyon.
• The canyon is a slot canyon with narrow sandstone walls and a confined floor. The approach and movement inside it involve tight passages rather than open paths.
• The official language is English and the currency is the United States dollar.
• Conditions on the mountain change with the seasons; the local cable-car operators and alpine clubs provide information.

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Frequently asked questions about Antelope Canyon

Where is Antelope Canyon?

Antelope Canyon is east of Page in northern Arizona, on Navajo Nation land. It sits within the landscape of Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park.

What does a visit involve?

The canyon is narrow, with sandstone walls close together and passages that turn through the rock. The setting is enclosed and geological rather than open and expansive.

What makes Antelope Canyon distinctive?

Its sandstone walls show layered bands, smooth curves and carved grooves. The place is also defined by its slot-canyon form and its setting on Navajo Nation land.