There is no way into Antelope Canyon without a Navajo guide. The canyon is on the Navajo Nation just east of Page, Arizona, and Navajo Parks and Recreation runs it as part of its Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park: a tour guide is mandatory at every Antelope Canyon location, the guide stays with you the whole time, and the canyon has been closed to anyone on their own since 1997. So the questions are which canyon, which company, and which clock, because the tours keep Arizona time while Zion keeps Utah’s. Page is about 120 miles from Zion Canyon, two and a half to three hours each way through the tunnel, and about 280 miles from the Las Vegas Strip.
The tours, compared
As listed on Viator on 16 October 2026. The three in Page start at the canyon or in town, so from Zion you drive yourself there.
| Tour | Where it starts | In the canyon | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dixie’s, Lower Antelope Canyon Hiking Tour | Its booth on Indian Route 222, east of Page. Check in 45 minutes before | About an hour on foot, 1.1 miles | $94 a person, all fees and taxes included |
| Adventurous Antelope Canyon Tours (AACT), Upper Antelope Canyon | Its lot on Highway 98 at milepost 302, east of Page. Arrive 20 minutes before | About 80 minutes, leaving by a 15-minute hike over the top | $119 a person, all fees and taxes included. No one under 8 |
| Dineh Tours, Upper and Lower | Hotel pickup in Page | Both canyons in a half day | $369.37 a person; $441.22 from April to September 2027 |
| Jupiter Legend, Lower Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend | Las Vegas hotels, from 4:50 a.m. | A timed midday entry to Lower, then Horseshoe Bend. 14 to 16 hours in all | $239 an adult and $219 a child; $160 on Fridays from January 2027 |
From Zion, we would book Lower Antelope Canyon with Dixie’s. It is $94 with every fee included, it starts every half hour or so through the day, it takes children of any age, and it is rated 4.9 from 7,812 reviews. Upper is the flatter, wider canyon, and AACT’s tour of it is $119, for ages 8 and up.
Dineh Tours does both canyons in a half day — four and a half hours in its description, five and a half in its listed duration — with pickup at hotels in Page. Booked one after the other, Dixie’s and AACT’s tours come to $213 a person; the combination’s extra buys the pickup, the drive between the canyons and one booking. It is Navajo owned and operated.
From Las Vegas without a car, take Jupiter Legend’s day. Its everyday price is $239 an adult and $219 a child. The $160 that heads its listing is an Early Bird Special option sold for Fridays only, from 1 January 2027.
Upper or Lower Antelope Canyon
They are two separate canyons a few miles apart, each with its own companies, and one ticket does not get you into the other.
Lower Antelope Canyon is the narrow one. Navajo Parks and Recreation describes it as shaped like a V, a canyon you work through on stairs, and not for anyone claustrophobic. Dixie’s tour walks about 1.1 miles, down five flights of steel stairs into the largest cavern and up eight ladders with handrails, in 60 to 90 minutes. Two companies run it, Dixie’s and Ken’s Tours.
Upper Antelope Canyon is wider at the bottom, shaped like an A, with more room to walk, and you walk it at ground level on sand. You ride in by tour vehicle — Antelope Canyon Tours’ trucks leave from its office in Page, AACT’s from its lot on Highway 98 — and leave by a hike up and over the canyon: 21 steps up and 112 down on AACT’s tour, and about 800 meters with a hill and stairs on Antelope Canyon Tours’. Navajo Parks and Recreation has limited a visit inside Upper to two hours since 1 May 2011. Six companies run it.
The light beams in the famous photographs come with the midday sun, from late spring to mid-fall. Antelope Canyon Tours’ noon tour into Upper is its sun-at-the-zenith slot, when in summer a beam of light can reach into the canyon, and Ken’s Tours puts Lower’s beams at about 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The late-morning tours go first. On Viator on 16 October 2026, AACT’s 10:20 a.m. Upper tour was sold out from 16 to 20 October while its 3 p.m. tour had seats on each of those days, and Dixie’s 9:45 a.m. Lower tour was sold out every day to the end of October, and its other late-morning tours on most days, while its 7:15 a.m. tour had seats every day.
The other canyons. The same department authorizes more than a dozen more companies for the side canyons and rides around Page, such as Antelope Canyon X and the Waterholes, and every Antelope Canyon location is guided-only.
Which clock: Arizona time, and the hour that moves
Antelope Canyon’s tours run on Arizona time, and Zion does not. Arizona does not observe daylight saving time; the Navajo Nation, Utah and Nevada do. Dixie’s, AACT, Antelope Canyon Tours and Dineh Tours all keep Arizona time all year, the same as the town of Page, even though the canyon is on the Navajo Nation. Daylight time runs from the second Sunday in March to the first Sunday in November, so:
| Clock | March to early November | Early November to March |
|---|---|---|
| Page and its canyon tours | Arizona time | Arizona time |
| Zion, Springdale and Kanab (Utah) | An hour ahead of Page | The same as Page |
| The Navajo Nation around the canyon | An hour ahead of Page | The same as Page |
| Las Vegas | The same as Page | An hour behind Page |
Daylight time ended on 1 November 2026 and runs again from 14 March to 7 November 2027.
Your phone is the trap. Around Page it takes the time from the nearest cell tower, which may be on the Navajo Nation or across the line in Utah, so from March to early November it can jump an hour ahead without warning, even in the tour company’s parking lot. Dixie’s calls the time zones the most common way people miss a tour they have already paid for, and Antelope Canyon Tours lists not understanding the time shifts among the booking mistakes it is not liable for. The time on your booking is Page time. Set your phone to Phoenix time while you are there.
From Zion it works in your favor going, and against you coming back. For a 10:15 a.m. tour at Dixie’s you check in by 9:30 a.m. Page time. From March to early November that is 10:30 a.m. on a Springdale clock, so leave Springdale by 7 a.m. Utah time to allow for the drive and a stop; in winter the clocks agree, and the same tour means leaving by 6. Coming back in summer you lose the hour: leave Page at 2 p.m. and you reach Springdale at about 5:30 to 6 p.m. Utah time.
From Zion: about 120 miles through the tunnel
The route is Highway 9 east from the Zion Canyon Visitor Center through the Zion-Mount Carmel tunnel and out the East Entrance to Mount Carmel Junction, 25 miles; US-89 south to Kanab, 17 miles; then US-89 east for about 74 miles to Page. From the Zion Canyon Visitor Center it is 116 miles to the town of Page and about 120 to Lower Antelope Canyon, 121 to 123 by two OpenStreetMap routers, which put the drive at 2 hours 27 minutes to 2 hours 53 minutes without stops. Kanab is about halfway: 42 miles from the Visitor Center, then 79 to 81 miles and about an hour and a half to the canyon. Plan on three hours each way, and on six hours in the car for a tour of about an hour.
The tunnel road is inside the park, so you show your Zion pass or pay the entrance fee to drive it, even passing through: $35 a car for seven days, plus $100 for each non-US resident aged 16 or over unless someone in the car holds an annual pass. Since 7 June 2026 no vehicle over 11 ft 4 in tall, 7 ft 10 in wide or 35 ft 9 in long may use it; a motorhome over those limits goes the long way. The rules and the current state of the road are on the tunnel page.
When the tunnel road is closed — a rockfall shut it to through traffic from 30 September to 9 October 2026 — Page is about 165 miles from Zion Canyon by Hurricane, Hildale, Fredonia and Kanab, 3 hours 5 minutes to 3 hours 41 minutes by the same two routers. That is over six hours of driving for the day.
If you can, sleep east of the park. A night in Kanab puts the canyon an hour and a half away, and Zion’s East Entrance about 40 minutes the other way; a night in Page puts it about ten minutes away, which is what an early tour needs. From Page, Lower Antelope Canyon is 5 miles east and Horseshoe Bend 4 to 5 miles south.
From Las Vegas: a 14- to 16-hour day
About 280 miles from the Strip to Lower Antelope Canyon, 282 to 284 by the two routers, which put the drive at 4 hours 44 minutes to 5 hours 37 minutes without stops. The route is I-15 north to Utah, Highways 9 and 59 by Hurricane and Hildale, Arizona 389 by Fredonia to Kanab, then US-89 to Page. It does not use the Zion tunnel, so the tunnel’s size limits do not touch a Las Vegas coach.
Jupiter Legend’s day picks up at Las Vegas hotels from 4:50 a.m. to 5:30 a.m., Las Vegas time, and drives about four and a half hours each way, as a shared tour of up to 57. It enters Lower Antelope Canyon at a timed slot around midday with a Navajo guide, then walks the trail to the Horseshoe Bend overlook, about nine hours of the day on the road. Its listing gives the day as 14 to 15 hours and its own notes as about 15 to 16 from departure, so plan on the longer. Canyon admission, the Navajo permit fee, the Horseshoe Bend fee, a deli lunch, snacks and water are included; tips are not.
The clock from Las Vegas runs the other way from Zion’s. From March to early November, Las Vegas and Page show the same time; from early November to March, Page is an hour ahead, so the drive out loses an hour. The tour’s pickup times are Las Vegas time.
It books until two days ahead. Jupiter Legend’s day and Dineh Tours’ half day stop selling 48 hours before the start; Dixie’s and AACT’s tours sell until eight hours before.
If what you want from a Las Vegas day is Zion itself, the days and their time in the park are on Zion tours from Las Vegas.
The permit fee, the bag rule and the closed days
The Navajo permit fee is $15 a person, and two canyons in a day can mean paying it once. Navajo Parks and Recreation’s Lake Powell pages put the entry fee at $15 a person, per location, per day, on top of the guided tour, and Dixie’s calls it the $15 Navajo Nation Permit Fee; the department’s general fee page still says $8 a person, per location. Dixie’s and AACT’s Viator prices include all fees and taxes, Jupiter Legend’s includes the permit fee by name, and Dineh Tours’ includes admission at both canyons. Doing two canyons in a day, keep the paper receipt from the first: Antelope Canyon Tours may refund the fee on the day against a paper receipt with matching dates, never an emailed confirmation. An America the Beautiful pass is not accepted.
The bag rule differs by canyon. Since 4 May 2023 Dixie’s has allowed no bag in Lower Antelope Canyon, clear ones included, and Dineh Tours’ listing bans bags, purses, hydration packs and fanny packs there. For Upper, Antelope Canyon Tours allows a clear bag with no opaque bag inside it, and you may carry water. Tripods and monopods are banned in both canyons, and Dixie’s also bans selfie sticks, GoPros, walking sticks, open-toed shoes and drones. Dogs are prohibited at every Navajo tribal park, and Dixie’s, AACT and Antelope Canyon Tours turn away service animals too; the dog page has Zion’s own rules.
The closed days. Navajo Parks and Recreation lists the tribal park closed on Thanksgiving, the day after, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The listings do not all agree: on 16 October 2026 Dixie’s had no date on 25 to 27 November, or on 9, 10, 12 and 14 January 2027, and Dineh Tours none on 9 to 12 January, but Dixie’s sold Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, and the other three sold all four holidays. Before you plan a holiday around the canyon, have the tour company confirm it is open that day.
Weather. Tours run all year, and during the monsoon, roughly July to September, they can stop on short notice when storms threaten the drainage upstream. On all four canyon tours’ listings, a tour canceled for weather is offered another date or a full refund, and each can be canceled free up to 24 hours ahead.
Horseshoe Bend
A short walk, a $10 lot, and no park pass. Horseshoe Bend is the Colorado River’s 1,000-foot-deep, 270-degree bend in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, off US-89 between mileposts 544 and 545, about five miles south of Page. The overlook is 1.5 miles round trip on a hardened path, about 20 minutes each way, with two shade structures on the way and none at the overlook. Railings guard the viewing platform but not the rim along the trail. The lot belongs to the City of Page, which charges $10 for a car, truck or RV and $5 for a motorcycle, takes no America the Beautiful pass, and is open from sunrise to sunset. Parking or dropping anyone off on US-89 is not allowed. From Lower Antelope Canyon it is 7 to 8 miles, about a quarter of an hour.
Lake Powell’s boat tours
The lake is low, and two of its best-known boat tours are not running. Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas, which runs the boat tours from Wahweap, lists its Antelope Canyon boat tour and its Rainbow Bridge tour as unavailable until further notice (its tour pages, 16 October 2026). The Park Service’s alert for Rainbow Bridge, last changed on 6 April 2026, says the monument’s docks no longer reach land at current lake levels, and the lake stood at 3,519.10 feet on 13 October. The company’s Navajo Canyon boat tour, three and a half hours from Wahweap past Glen Canyon Dam and into Navajo Canyon, still sails and is linked below, and its 90-minute Scenic Dam Cruise is still offered. The slot canyon tours on foot are unaffected: they never went by water.
Booking
The four tours below, read on Viator on 16 October 2026, are the ones in the comparison above. Each can be canceled free up to 24 hours before it starts, and the three in Page say on their cards which clock their times keep. After them is Lake Powell’s Navajo Canyon boat tour, read on 27 October.
