The Inner Light: Inside 3 SLOT Canyons With their stunning beams of LIGHT, SHIFTING colors, and corkscrew walls, Antelope Canyon, Canyon X, and Secret Canyon near Page, Ariz., are HIKERS’ DREAMS. Join us for a closer look.
UPPER ANTELOPE CANYON/SAND HEALING ANTELOPE SLOT CANYON TOURS
Antelope Slot Canyon Tours CANYON X/OVERLAND CANYON TOURS
Overland Canyon Tours SECRET CANYON SLOT CANYON HUMMER ADVENTURES
Slot Canyon Hummer Adventures Sedona Monthly Features Archive Home
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Antelope Canyon is one of the most alluring spots in the Southwest, thanks largely to the talented nature photographers who’ve beautifully captured and shared its ethereal light beams, golden hues, and corkscrewing rock walls that seem to defy gravity. Yet Antelope isn’t Northern Arizona’s only slot canyon (though it is its most crowded). We recently drove three hours north of Sedona to explore Antelope and its two lesser-known cousins: Canyon X and Secret Canyon. We spent two adventurous, windy days with area guides, hiking (OK, squeezing) through often-narrow spaces. Each canyon tour is unique. Overland Canyon Tours provides solitude and lots of time for picture-taking in Canyon X; Navajo-owned Antelope Slot Canyon Tours gives visitors a spiritual and cultural view of Antelope Canyon; Slot Canyon Hummer Adventures adds off-road adventure to the tour of Secret Canyon. Which is most beautiful? You be the judge.
Thirty-five minutes from Page – and five miles from paved road – on the Navajo Reservation, the trail into Canyon X begins with an abrupt and sandy descent. Charly Moore, owner of Overland Canyon Tours – the only outfitter with a permit for Canyon X – pauses at the top of a sand dune and gestures toward the opening of the upper slot canyon. “Welcome to my other office,” he says, his German accent still audible after 20 years in the United States. He likes to joke that he’s from the Berlin Chapter of the Navajo Nation. Charly is tall and thin, with graying hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a blue bandana around his head; the ink that covers his arms and the single star under his left eye hint at his previous life as a tattoo artist in Southern California. He carries a hiking pole adorned with feathers (more for moving snakes off the trail than for balance, he says; he hikes this trail several times a week) and a Native American dream catcher. Charly used to vacation at Lake Powell and Page before moving to the area five years ago. He joined Overland Canyon Tours as a part-time guide, then bought the company in 2006. He also owns Thunderbird Art Gallery in Page.
The slot canyons in northern Arizona are off the beaten track, so what better way to get there than in an H2 Hummer? In July 2006, after three years negotiating with Navajo landowners, Vance Swartz opened Slot Canyon Hummer Adventures, taking visitors deep into Waterholes Canyon and its side slot canyons, including Secret Canyon, Staircase Canyon, and Passage Canyon for two or three tours a day with a limit of six people on each tour; half the fun is the rugged 13-mile trip into Waterholes Canyon, with sweeping views of Page, Lake Powell, and the Navajo reservation.
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