Originally Posted by Richym99

I did both of the slots in Antelope Canyon last April, so can give you a few pointers as to timings.

Ideally, a car is necessary to get around, because the timings are fairly critical if you want to get the best photos in the Upper Canyon (which is where you get to see the shafts of light). These only appear for a short time around midday.

I stayed in Page over night, and booked a tour with Ken's Tours of the Lower Canyon for early on the next morning. You have to drive out to the canyon yourself for that tour. The timing of the tour is less critical than the Upper Canyon tour, as little light gets into the canyon, even at midday. Ideally, a tour about 0900 will see you finished there about 1030 with time to drive back into Page for the Upper Canyon Photographic tour. These leave the offices at 1130 from March 1st onwards.

You are taken out to the Upper Canyon in open sided trucks over pretty rough terrain with a lot of dust, so take glasses or googles and a hat if you want to be comfortable. I recommend the photographic tour, simply because the guides know exactly what time and where the light beams are going to appear in the canyon, and will do their best to make sure that you are in the chamber and there is nobody else in camera shot. If you take a regular tour, which goes in every 20 minutes or so, the groups are much larger, and you are simply walked from one end of the canyon to the other and back. You are very likely to miss the one thing that makes the Upper Canyon unique.

I got back into Page about 1430 in the afternoon, so if you are looking to get to the Horseshoe Bend, you still have plenty of time, although the sun may well be in the wrong place for the best shots.

Final recommendation is to have a good read of the guides about the best way to photograph the canyons, have a decent camera (although modern day point and shoots can still produce fantastic results). You cannot use flash photography in the canyons, so know how to set up your camera for long exposure shots and if the guide offers to set up your camera for you, hand it over. They know pretty well how to set up and camera to get some stunning photos. Finally, clean your camera thoroughly afterwards. Otherwise, you risk all of your subsequent photos having dust flecks all over the photos.