An Adventure Park In The Navajo Nation Leads Novice Climbers Through Slot Canyons And Stone Cathedrals

Even if you think you don't know what a slot canyon is, you know what a slot canyon is. The deep and narrow clefts have popped up in movies over the years, like 2010's "127 Hours" and sci-fi shows in need of weird, otherworldly landscapes, along with plenty of other stretches of the American Southwest. But out of all of the U.S. slot canyons across Utah, Nevada, and Arizona, it's Antelope Canyon in the Navajo Nation that receives the most attention for its softly curved, striated sandstone that glows golden-reddish when the sun cuts just right. Antelope Canyon attracted over 1 million domestic and international tourists in 2023 alone. Some tourists jog along the canyon's bottom, some line up for the perfect picture, and some daring few climb down from the top. That's where Antelope Ridge Adventure Park comes into play.

Antelope Ridge Adventure Park lets people do what they wished they could do the first time they set eyes on Antelope Canyon: rappel, climb, and even walk along its sheer inner walls. The park's via ferrata tour offers safe, fully harnessed and helmeted canyon descents for guests of all skill levels and even children 9 years old and up. Would-be guests book online, dress appropriately, and show up on time, then Antelope Ridge Adventure Park takes it from there. The only caveat is that visitors must be physically fit enough to climb the canyon's metal rungs and slender enough to fit through spaces 12 inches wide. Otherwise, you can still see Antelope Canyon via one of the area's other, numerous tours and enjoy every other tourist hotspot within striking distance, including the Grand Canyon, less than 2.5 hours away by car. 

Antelope Ridge Adventure Park is the only Antelope Canyon experience that features a tour of its type, with metal rungs plunged into the sandstone to climb and clamber along. There are loads of other guided tours, especially for the Upper Canyon, which is the canyon's easier, more walkable part. Antelope Ridge Adventure Park's via ferrata course is situated closer to the Lower Canyon, however, and bypasses the usual back-and-forth flights of stairs that descend to the canyon floor. Instead of that more prosaic method of locomotion, adventurers strap on a helmet and harness and lower themselves using a series of three rappels into a linear, pre-designated course. Visitors even walk on top of the metal rungs for certain stretches through narrow squeezes. 

At the time of writing, the two-hour course is $130 for adults and $120 for kids 9 to 15 years old, which means that kids pay adult prices starting at 16 years old. There are multiple time slots each day at 7:00 a.m., 10:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m., and 5:30 p.m., which gives just enough time to swap rounds of visitors. Bear in mind that if you want to see Antelope Canyon lit by the sun at just the right angle, you'll have to book a time of day that suits the time of year that you're going. The entrance might be a challenge to find, as it's accessed via a barely visible dirt track off of a residential street in the Navajo Nation at the intersection near the Navajo Nation LaChee Chapter community center. Who said this whole thing wasn't an adventure?

Because Antelope Ridge Adventure Park's slot canyon delve takes a couple of hours, it's perfect for building into a broader American Southwest adventure or road trip. And make no mistake: There is absolutely no lack of things to do, even within a few hours of the slot canyon. Aside from just rolling through Arizona's rocky, shrub-and-cactus-filled desert and admiring the scenery, Zion National Park, the Painted Desert, Sedona, and the Grand Canyon are all within three hours of Antelope Canyon. Even Las Vegas is less than 4.5 hours away. Your itinerary basically builds itself right there, especially if you fly into Las Vegas and do a circular-ish route through all the above-mentioned stops and finish back in Las Vegas. 

Of course, you need not stick to well-known locations on this little excursion. Even though a place like Sedona might be known for crystal shops and psychics more than anything, it's near hidden gems like the challenging Broken Arrow hiking trail within the gorgeously rugged Red Rocks State Park. The Painted Desert, meanwhile, lives near the eccentric town of Holbrook right along Route 66, steeped in equal parts mid-20th-century America and Navajo traditionalism. And speaking of sites along Route 66, visitors to the Grand Canyon could always opt for a retro hotel like Trailborn Grand Canyon near the canyon's South Rim, complete with an optional helicopter tour. And of course, there's Las Vegas, a city which needs no introduction and provides the perfect spot for a bash to launch or cap your Southwestern sojourn.