Antelope Canyon X: What It Is and How to Visit It from Las Vegas

A Separate Canyon with One Operator

There are three slot canyons the Las Vegas tours can book you into. Upper Antelope Canyon is run by Antelope Canyon Tours and other Navajo operators. Lower Antelope Canyon is run by Ken's Tours. Antelope Canyon X is a separate slot canyon run only by Taadidiin Tours. It is not a section of Upper or Lower. It is its own drainage with its own entrance, its own stairway and its own permit, which is why the price and the rules differ from the other two canyons.

The canyon is on Navajo Nation land, and Navajo Nation Parks states that tour guides are mandatory for visiting Upper Antelope Canyon, Lower Antelope Canyon, Antelope Canyon X and Cardiac Canyon. Every tour from Las Vegas hands you to a local Navajo guide for the walk, and there is no way in without one.

The Tour Itself

The Antelope Canyon X hiking tour runs 1.5 hours. You enter on stairs made of railroad ties, with no ropes and no ladders, which makes it easier on the legs than Lower Antelope and its steep metal staircases. The walk follows a wider slot with the same carved sandstone walls as the famous canyons, and because Taadidiin is the only operator, group numbers on the ground stay lower than at Upper on a summer midday.

Taadidiin also sells an Antelope Canyon X Photography Tour at $142 plus the $15 permit for ages 8 and over, lasting 3 hours with a minimum age of 8. You bring your own tripod, and it is a group departure rather than a class. Video needs a separate permit from Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park. The Private Guided Tour is $150 per person with a 5-person minimum. Cardiac Canyon, a rougher drainage on the same land, is also offered by Taadidiin, though the Las Vegas tours in this catalog do not use it.

The Honest Headline

Canyon X is not the canyon in the famous light beam photos. Those beams are an Upper Antelope Canyon effect, where direct overhead sun reaches through a narrow slot. They need the sun high overhead, so they appear in the midday slots and the summer months, and a late afternoon or winter visit will not show them. No operator publishes an exact calendar for the beams.

That does not make Canyon X a lesser visit. It is the same kind of sculpted Navajo sandstone, photographed with the same hand-held camera, and many people prefer it because the corridors are quieter. But if the beam photos are the reason you are booking a 272-mile day trip, book Upper Antelope and know that the Upper Antelope day tour costs $259.

The Four Routes in

The Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend Tour with Lunch and Wi-Fi by National Park Express includes Canyon X in its $160 base price, with about 1 hour in the canyon with a Navajo guide. Upper or Lower Antelope cost extra over that base price, so pick your option before you compare it with other listings. The Navajo permit is also not included on its separate Secret Antelope Canyon option.

The VIP Small-Group Van Tour by Marvit Tours uses Canyon X on its standard day at $249.99, with Lower Antelope as an option, in a 15-seat van that picks up from about 200 Las Vegas hotels. The Grand Canyon Sunrise Tour by Mania Tour offers Lower Antelope or Canyon X by option on its 18-hour day at $361. And the Golden Hour Tour by Empire Vacations at $209 runs Lower, Upper or Canyon X, decided on the day by weather and crowds, so you only know which canyon you got when you arrive.

Read the Canyon Line, Not Just the Price

This is the single biggest difference between listings at the same price. Several tours can both say Antelope Canyon from Las Vegas and buy you completely different canyons. The same $160 buys Lower Antelope on one listing and Canyon X with paid upgrades on another.

If a listing does not name the canyon, assume the operator decides on the day. Every tour hands you to a local Navajo guide either way, because no visit to any of the three canyons is possible without one.

Side by Side

The figures below are the canyon tours alone, booked locally in Page, before the $15 Navajo fee and before any transport from Las Vegas. The Las Vegas tours bundle transport and often the fee into one price, so use this table to understand what each canyon is, not what the whole day costs. For a deeper comparison of the two famous canyons, see Upper vs Lower Antelope Canyon.

How to Choose

Choose Canyon X if you want the quietest corridors, the easiest entry of the three, and the lowest walk-in price at $47. Choose Upper if the light beams are the whole point of the trip and you accept the higher price and the midday timing. Choose Lower if you want the classic ladder-and-slot experience and do not mind the climb.

All three sit on the same Navajo land with the same travel reality from Las Vegas. Page, Arizona is about 272 miles from Las Vegas, the tours budget 4.5-5 hours each way, and that makes a 13-16 hour day for about 1-1.5 hours in the canyon. The canyon itself is a short part of the day, whichever one you pick.

No Bags, No Exceptions

Antelope Canyon X bans every bag, including clear ones. No tripods, monopods, selfie sticks, video or drones on the hiking tour. Phones and small hand-held cameras are fine. Upper Antelope by contrast allows clear bags, which is why the strictest rule on this page surprises people who have read about the other canyons. The Las Vegas operators solve the problem the same way on every tour: bags stay on the bus. Bring your phone, a lens cloth and a pocket for your water arrangements as the listing describes them.

One more thing worth knowing: one operator adds that skirts and dresses are not allowed inside, and the railroad-tie stairs at Canyon X reward closed shoes with grip. You will be walking on sand.

Flash Floods, Monsoon and Holiday Closures

The canyons close for flash-flood risk. Monsoon storms run from about mid-June through September, most active July to September, and operators cancel tours, even at midday, when storms upstream threaten the canyon. The decision is made by the Navajo operators and Navajo Parks and Recreation, not by the Las Vegas tour company, so there is nothing your coach driver can do about it. The tribal park also closes on Thanksgiving Day, the day after, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.

Flash floods are not a theoretical risk. On 12 August 1997 a flash flood killed 11 hikers in Lower Antelope Canyon, and the canyon reopened afterwards with guided-only access and fixed metal stairways. That history is why every visit today, Canyon X included, is guided. If the canyon closes on your day, the Las Vegas tours still run to Horseshoe Bend. On the Canyon X day, National Park Express refunds per its own terms. Book nothing time-sensitive for the evening of the tour, because several listings say so in capitals.

The Clock

The canyon clock is one hour ahead of Las Vegas all year. Page, Arizona stays on Mountain Standard Time all year, but the Navajo Nation observes daylight saving, and Las Vegas is on Pacific time. The result is that your canyon guide's watch runs an hour later than your phone if your phone follows Las Vegas time.

In summer the town of Page matches Las Vegas while the canyon, minutes away, is one hour later. Confirm your tour time in Navajo time before you set an alarm.

What the Hours Look Like

Las Vegas to Page, Arizona is about 272 miles by road, and a routing engine gives about 5 hours 22 minutes with no traffic. The tours budget 4.5-5 hours each way, which is why they leave between 4 and 7 AM. The Marvit van pickups run between 4:00 and 5:30 AM for a 5:30 AM start. You get about 1 hour in Canyon X on the National Park Express day, then Horseshoe Bend, then the long ride home, arriving back late in the evening. A 13-16 hour day for about 1-1.5 hours in the canyon is the deal, and it holds for Canyon X exactly as it does for Upper and Lower.

Horseshoe Bend, which every one of these days includes, is a 1.5-mile round-trip walk on a hardened path to an overlook about 1,000 ft above a 270-degree bend of the Colorado River. Much of the rim has no railing, there is no water on the trail and very little shade, and the Park Service advises avoiding the hottest part of the day. Every tour in this catalog includes the Horseshoe Bend parking fee, charged by the City of Page at $10 per car.

Budgeting the Whole Day

The advertised tour price is not always the whole cost. Tips for the driver and the Navajo guide are extra on the listings that state them, with one suggesting 15-20% and the Grand Canyon sunrise day asking $30 or more per person. The Golden Hour day includes no meals, and its breakfast and lunch stops are at your own cost.

On the Canyon X day at $160, the boxed lunch is included. If you drive yourself instead, the local Canyon X hiking tour is $47 adult plus the $15 permit, and the full driving picture is on the Las Vegas to Antelope Canyon page. To weigh the whole trip against the effort, see whether Antelope Canyon is worth it.