Waterhole Canyon Experience LLC — Local services in Four Corners States

Waterhole Canyon is little less spectacular than Antelope Canyon (perhaps because there aren't any superbly shot images yet by famous photographers), but the great thing is that you don't need to wait one hour in line before entering and you are not pushed through with dozens of other people. Get a permit ($12 pp) from the Navajo Lechee Chapterhouse station the same day or a day in advance. The canyon is private property so it is no more than fair to pay for a permit. It will allow you to explore this canyon with its amazing turns for many hours at your leisure. Follow the stacked rocks for the easy way down and turn left. After about 20 minutes you will get to the narrow part with some ladders. This is the most spectacular part. It leads all the way to Secret Canyon. You can return over the mesa (watch out for snakes) to the parking area and/or take the path down again and turn right towards the bridge. The wreck underneath is interesting. From that point onwards, the canyon becomes narrow and you will need a rope to move into the next section. On Google you can see that this part of the canyon opens high above the Colorado river with a deadly drop. We did not venture out this section to its end, primarily because the other (left) section of the canyon is more pretty and we already spent several hours there taking great images, so little...

Amazing tour led by Shane- exactly the way I wanted to see and experience slot canyons for the first time! I would absolutely recommend this tour- you definitely need to be able to walk 2 miles, climb stairs, and wear grippy hiking shoes. Pros: 1.5 hour~2 mile hike through 3 slot canyons with varied terrain, from walking through sand to scrambling on sandstone with hands, to climbing up and down ladder stairs. Small groups with no crowds- limited to about a dozen spots, and we happened to get a private tour b/c no other people signed up for our time slot (11am, when the sun is overhead and streaming into the canyons). Shane played the Navajo flute for us in the 2nd canyon, which was so peaceful & beautiful, and shared lots of information about the canyons, land, Navajo culture, and wildlife (we saw 2 owls!).

Cons: Nitpicking here b/c it was all very positive, but I wish I was able to wear a crossbody bag (fanny pack)to hold my water bottle and phone while scrambling through narrow and steeper sections. I would have brought a clear bag if that is what would have allowed me to bring a small bag since I didn't have pockets. Not a huge deal, I just had to keep handing them off to...

After a hugely disappointing upper Antelope Canyon experience, we found this one from YouTube. We did the 1.5hr hike with Randy (who sub in for another guide that day). The tour was AMAZING. Randy was knowledgeable, talkative without being intruding. We learned so much about the canyon and the surrounding area. He pointed out good photo spots and we were never rushed (well only four people on the tour). I don’t think they advertise well so that’s why we were able to book the trip the day before and price was “only” $81 per person (antelope was well over $100). I think max capacity per tour is 13 people. We wandered through TWO slot canyons (antelope tour was one short one.) It was an easy hike but be prepared because you will be walking on the sand most of the time.

Don’t do it if you are cluster phobic as there were a few spots that were super narrow (take that, antelope!) Overall I’d highly highly recommend this tour (btw the 1.5hr tour ended up around just under 2hrs - to give you an idea how we were NOT being...