What Is The Heart Of The Canyon And Where Is It?
This “Heart Of The Canyon” photo print is from the inside of Upper Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Reservation in the town of Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon is one of the most famous slot canyons in the world and also the most visited. In order to visit Antelope Canyon (upper or lower) you must book a tour withe a licensed Navajo guide.
When you book a tour of Upper Antelope Canyon it will cost you a small fortune, upwards of $120 per person and you’ll have to do it weeks or months in advance. Upper Antelope Canyon is about a quarter mile long. The tour fee will get you a ride froma central parking area to the canyon and a spot among a million other people all crammed into this same small canyon.
While you may get some cool photos on the tour, you’ll have to shoot fast and often times shoot up above ground level to get photos without people in them. Both Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon are incredible to see. The guides are usually very good but it is like being in a barnyard full of sheep as you are herded through the canyon. If you want something like a wilderness experience where you enjoy amazing sights, peace, and tranquility you’ll need to find somewhere other than Upper Antelope Canyon for that.
What Is It Like To Travel To Upper Antelope Canyon?
If you’re going to go to Upper Antelope Canyon, you’ll need to make tour reservations weeks ahead of time. Some of the most famous photos of Upper Antelope Canyon are those with light beams shooting down through the canyon. If you want to get those photos you’ll need to book a tour around noon in the summer and hope the clouds don’t block the sun while you are in the canyon. A tour of Upper Antelope Canyon will now cost you about $120 per person. You’ll need to figure that cost into your travel budget. Th tours are pretty much guaranteed to run unless there is a danger of flash flooding from monsoon rainstorms in the area.
Upper Antelope Canyon is located on the Navajo reservation in the town of Page, Arizona so you’ll need to get to Page. You’ll probably want to stay in the town of Page or maybe over in the lodging at Glen Canyon. There are plenty of hotels in Page, Arizona. Both Choice Hotels and Wyndham Hotels have a number of properties in the area. There are other chains and independent hotels too. If you prefer to camp, there are plenty of campgrounds around and BLM land where you can often park overnight or camp for free or close to it.
If you’ll be flying in, you can fly right into the Page, Arizona airport. If you fly in there you can probably get to Antelope Canyon without a rental car. You will need a rental car to go just about anywhere else though. The St. George ,Utah Airport and the Las Vegas Airport are two other nearby airports people often fly into when Upper Antelope Canyon is part of their travel itinerary.
Once you’ve got your transportation and lodging all figured out and have your tour booked you’ll just need to get to the parking area or arrange for your tour company to come pick you up.
The tour will start as you climb into an open air vehicle type thing. That will take you to the start of the tour where there will be hoards of other people. You’ll get a little orientation from the guide and be on your way. The guide will pace you through the canyon. You’ll be in there with a bunch of other groups. The tour will probably last about an hour. You’ll then get a ride back to the main parking area and have the rest of the day to go see more cool stuff in the area.
What Does It Take To Get A Wall Art Quality Photo Of The Heart Of The Canyon?
There are plenty of wall art quality photo opportunities in Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon too. You need separate tours for each canyon.
In recent years it has become more challenging to get wall art quality photos of Upper Antelope Canyon. Along with the surge in visitation, the and astronomical price increases for the tours, Antelope Canyon no longer allows tripods to be taken in the canyon on the tours.
When you are in Antelope Canyon you are of course in a slot canyon. That will generally mean that there are low light conditions in part or all of the canyon depending on the cloud cover overhead. In low light conditions you generally want to use a tripod to keep the camera steady. At normal camera settings the shutter may be open longer than you can keep it steady.
Since you cannot take a tripod into the canyon, you’ll probably need to crank up the ISO setting on your camera and you wont be able to bracket shots that you would use for an HDR photo to smooth out high contrast scenes. This is a real bummer for photography. The higher your ISO setting, the lower quality your photo files will be and the more grainy they will tend to be. Never cameras do have better ISO performance than older ones and software like Topaz DeNoise can help to get rid of the grain or noise associated with high ISO photos.
As you go through the canyon the guide will point out different abstract formations in the canyon that may be more or less apparent based on the current lighting conditions. You will of course be free to let your eyes wander to find your own abstract scenes in the canyon. If you are there between about 11:30 and 1pm during the summer, the guide will most likely toss some sand up in the air to create light beams for you to photograph. Many times the guides will be able to help you adjust your camera setting to get the best photos based on the current lighting conditions in the canyon.
Due to increasing rules for the Upper Antelope Canyon, getting good quality wall art quality photos inside Antelope Canyon is more challenging but with some adjustments your camera settings, chances are you’ll still be able to get some photos to be proud of on an Upper Antelope Canyon tour.
If you are not in Antelope Canyon at a time when the light beams are shooting through the canyon, you can get light beam photos in the Buckskin Gulch Slot Canyon if you’ve got the time to figure out where to find them and how to create them.
What Is The Best Gear For Photographing Upper Antelope Canyon?
Not too long ago, it would have been a tripod, a good DSLR and a wide angle lens. Now that tripods are not permitted on the Upper Antelope Canyon tours, a good DSLR or mirrorless camera will still be important. In addition to a larger sensor to facilitate large high quality prints, you’ll want something with good ISO performance. The higher you crank up your ISO, the less time the camera shutter will need to stay open. The less time your camera shutter needs to stay open, the sharper your photos will be in low light conditions.
Your lens choice should be something pretty wide. Something like a 17mm to 40mm lens could to the trick. Alternatively a 24mm to 105mm lens would work well too. Throughout the canyon there will be opportunities for both of these lenses. Changing lenses inside the canyon can be an option if you carry both lenses but there is usually a fair amount of sand and dust in the air. This is especially true if the guides are throwing sand in the air to create light beams to photograph. If you swap lenses in the canyon there is a good chance that sand will end up in your camera on your lens or sensor and in your photos.
If all you will be doing with your photos is making small prints or posting to social media you could just use a newer cel phone, take more time to enjoy the sights and spend less time worrying about camera settings and capturing the best quality photos on the Upper Antelope Canyon tour.
What Is The Story Behind This Upper Antelope Canyon “Heart Of The Canyon Photo”?
In December of 2014 I entered the lottery for The Wave in Coyote Buttes North and to my extreme surprise, got lucky and got a pair of permits. When one had permits for The Wave, there is no choice but to head back out to the Page, Arizona and Kanab, Utah area to take advantage of the permit.
In February of 2015 I packed up the car, headed west and timed it all to be able to pick up a friend from the St. George Airport. Once we got confirmation of permits for The Wave we made plans to go all over the place in the Page and Kanab area. The trip included Bryce Canyon National Park, a hike to Angels Landing at Zion, The Toadstool Hoodoos, Horseshoe Bend at sunset and other awesome sights.
In an effort to see ALL the amazing sights in the area we decided to include the Upper Antelope Canyon tour. I’d been through both Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon in the past and was kind of indifferent to going back to Upper Antelope. Even in 2015 the tours were like being herded like a flock of sheep. At the time, Antelope Canyon offered both “tourist” tours that did not allow tripods as well as photography tour that were more expensive, permitted tripods and at least tried to hold people back in the canyons to facilitate tripod photos without people in them.
We spent the night at a small but comfortable hotel in Big Water, Utah that I believe is now the Roadway Inn in Big Water Utah. That was a comfortable, quiet and inexpensive place to crash away from the hustle and bustle of Page with some awesome views of the cliffs of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. April was a bit too early in the year to get much in the way or light beams in Upper Antelope Canyon and it turned out to be a bit cloudy anyway. We slept in a bit since we’d been hiking all over the place and were a bit worn down. After a leisurely breakfast we drove over to Page and up to the parking lot for the Antelope Canyon tours.
We boarded the open air transportation thing from the parking lot over to the start of the Antelope Canyon tour and were on our way taking in the magical views of Antelope Canyon. There were massive crowds outside the canyon waiting to embark on their tours.
We spent extra and booked the “photo” tour. On that tour we were allowed to take tripods in. Of course we did. We both had DSLR cameras. The photo tours were less like sightseeing tours and more like competitions to see who could setup their tripods that fastest and get a couple shots in before it was time for the next person in line to step up with their tripod.
Of course there were many tours going through the canyon at once. Other guides would try to hold their tours back around a corner to keep their group out of the photos we were taking. Usually they were successful but sometimes not.
The “Heart of the Canyon” was an upward shot. There are plenty of upward shots in the canyon. By upward shots, I mean photos that don’t include the floor of the canyon and are possible to take regardless of how many other people are crammed into the canyon.
Once the tour was finished, we hopped back into the car, grabbed some lunch in Page, AZ, went down around Lake Powell, hiked the Toadstool Hoodoos, caught sunset at Horseshoe Bend and then returned to what is now the Roadway Inn in Big Water, Utah for some star gazing and another affordable but good night sleep away from the crowds in the town of Page, Arizona.
In What Formats Is The Heart Of The Canyon Wall Art Photo Print Available?
This “Heart of the Canyon” photo print from Upper Antelope Canyon is available in sizes up to 40×60 inches. It comes on acrylic, paper, canvas, metal and wood. If you plan to hang it in an area with diffused lighting, any material with any finish will look good. Metallic of glassy surface prints will be more vibrant while matte prints will look a bit more subdued. If you’ll be hanging it in an area with bright direct lighting or exposed light bulbs, you’ll be better off with a matte canvas or paper print so as to avoid the reflections associated with the more reflective surfaces.
If you’d like decorate your bathroom, you might consider a high quality shower curtain and pair it with some matching bath towels. For a living room or bedroom, a Sherpa fleece with matching throw pillows can bring a southwestern flavor to your home. The Sherpa fleece blankets look great and are super soft and comfortable.
For day to day accessories, this image can be printed on heavy duty canvas tote bags that make great shopping bags. The larger canvas tote bags can make great beach bags as well. If you’ve got a new phone that need a case, you can order the Heart Of The Canyon on a case for the latest Apple or Samsung phone to protect it and give it a bit more style.
Finally, if you are into puzzles, you can choose from a 500 or 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. They come in a cardboard box with the image on the box for reference. These make great gifts for anyone who is a fan of southwester canyon country scenery.
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