Antelope Canyon is possibly the most-photographed of northern Arizona’s sandstone slot canyons. The glowing orange and purple colors of the wind- and water-carved, narrow fissures in Antelope Canyon feature in many beautiful images. Antelope Canyon includes two separate, photogenic slot canyon sections, referred to individually as Upper Antelope Canyon or The Crack and Lower Antelope Canyon or The Corkscrew. Upper Antelope Canyon is the most popular and most visited of the two slot canyons. Less narrow and more level than Lower Antelope, making it so much easier to hike. The lower canyon is much more narrow versus the upper canyon and there is no entrance at ground level so visitors must climb down ladders to reach the canyon floor.

credit: Mot the barber

Monument Valley is the most famous example of the classic American West landscape, located on the border of Arizona and Utah. Crimson mesas and surreal sandstone towers rise hundreds of feet into the air, some as tall as 1,000 feet. Valley’s rock formations are noteworthy mainly because they resemble animals or other familiar images (e.g., Bear, Rabbit, Stagecoach). Monument Valley is a Navajo Nation Tribal park and charges a fee of $5 per person for access to the loop road through the valley. The area is entirely within the Navajo Indian Reservation near the small Indian town of Goulding, established in 1923 as a trading post.

credit: Moyan Brenn