Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and the South Rim in one trip

8 min read Updated November 2026 Compare all tours

Antelope Canyon is a sandstone slot canyon near Page, Arizona, inside the Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park. It belongs to the Navajo Nation, which sets its own rules: tour guides are mandatory, and every part of the canyon can only be visited on a guided tour. Navajo Nation Parks keeps a list of the licensed operators, separately for Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon. Antelope Canyon X, which some tours visit instead, also requires a guide.

Horseshoe Bend is the curve of the Colorado River seen from a cliff-top overlook. It lies in Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, while the parking lot belongs to the City of Page. Both places are a long way from Las Vegas, and the Grand Canyon is added on the way out or back.

What the day looks like

Every one-day tour from Las Vegas runs for 17 to 19 hours. Some leave in the evening or in the middle of the night and reach the Grand Canyon for sunrise; others leave before dawn and see the canyon on the way back. The time at the Grand Canyon is short on all of them. Fun Group gives it about an hour, and the sunrise tour by Mania Tour about 40 minutes. These trips suit you if Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend are the main goal. If the South Rim is, the day tours from Las Vegas to the national park alone allow about three hours there.

A shared van from the Bellagio

Fun Group meets its guests at the Bellagio, or picks them up anywhere in Las Vegas on the private option. The shared van holds up to 12 people, and the price includes lunch and the entry to Lower Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and Grand Canyon National Park. The fee for non-US visitors is excluded. Children under 5 can only travel on a private tour, and children under 8 who are shorter than 4 ft 9 in (145 cm) need a child seat, which you request in advance. Luggage and large bags are not allowed, and the tour needs a minimum number of travellers to run.

Reviewers like seeing three places in a day and mention stops roughly every two hours for food and toilets; one group also stopped at Seligman on Route 66. The criticism is about the vehicle. Guests describe cramped vans, air conditioning that reached only the front rows in summer, lunch eaten in the van to keep to the schedule and fast driving. If you are tall, do not count on a seat at the front.

Sunrise at the Grand Canyon first

Mania Tour picks up between 10 pm and midnight from April to August and between 11 pm and 1 am from September to March, then drives through the night to the South Rim for sunrise. The standard option visits Antelope Canyon X with a Navajo guide; a second option books Lower Antelope Canyon instead, so choose the option that matches the canyon you want. Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell follow. Park entry for the Grand Canyon and Horseshoe Bend and the Antelope ticket are included, meals are not, and the listing calls a tip for the guide mandatory. Children under 5 cannot join.

The same operator runs a photo-oriented version for up to 13 guests with a guide who is also a photographer. It visits Lake Powell, Lower Antelope Canyon or Antelope Canyon X, Horseshoe Bend, Mather Point and the Yavapai Geology Museum, with a stargazing stop. Pickup starts at 1 am in winter and 2 am in summer, and the listing explains the difference with the time change between Nevada and Arizona.

Several of these itineraries name Lipan Point on the East Rim. Lipan Point and its road are closed from 22 June to 23 December 2026, so tours stop at other viewpoints until then.

Stargazing tours by Q Travel

Q Travel leaves at 2 am, stops at Black Canyon to look at the stars and then visits the East and South Rims at viewpoints such as Navajo, Mather and Yavapai Points before continuing to Lower Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell. Breakfast is included, and guides speak English or Korean. The listing says the tour is not suitable for people over 70, and free cancellation ends three days before the trip. Book at least a week ahead, because last-minute bookings may not get an Antelope Canyon slot.

Its longer sister tour adds sunrise at the South Rim and Zion. From November to March, and on days with few participants, it leaves at 2 am and drops both sunrise and Zion, so in winter the two tours are very similar. The details are on the tours from Las Vegas page.

Inside the canyon

Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon feel different. The operator of the Upper canyon says it is level, with no heights and no ladders, and its tours last 90 to 100 minutes including the drive in and out. Navajo Nation Parks limits a visit inside Upper Antelope Canyon to two hours. Lower Antelope Canyon is a walking tour with small ladders and narrow paths, rated moderate, and the tour listings mention steep metal staircases.

The operators do not allow backpacks or larger bags, and both operators ban selfie sticks; the list for Lower Antelope Canyon also names walking sticks and hydration packs. Drones and dogs are prohibited in all Navajo tribal parks, and so are alcohol and drugs on the Navajo Nation. The Navajo park fee is $15 per person (as of November 2026) and is part of most tour prices. Navajo Nation Parks warns that closures are possible in bad weather; the tour listings say this applies especially in the monsoon and in heavy snow.

Clocks on Navajo land

Arizona does not use daylight saving time, but the Navajo Nation does, to stay on the same time as many Diné relatives. From March to November it is one hour ahead of the rest of Arizona, including Page and the Grand Canyon. The Antelope Canyon operators work on Arizona time all year, and the operator of Lower Antelope Canyon advises setting your phone to Phoenix time, because phones in the area may show Navajo or Utah time in summer. On a tour your guide keeps the schedule, but the difference matters if you meet the group or plan a call.

Horseshoe Bend

The walk from the parking lot to the overlook is 1.5 miles (2.4 km) there and back on a hardened path. There are railings at the viewing platform, but not along the trail or everywhere along the edge. The NPS advises against walking in the hottest part of the day: the City of Page notes that summer temperatures can exceed 100°F (37°C) with little shade, and there is no water at the trailhead. Carry water from the vehicle. Most tours include the Horseshoe Bend fee; national park passes are not accepted for it.

Several tours also stop at Lake Powell, the reservoir behind Glen Canyon Dam, which the NPS calls the country’s second-largest gravity arch dam.

The fee at the Grand Canyon

The Navajo park fee and the Horseshoe Bend parking fee are not national park fees, and the national park’s nonresident fee does not apply there. At the Grand Canyon it does: every non-US resident aged 16 and over pays $100 on top of the entrance fee, also on a commercial tour. Fun Group, Mania Tour and Q Travel all state that this fee is not included. Children aged 15 and under pay neither. The entrance fees and passes page explains the rules.

From Page, the NPS route to the South Rim runs south on Highway 89 to Cameron on the Navajo Nation and then west on Highway 64 for 25 miles to the East Entrance at Desert View, from where it is another 23 miles to Grand Canyon Village. If you would rather not do all of this in one night and one day, MaxTour spends two days on the same sights plus Zion, with a hotel night included; it is one of the multi-day tours from Las Vegas.