Lake Powell rose behind Glen Canyon Dam in 1963, and within a decade the reservoir had submerged 186 miles of Colorado River corridor and flooded the lower reaches of dozens of Navajo sandstone slot canyons.
One of those drowned tributaries is Water Antelope Canyon, a narrow cleft that branches northeast from the main reservoir channel near Antelope Point. The flooding transformed what had been a dry wash into a navigable slot, accessible only by boat or kayak, where paddlers now glide between walls that rise 120 feet and narrow to less than 15 feet across. The Navajo Nation, which holds jurisdiction over the canyon and its tributaries, issues permits for water-based entry through the Antelope Point Launch Ramp, seven miles from Page.
The appeal of a kayak from Lake Powell to Antelope Canyon lies in the reversal of scale: instead of descending into a canyon on foot, you approach it from the water, tracing the flooded canyon floor as the walls climb overhead. The route covers roughly three miles one way from Antelope Point, with the final half-mile entering the slot proper. Paddlers encounter cross-winds on the open reservoir, then sudden calm as the canyon walls rise and block the prevailing southwest gusts. The Navajo sandstone shows the same Navajo Formation stratigraphy seen in Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon—cross-bedded layers deposited as coastal dunes 190 million years ago—but here the erosion is ongoing, with water lapping at undercut ledges and spring floods leaving fresh scour marks above the high-water line.
Guided kayak and hike adventures combine the paddle with a short overland scramble to overlooks or tributary slots, where the reservoir's edge meets intact desert pavement. The launch window opens at 7 AM, and most outfitters recommend an early departure to avoid midday winds that can gust to 20 knots across open water. The Navajo Nation permit fee is 15 dollars per person per day, separate from tour costs, and covers entry to Water Antelope Canyon via the Antelope Point corridor. Unlike the ticketed walking tours of Upper and Lower Antelope, water access remains lightly regulated, with no hourly quotas, though the launch ramp closes at 5 PM. The experience is logistical rather than contemplative—paddling a loaded tandem kayak through chop, beaching on sandstone benches, reading the wind—but it delivers a perspective unavailable from the standard canyon platforms: the geometry of a slot canyon seen from below, where the sky is a ribbon and the walls are still rising.
4 hr
