Canyon X: The Quiet Antelope Canyon Alternative Nobody Told You About
Smaller groups, a lower price band, and slot walls that reviewers rate nearly as high as the famous sections. The honest case for and against switching to Canyon X.
By Daniel Begay, Navajo guide & Southwest canyon specialist
Guides talk to each other, and one thing Navajo guides around Page have quietly known for years is that the famous canyons are not the only good ones. The sandstone around Page hides more than two slots. When I started comparing the booking data for this site, one product jumped out: a canyon most travelers have never heard of, pulling a 4.7 from more than four thousand reviews, at prices well under the headline sections.
Quick take: Canyon X delivers slot walls in the same family as Upper and Lower with a fraction of the foot traffic and a friendlier price band. Reviewers on Reddit peg it at roughly 90 percent of the Lower experience with far fewer people. The trade: a steeper, more hike-like walk in, and no midday beam spectacle.
What is Canyon X, and why have most visitors never heard of it?
Canyon X is a guided slot canyon on Navajo land near Page, run by Taadidiin Tours, in the same slot canyon country as its famous neighbors. It stays obscure because the big sections built two decades of head start on photos, bus tours, and search results.
The name is not a mystery brand. It marks one of several slots cut through the same sandstone, and Taadidiin Tours runs it as a hiking tour on family land. The same Navajo Nation rules apply here as everywhere else in the system: guided-only, no self-visits, tribal permit per person. The official operator roster at Navajo Nation Parks & Recreation shows a small handful of authorized companies covering all sections, six by current count.
Obscurity is doing real work in your favor here. The famous sections carry decades of postcard momentum, which is exactly why their timed entries pack out. Canyon X gets the travelers who did their homework. I write about the wider family of overlooked slots in the lesser-known canyons post, and X is the most bookable of them by far.
How much quieter is Canyon X than Upper or Lower?
Meaningfully quieter, by every signal I can find. Its review volume runs at a fraction of the famous sections, groups stay small, and visitor threads consistently name it the least crowded of the three. One Reddit thread calls it 90 percent of Lower's enjoyment with a fraction of the people.
Review counts work as a rough crowd proxy, since every reviewer was once a body in the corridor:
| Canyon | GetYourGuide rating | Tripadvisor signal |
|---|---|---|
| Lower Antelope | 4.7 (8,861 reviews) | Ken's Tours: 4.7 from 7,282 reviews |
| Upper Antelope | 4.5 (2,726 reviews) | Antelope Slot Canyon Tours: 4.6 from 4,595 reviews |
| Canyon X | 4.7 (4,413 reviews) | Taadidiin Tours: 4.8 from 1,989 reviews |
Notice the pattern: Canyon X matches Lower's 4.7 platform rating and posts the highest Tripadvisor score of the three, on the smallest review base. Recent visitors keep it simple. "This was an awesome tour. The canyon was beautiful," a July 2026 GetYourGuide reviewer named Sharon wrote. Another from the same month: "It was an excellent day! Thank you for the great tour!" A June 2026 reviewer praised her guide as "Amazing! Full of knowledge and info! Was also pretty funny and took some amazing pics of all of us!"
Quiet does not mean lonely. It means your photos wait for a clear corridor instead of a gap in the queue.
Is Canyon X really cheaper than the famous sections?
Yes, at the operator's gate. Taadidiin currently lists the Canyon X hiking tour at $47 for adults and $37 for kids, plus the $15 Navajo permit for ages eight and up. That undercuts the current Lower and Upper price bands, though platform bookings price higher than the gate rate.
Current pricing, attributed to operator and platform listings as of this snapshot:
| Cost item | Current figure |
|---|---|
| Canyon X at the operator, adult | $47 (kids $37) |
| Canyon X on the big platforms | From about $73 to $89 |
| Lower Antelope band across operators | About $60 to $85 adult |
| Upper Antelope band across operators | About $90 to $120 adult |
| Navajo Nation permit, all sections | $15 per person, per location, per day |
Two honest footnotes. First, the live price always sits on the listing, and these bands move. Second, platform convenience costs something over the gate rate, and what you buy with it is instant confirmation, reviews you can read, and a cancellation policy in writing, up to four days out on the GetYourGuide product. The full cost picture across every section lives in my tickets and cost guide.
How steep is the walk into Canyon X?
Steeper than Upper, different from Lower. Taadidiin sells it honestly as a hiking tour: a descent on foot into the slots over variable terrain rather than Upper's flat corridor or Lower's bolted staircases. Sure-footed visitors barely notice; anyone avoiding inclines should factor it in.
This is the filter that keeps X quiet, and I respect it. The operator's own framing, a hiking tour rather than a walk, tells you what to expect: you earn the canyon with a real descent and climb back out the same way. The facts on file describe Canyon X terrain as variable, against Upper's flat sandy floor and Lower's stair-and-ladder system.
As a guide, here is how I would sort your group. Comfortable on uneven ground for an hour in desert heat: X is open to you. Traveling with someone who needs the gentlest possible surface: Upper remains the accessible pick. Somewhere in between, and excited by ladders: Lower. Wear real shoes in every case, carry water, and remember monsoon season runs mid-June through September, when flash-flood risk cancels tours at any section without apology.
Who should switch to Canyon X, and who should stay put?
Switch if you value space over fame: photographers who hate strangers in frame, second-time visitors, budget travelers, crowd-averse families with steady walkers. Stay with Upper if you are chasing the midday beam, or with Lower if you want the most celebrated walls and the ladder adventure.
The decision grid I would draw on a napkin:
| You want | Best section |
|---|---|
| The famous midday light beam | Upper, late March to mid-October, midday |
| The most photographed walls, ladders included | Lower |
| Fewest people, lowest price, more of a hike | Canyon X |
| The gentlest walking surface | Upper |
My call is unambiguous for one traveler type. If you have already walked Upper or Lower and loved it, X is your obvious second visit: same stone, new rooms, and the quiet you probably wished for the first time. First-timers with only one slot in the schedule face a harder choice, and I lay out that three-way argument properly in the secret and alternative canyons guide.
If the quiet corridor is calling, start at the Canyon X tour page for the full rundown, then check live availability and prices on GetYourGuide while the Likely to sell out flag is still just a flag.
How do you book Canyon X before everyone else finds out?
Book ahead anyway. The GetYourGuide product already carries a Likely to sell out flag and a four-day cancellation window, and the wider canyon system teaches one lesson: quiet sections do not stay quiet. Reserve your date, then enjoy being early to something.
Every overlooked place I have ever guided eventually gets found. The window where a canyon is both excellent and uncrowded is a real thing with a real closing date, and nobody publishes that date in advance. X is inside that window right now. That is the whole pitch.