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Antelope Canyon on the Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park in Lechee, Arizona is one of the most beautiful natural parks in the Southwest and at the end of last month Antelope Canyon underwent sizable flash flooding which is fascinating because that’s how the canyons were formed in the first place, through flash flooding eroding the Navajo Sandstone.
For the purposes of this article I’m going to refer to it just as ‘Antelope Canyon’ though in reality there are six scenic slot canyon sections on the Navajo reservation that are major tourist attractions including The Crack, The Corkscrew, and 4 others. But the reality is all of them were formed ages ago through flash flooding the gorgeous Navajo Sandstone and it is thanks to flash flooding these tourist attractions exist today.
The #1 rule of visiting canyons like these are stay AWAY after heavy rains because flash flooding can quickly occur. Flash flooding can also occur 30-60 minutes later so people who think since the rains have abated it must be safe to re-enter the canyons can get caught in life threatening situations.
To illustrate (1) how flash flooding formed Antelope Canyon and (2) how destructive the floods can be, Desert Rat Explorations uploaded this extended footage from the end of June with the area was hit by flooding:
First off, it is WILD that video only has just over 4,000 views on YouTube when a 9-second clip from that video has picked up over 1.7 million views on TikTok in the past two days:
It’s definitely worth mentioning that Antelope Canyon has seen its fair share of disasters due to flash flooding. On August 12, 1997, 11 tourists were killed by a flash flood in Lower Antelope Canyon and only the guide survived. That incident occurred when Lower Antelope Canyon received scant rainfall and people assumed the canyon would be safe while 7 miles away got hit with a torrential downpour leading to the deadly flash flooding.
Since then, Antelope Canyon has a ladder system where ladders are bolted into the rocks for people to climb up to safety in case of an emergency situation.