Photograph Rattlesnake Canyon

Rattlesnake Canyon is an add-on to the ever-popular Antelope Canyon photography tour. Both canyons are on Navajo land and only accessible by guided tour.

The advantage to Rattlesnake Canyon is that only one tour company is allowed to operate there and they only take one group at a time. Our group had nine people, so the nine of us had the canyon to ourselves.

You access the entrance to the canyon by climbing a ladder, and there are several ladders throughout. A couple places require crawling under or squeezing between rock. About halfway in we decided to take off our backpacks so we could squeeze through a section where the walls were only a few feet apart. The whole canyon is very photogenic, but my favorite places were toward the end. When you reach the end you can climb a ladder to exit or come back the way you came.

Tips:As soon as the car is parked you should grab your gear and try to be first into the canyon. We got ahead of the group and it was tons of fun to explore by ourselves.

Tripods are required on all photography tours, but you don't actually have to use them. We left our tripods in the tour van and this allowed us to move more freely and get the shots we wanted.

Adventurous Antelope Canyon Photo Tours is the only company allowed to operate in Rattlesnake Canyon. They also have exclusive access to Owl Canyon and Mountain Sheep Canyon. I didn't sign up for those but I definitely would next time.