In late November, our Arizona road trip took us to the small and relatively unknown town of Page, Arizona, home of one of my travel bucket list items, Antelope Canyon. This town is about 9.5 hours from San Diego, which seemed like a long way to travel for a 1 day experience. However, when paired with other amazing places you can travel from there (Grand Canyon, Sedona, Utah, etc.) suddenly the opportunity struck when we knew we’d be in Phoenix for the weekend before Thanksgiving. A-ha! Road trip opportunity…the kids had no school the next week anyway, so why not stay and explore?
Everything we did in Page, Arizona can be done in a single day. Believe it or not, this single day brought us to these incredible sites at a very leisurely pace (aside from racing to catch the sunset!). When you arrive in Page, you’ll find a slew of hotels….nothing fancy, we are talking Holiday Inn Express and Best Western were the fanciest. This time of year there happened to have an incredible number of tourists so definitely plan and reserve your hotel in advance.
Our first night we arrived right before sunset, and the kids and Chad popped into the hotel hot tub while I caught a little downtime. The beautiful sunset appeared (that’s them in the hot tub!) and we realized that the next day we HAD to catch Horseshoe bend at sunset. We then went to dinner at State 48 Tavern. I think they were a little overwhelmed by how many people were walking in the door, so we waited an hour. However, the food was delicious! I’m still dreaming of the coconut shrimp tacos….seriously, to die for.
Our Day in Page:
Mid-morning we went to see Horseshoe Bend. Now, if you look online there are many schools of thought on when it’s best to view Horseshoe bend and take photos because of different times of day and how parts of Horseshoe bend are shaded. Based on my extensive research, I concluded that mid-morning (around 10 a.m.) was the best time.
Once you arrive in the parking lot, it’s a really easy, about 15 – 20 minutes walk to the viewing point. As you can see immediately, it’s quite shadowed so the photo doesn’t really capture how green the water is. It truly is a site to see. You can walk right up to the edge (and fall off!) so watch your kids. But it truly is breathtaking and there are lots of spots around it to climb around and just take in the wonder. Stay tuned for later in this post when I show you TRULY the best time to see Horseshoe Bend!
That little person there on top of the rock is me!
On to Glen Canyon Dam: We had some time to kill between Horseshoe Bend and our 3:00 p.m. Antelope Canyon Tour. The Holiday Inn Express where we stayed gave us one of those little maps of the area, so we looked at it and saw this point of interest. About a 5 minute or so drive, it was worth checking out. You park in a lot and just walk right there down to the dam. There were all sorts of areas that the kids absolutely loved to climb on and in, really interesting textures to the rocks, and of course Sydney found her heart shaped rock she always looks for wherever we go!
Lake Powell: After this surprisingly fun stop, we drove a few more minutes almost to the Utah border, to the Lake Powell viewing point. It was extremely beautiful, and my iPhone doesn’t quite capture it. Trust me, worth a quick stop!
After viewing Lake Powell, we went back into town and had lunch and waited for our Antelope Canyon Tour.
Antelope Canyon: There are several tour companies, and as always, varying viewpoints on whether to go to Upper or Lower Canyon, and which time of day and year. The most visited is the Upper Canyon, which is famous for it’s “light beams” that shine down between the months of March and October during very specific hours. The light beams create a very interesting photo opportunity and in general, make photos in Antelope Canyon really stand out. Even though it wasn’t the “light beam” season, we found that the tour times around 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. (when the light beams shine) were sold out very far in advance. If you are really looking to go during this “light beam” season and time, you really do need to reserve a tour spot a year in advance. Or, you can do what we did, and just not care….and you know what, our visit to Antelope Canyon was still incredible! Keep in mind it’s on Navajo grounds so you have to go with a tour guide to visit.
We took “Antelope Canyon Tours” and pulled up to check-in. The check-in experience was not impressive, but once we were on the tour, we were thrilled. They take you in these jeep-like vehicles for about 20 minutes or so to the Upper Canyon. Our guide was amazing…told us a lot about the canyon and he knew all the “secret” ways to capture great photos with your iPhones. Many of the photos here were taken by him!
Here is the entrance and us first walking into the Upper Canyon.
It just got cooler and cooler as you explored inside. Much of this is the “ceiling” of the canyon.
Loved the heart shaped ceiling!
This is an example of how awesome our tour guide was…he created these shots. I would have had no idea!
And here we are back at the entrance, and of course our guide came up with this photo (panoramic, but up and down!)
Horseshoe Bend at Sunset: We raced out of our Antelope Canyon tour to go back to Horseshoe bend and hope to catch another beautiful sunset. As we pulled up very close to losing our opportunity, we were overwhelmed by the sheer number of cars spilled out of the parking lot and onto the main road. We took our chances that some silly people who didn’t stay for sunset would pull out of the parking lot, and we found a spot. As we raced to catch it, behold the beautiful sky!
And sure enough, sunset was the PERFECT time to catch Horseshoe Bend, as none of it was shaded anymore and could be viewed in all it’s glory. It was tough to actually squeeze in to take the photo because the entire viewing area was wall to wall lined with tripods and professional or semi-professional photographers trying to capture their perfect shot. I definitely recommend getting there earlier than we did to try to snag a good viewing spot.
There truly are no words for the beauty and majesty of this sacred place.
As we headed back to the car, it was getting quite dark. Definitely recommend bringing a flash light or just using your flashlight on your cellphone to keep it safe when walking back.
The day in Page, Arizona was just as magical as I hoped it would be. My eyes were seriously in pain after seeing so much beauty in one day.
4 comments
Wow!!! Love the reading about your Antelope trip! Were going there this November and we’re also from San Diego 😊 Awesome! Thank you for the tips!
Hi Uchie!
Thanks for the comment. How EXCITING!!! Oh you are going to love it. I think about it ALL the time and truly do plan to go back, it was that amazing. November is the time of year we went…it’s a great time and hopefully you can catch an incredible winter sunset! Enjoy your trip and let us know how it goes!
We’re planning this same trip for our Christmas break/holiday. I want to visit Moab in the same trip but it may be too much time in the car. How was all of the driving …did you drive to Page and head back the next day?
Hi Bridgette! Oh you are going to love it! We drove there later in the evening, spent the night in Page, and then gave ourselves the full day (which was plenty) to enjoy it. We then spent the night again and left the next day. I think you could totally do it – we had paired it with Sedona and Vegas. Our kids don’t mind the driving at all as long as they have ipads to watch movies on. 🙂