Northern Arizona

Page is perfectly positioned to allow quick access to lots of natural wonders in the area, and has a big outdoor culture. It is located on the banks of the Colorado River at the southern edge of the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and is surrounded by the striking red rock formations of the American southwest.

For local coffee and pastries, try Lake Powell Espresso in the small downtown area. The main natural attractions in the area, and why people mainly go to this area, is for Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend. The crowds to see Antelope Canyon have become excessive, so you should make reservations in advance to ensure you’re able to see them. We had made reservations with Adventurous Antelope Canyon, located just east of town. Our tour was around 11:00am in the morning, so we killed time by going to the Glen Canyon Dam Overlook. It’s a lesser known lookout, but offers views of the steep red cliffs falling to the Colorado River far below just down river from Horseshoe Bend. From there, you can also go a mile to the north to the Potato Hill Overlook and have a good view over the desert out to Lake Powell and Utah.

When we arrived for our Antelope Canyon Tour, we were loaded up into an open area bus on large wheels that takes you over the desert to the entrance of the slot canyon. There are so many tours each day, that everyone is on a tight schedule to be in and out in the allotted time so the canyon isn’t overly crowded. The guides also will tell you where the famous pictures are taken and give ideas for good angles. With the amount of people, they don’t let you bring in tripods. I used the bracketing method on my Sony A7RII to take shots at different exposures and blended them in Lightroom later on to get pictures that didn’t blow out the narrow strip of sky at the top of each photo. Despite how many people there are, it’s still a very cool experience to be in the narrow canyon and see an amazing feature that nature made over time.

The total time you spend in the canyon is about an hour, so we were back at our car around 12:30pm. After a quick lunch in town, we made our way to the Horseshoe Bend Trailhead. This is only a mile or two south of town, and they have largely expanded the parking lot to accommodate the crowds. The walk is only about half a mile from the parking lot to the lookout, but it does require a bit of elevation so bring good shoes. With the amount of people, you’ll have to wander up and down the edge to find a good spot unimpeded, but the view is really cool of the bend in the river and definitely worth making the walk.

By 1:30pm, we were back in our car and heading towards the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. This is a 2 and a half our drive from Page, but the scenery is incredible. It makes you realize how underrated of a state Arizona is. We arrived at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center area around 4:30pm and found a spot in the huge parking lot. We explored a few of the displays they have and made our way out to a few of the viewpoints to admire the view. If you’ve never been, it truly is a view that takes your breath away, more than any other natural attraction I’ve seen.

We continued another couple miles to the Grand Canyon Village and parked at the El Tovar hotel. El Tovar is a historic hotel built in 1905 to promote tourism to the area and is worth checking out. They have a great porch out back where you can grab a drink at and look out over the canyon rim. After our long drive, we did this while there were still tables available.

After getting a drink, we walked along the Rim Trail that takes you along the entire south rim of the canyon. We walked a couple miles to the west from the hotel and every step was another incredible view. There are park busses that run frequently and make lots of stops, so once we got tired we just waited for a few minutes at a bus stop along the trail and rode back to El Tovar.

If you plan ahead, get a reservation at the hotel, or you can find a table at the Bright Angel Steakhouse in the Bright Angel Lodge. Either location you’ll be able to watch sunset through big windows over the canyon. Alternatively, wait to eat and head back out to one of the viewpoints to watch sunset away from the buildings. We went a couple miles back east to the Yavapai Point, which has a good parking lot and offered great views of the sunset. We went back and ate at Bright Angel Lodge and then went back to this point to see the stars later that night, which is a must do.

We stayed in a hotel about 6 miles south of the entrance to the South Rim in the town of Tusayan.