The Area around Page: Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend
April 4th
Unfortunately, we hadn't booked the Antelope Canyon tour from home, and by now the tour was fully booked online as well. So we decided to book the slightly more expensive tour through the hotel — after all, this canyon was the reason we came here. Before our Antelope Canyon tour, we visited the famous Horseshoe Bend, well known from countless Western movies. The walk to the viewing point takes about 10 to 15 minutes. The views are breathtaking and the photos are spectacular.
You can only enter the Antelope Canyon with a guide, as the area lies within a Native American reservation. There is an Upper and a Lower Canyon, with the Upper Canyon being the more well-known and more expensive option. The best light for photos is around midday, when even the standard tours cost a bit more, and special photography tours starting at around $80 are also offered. Your guide drives you by Jeep through a mostly dry riverbed right to the canyon entrance. Caution: when it rains, this can quickly turn into a raging torrent. Our guide showed us the most beautiful formations and pointed out the faces and shapes visible within them, giving us great tips for the best photos and camera settings. After the tour, which lasts about 1.5 hours, we continued our journey. Along the way, we stopped to see the Glen Canyon Dam and visited the Visitor Center at the end of the bridge, which has a lovely viewpoint. We also stopped at Mile 552 at an overlook with views of Lake Powell and Wahweap. Another stop was at Lone Rock Beach, picturesquely situated on Lake Powell (you can even camp here for free).
Our next stop near Kanab is the Coral Pink Sand Dunes State Park, a nature park with pink to red shimmering desert landscape that has served as a backdrop for numerous Hollywood productions. If you have plenty of time, you can stop by and have a picnic like we did. The scenery is truly fascinating: a massive sand dune in the middle of a valley surrounded by mountains. If you've never seen towering sand dunes before, this is definitely worth a stop. You can also ride sand buggies or ATVs here.
We reached our destination for today, Bryce Canyon, about 1.5 hours later.
Other attractions near Page include Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, a scenic drive along the Colorado River (the old Highway 89), and a boat tour to Rainbow Bridge — the world's largest natural bridge. It's only accessible by boat and with a guided tour. Prices start at around $100 per person. There are also various scenic overlooks that invite you to pull over, plus plenty of hiking and nature trails, which you can ask about at the Visitor Center.
