Page is Paradise: Horseshoe Bend & Antelope Canyon
If you’ve ever seen Britney Spears sing about Not Being a Girl (But Not Yet a Woman,) or if you watched Will Smith play chicken with an alien spaceship, you are familiar with the natural wonders of Page, Arizona. Lake Powell, Antelope Canyon, and Horseshoe Bend are the most stunning sandstone collection in America. Page is fairly easy to visit from Las Vegas, Flagstaff, the main Utah parks, and it’s near the borders of Colorado and New Mexico. It’s a simple detour from a host of Southwestern adventures, but it’s worthy of its own special trip, no nostalgia necessary.
Long before Will Smith was smacking comedians, he was wailing on aliens and chasing them through Horseshoe Bend. Despite having been to the Grand Canyon twice before, this particular stretch had eluded me. I made sure to make a special field trip out to the bend en route to Flagstaff. You should definitely plan to visit on the same day that you do Antelope Canyon, they are only 7 miles apart, and it won’t take you long to do the 1.5 mile round trip hike out to this particularly picturesque portion of Glen Canyon.
The hike is easy, nice and flat, well populated, you can’t possibly get lost. It was fairly crowded on a Monday afternoon, and the spring break families were out in full force. There aren’t any guardrails and it is a LONG way down. The amount of people I saw without close eyes on their kids terrified me far more than my own brushes with the edge. A couple fellow tourists helped me snag a couple of photos, but I was pretty content to sit on a rock farther from the edge and watch people tempt fate. Luckily my lack of navigational or outdoorsy skills didn’t impede my ability to enjoy this natural wonder, and literally anyone can take advantage of this stunning beauty.
I think everyone put Antelope Canyon on their bucket list after this Britney Spears video came out ( gulp, twenty years ago.) It’s not just for sensual cinematic effect, you can’t help but run your hands on the smooth sandstone and marvel at the majesty of these insane slot canyons. Antelope Canyon is split into Upper and Lower Canyon in the Navajo Nation. You’ll have to pay to take a tour to see them, and I highly recommend booking a combination tour to see both. The famous shaft of light photos come from Upper Canyon, and my research claimed it to be the better of the two natural wonders.
You can’t tour Antelope Canyon without a guide since a couple of people died in flash floods in the canyon. There are only two tour companies that offer tours of Lower Antelope Canyon, and there are a half dozen that can lead you through the more famous Upper Canyon. Since I was coming on relatively short notice, during spring break, and everyone is reduced to 50% capacity due to COVID, there was literally only 1 tour available during my 3 week stay in Flagstaff. Don’t get me wrong, I throughly enjoyed my tours, guides, and our group, but you can visit for about half of what I paid if you can book with enough notice and book directly through each canyon’s guide sites.
The Navajo Nation was hit REALLY hard by COVID. Most families live in multi-generational homes, there is not a lot of infrastructure, and most live pretty far from supplies and medical support. They are VERY strict about maintaining masking because they really can’t afford for the canyons to be shut down again. They will walk you right out if they see you removing your mask, so if you can’t make it an hour in a mask, don’t come. If you really want maskless photos, you’ll need to wait until those restrictions are lifted or heaven forbid this madness ends.
The drive to Page from Four Corners was pretty broad and barren, but it was absolutely spectacular driving up through Marble Canyon coming from Flagstaff. I know Tatooine was filmed in Tunisia, but I stopped at a little convenience store near the canyons and the surrounding landscape could have doubled for a Star Wars set.
We visited lower canyon first, and it’s a quick walk from the gift shop to the series of stairs leading you into the belly of the canyon. It’s not a hard hike, there are some fairly steep and a couple really narrow staircases, but otherwise it is a meandering hour walk of wonder through the V shaped canyon. The color changes, interesting formations, the contrast between the stone and sky will have your eyes volleying around like a tennis match. The guides are all fantastic. They show you the best phone photo settings to capture the shimmer in the rock and the spectacular colors. They point out the perfect photo spots, and quickly take photos for the group in the most photogenic locations. Since the tours are limited to 7 guests, it’s an intimate experience and you’ll make friends with the rest of your tour group.
In addition to pointing out the famous formations, where famous (and obscenely expensive and iconic) photos have been taken, the guides teach you about the history of the land, the caverns, and share about their culture. It was an eye opening experience and I enjoyed the conversation just as much as the scenery.
I had read about “prime times” in Upper canyon to see the shafts of light. They are more expensive tours and I had to assume they were around lunchtime when light would be directly overhead, but I never could find details online about when exactly that was. I figured with a 10A start to a half day tour, I’d have a chance at catching them, but apparently we missed them by an hour. Hours vary depending on the time of year, but you want to be shooting for sometime between 11-1 to tour the Upper Canyon, call and confirm before you book your tour if that’s a deal breaker for you. Lower Canyon has to be drained, cleaned, and fresh sand dumped in after heavy rain so that visitors can safely traverse the narrow crevice. Upper Canyon is A shaped, so it’s a nice flat, easy, naturally sandy walk. You’ll take a decent ride through the desert in a truck with massive tires and a healthy amount of rattle and roll before you are delivered to the main entrance. Your hour will pass by in a blink, and honestly, it doesn’t matter which canyon you’re in, it’ll be over WAY too soon.
A neighbor helped me out with the pup, but I was in a rush back to Flagstaff after my half day adventure and it’s a 6 hour round trip drive. I made a quick stop to wet my whistle at the Grand Canyon Brewery/Distillery which came really highly recommended. I loved every beer I tried, and the whiskeys were pretty interesting. The salad wasn’t even close to worth the money, and I wasn’t overly impressed with any of the other food I saw come out. The taproom (and merch) were REALLY cool and the beertenders all had me in stitches at the bar. I definitely recommend a quick field trip after your outdoorsy excursions.
The Glen Canyon Dam overlook was my last stop on my way home, and I was not prepared for how beautiful it would be. The view of the dam was as excellent as expected, but facing the other direction was JUST as incredible as Horseshoe Bend but with zero crowds. I was there with four other people, and we were all in awe of the surroundings. It’s not a hard hike, but it is pretty rustic and doesn’t have any rails, so maybe don’t over indulge at the brewery en route.
The drive home was even more beautiful since I was racing the sun. I could have easily spent a couple more days exploring Page. It’s SO close to the Utah parks, so I’m coming back when I knock those out. If you have the time, you definitely want to check out the Vermilion Cliffs. If you’re one of those lucky people that always win lotteries, you DEFINITELY want to be checking at least 4 months in advance to try to snag one of the 25 daily tickets to see The Wave. You can try day of in-person drawings, but that wasn’t in the cards for me being based in Flagstaff.
None of my explorations were physically taxing, you couldn’t really get lost, and I felt totally fine exploring on my own. I loved my tour group and even though it was far more expensive than I was expecting, it was still worth every penny. It’s two wildly enthusiastic thumbs up for Page from me. I know that spectacular sandstone will star in the highlight reel that flashes before my eyes when my time comes.
