10 Days in Page, AZ

With snow still on the ground in most of the Utah parks, we decided to spend extra time in the Page, AZ area. We’ve done a lot of interesting activities while we’ve been here. As a result, this posting will likely be longer than most of our other posts. We spent the first 3 days at Wahweap Campground with full hookups for $52/night and then we moved to Lone Rock Beach Campground for dispersed camping with no hookups at $14/night.

Upper Antelope Canyon

Upper and Lower Antelope Canyon are gorgeous slot canyons located on Navajo land east of Page. The only way to get into the canyons is to book a tour with Navajo guides. You can pay extra for a photographers tour that is conducted by a couple of guides that will clear people out of the way for about 2 minutes at a time for you to get some shots. When we arrived on Friday, Dan checked for available photography tours and saw 3 available for Saturday but decided to wait and book something for Sunday. On Saturday morning, Dan tried to book a Sunday tour but they were all booked as were every day there after. The 3 slots for Saturday morning were still available so Dan quickly booked one but had to hustle in order to get to the tour on time. The tour cost was $154 but was worth it for the opportunity to photograph the canyon with no people in the shots. In order to be on this tour, everyone must have a good camera and a tripod so Amy stayed back at the campground while Dan went to cross Antelope Canyon off his bucket list.

What everyone strives to get at Antelope Canyon is a classic shot with sun beams coming into the canyon. The literature said that sunbeam shots were possible in the months of May – September but Dan was able to get a few shots with the sunbeams. In order to emphasize the sunbeam, the tour guides throw sand into the air to help the sunbeams show up more. In other shots, they throw sand onto the canyon walls to produce a sand water fall effect.

Horseshoe Bend

Another famous landmark that Dan has wanted to visit and photograph is Horseshoe Bend, just south of Page. This famous site has gotten more and more popular over the past few years, so the National Parks System is turning it into a fee site and building a new parking lot. The parking lot was not yet finished when we wanted to visit so we parked in a temporary lot a couple miles away and took a shuttle to the trailhead. The new parking lot has since opened. From the parking lot there is a short hike of about 0.8 miles to the place where the Colorado River makes its famous 180 degree turn. We visited the site during the midday hours with the sun high in the sky. This minimizes the shadows in the canyon but does not offer the nice warm lighting that morning or evening hours would provide. We’ll have to revisit at a different time of day next time we are in the area.

Toadstool Hoodoos

While on the Antelope Canyon tour, Dan asked the tour guide for ideas of what to see and photograph in the area. The tour guide suggested checking out Toadstool Hoodoos just north of Page off Highway 89. We took his advice and traveled to the trailhead on Sunday morning. The hike into the hoodoos was fun and relatively easy with occasional back tracking to relocate the poorly marked trail. The hoodoos were fascinating formations with light colored sandstone columns and dark colored rock formations sitting atop them, giving them their name.

On our way back to Wahweap Campground from the trailhead, we stopped in at Lone Rock Beach to check out the area and determine where we would park our rig for the remainder of our time in Page. The big decision to make is whether to stay safely up near the dump station or drive down to the beach where one might encounter soft sand and get stuck. We found what we think would be a relatively safe route and were fairly confident we could get down and back out without issue. While we were standing on the beach, we noticed a big 5th wheel headed out so we decided to watch and see how it went. Well, the poor guy got stuck giving us pause as to whether or not to come down to the beach location. We offered our help to the couple and they managed to back their rig back down the soft sand road they were on and prepared for another attempt. Since we had been scoping out the best paths to get out, we suggested they follow us up off the beach.. They were headed to Wahweap campground where we were currently staying and we shared a beer with them later that evening. When we moved to Lone Rock Beach Campground the next day, we decided to stay up top next to a couple we had met earlier and avoid the whole drama of getting back out.

South Rim of the Grand Canyon

Even though we visited the south rim of the Grand Canyon a couple years ago with our daughter, Kristina, we decided to drive the 2.5 hours for a second visit. The fact that 2019 is the centennial celebration for the park helped make the decision to take the long day trip. There was a magnificent picture of a stone tower hanging in the visitors center at Glen Canyon Dam that caught Dan’s eye and we both wondered where the picture was taken. It turns out that this was the Desert View Tower, the first view of the Grand Canyon just a mile past the guards station and more than 12 miles from the visitors center. We did not stop here with Kristina 2 years ago so we can now say we saw something different this time.

It was very windy at the canyon. We walked the rim trail from the visitors center parking lot to the village about 3 miles away. We ate lunch at the same place we did 2 years ago and retraced our steps back to the truck. It was a short visit but the surreal view of the Grand Canyon never gets old.

Lower Cathedral Wash Hike

Our next outing took us to a hike along Lower Cathedral Wash Trail located near Lee’s Ferry. This hike follows a wash that turns into a slot canyon as you descend to the edge of the Colorado River. The hike was not strenuous but would be classified as difficult due to the challenges of figuring out how to safely navigate the canyon walls. At one point we struggled to figure out how to get from where we were to where we needed to be, about 30 feet down. As we struggled to find a path another couple showed up and, like us, they could not figure it out either. As we were all about to give up, a young couple was coming up on their return hike. We watched as they ascended the canyon wall along a well chosen path, revealing the way we needed to go to get down. Once through this area, we encountered several more challenges, none as daunting as the first, and eventually made it to the river’s edge.

The return hike went much quicker than we expected and we were back at the truck in no time. Amy kept anticipating the need to navigate a particularly tough section that we encountered on the way down but it never seemed to appear. Maybe a slight change in our return path allowed us to bypass the area altogether. We both thoroughly enjoyed the adventure of this hike and would highly recommend it if you are into that sort of thing.

Biking the Rim View Trail in Page

After a day of resting from our hike to the Colorado River, it was time for another adventure. Our new friends, John and Tina, were planning to stop for an overnight next to us as they travel to Zion and would be arriving in the late afternoon. We had debated trying to bike the Rim View Trail, a 10 mile loop that circumnavigates the town of Page. We made the decision to give it a try early Saturday morning. Well, this turned out to be a bit more than we bargained for. Amy is still riding cautiously after her biking mishap last summer and this trail did nothing to help regain her confidence. The views along the trail were stunning but when the trail is barely wide enough for the bike’s tires and drops off steeply just a foot or so to your left, one gets a bit nervous. Let’s just say a significant portion of this ride was spent walking alongside the bike so a ride that would normally take less than an hour took close to three.

Leaving Page

Dan had volunteered to cook his Jambalaya recipe for John and Tina for their overnight stay so we needed to do some grocery shopping after our adventures on the bike. We got back to the RV just 30 minutes before John and Tina arrived. We had another wonderful evening with them and saw them off the next morning before settling in to watch the final round of the Masters. Watching The Masters tournament, particularly the final round, has become a tradition for us so we were excited to be able to do so while on the road. It was fun to see Tiger the tournament again.

From here we will travel a short distance further up 89 to the town of Kanab, UT. Dan will try to get a permit to hike into The Wave. These permits are done via lottery and only 10 are given each day. If we are unable to get one this time, we will try again next time we are in the area.