Arizona: Page-tastic
Longest blog disclaimer… this stop had the highest picture per minute of any stop yet!
Page, Arizona is a steep climb on North Highway 89 through the Pasture Canyon Lookout of the Vermillion Cliffs and then a gradual crawl across the plateau up past the Colorado River’s Horseshoe Bend just a few miles south of town. Page is at the base of Lake Powell and the Glenn Canyon National Recreation Area which starts at the Dam and offers some rather unique boating opportunities. We didn’t boat this time but did enjoy the cliffs along the water during our stay at Antelope Point Marina and RV Park. Highly recommend the RV park as a great location for the following hikes and iconic sites.
We start with our first stop at the closest gas station to our park, the Shell Gas Station and the Hidden Caves right behind the station. It’s a free access site and has a town amphitheater built into the west side but it’s a playground of rock and sand. The caves are shallow worn areas of the red sand stone, less deep caverns but fun to explore. The largest cave is a butterfly shaped double cave where the winds swirls and tosses sand and tumbleweed in a mini tornado when the wind is up. It happened to be windy, 20-30 gust so aside from a bit of sand blasting we dodged tumble weed and got some fun climbs and shadow danced in the late afternoon light. Even found a mud and branch hut on the dune where someone seemed to camp and get out of the wind. Still researching to figure what that was.
Glenn Canyon Rec Area at Antelope Point is worth a stop for boating or paddling but we highly recommend a rock scramble! The open access boat ramp is for non-motor launches and we saw kayak and paddle boarders but wanted to explore so over the rocks we went! While we didn’t get on the water this trip we did take advantage of the amazing rock cliffs where the boat ramp parking lot meets the river and had a great time scrambling on the layered rock down to the water. An amazing free space with quite a view of the cliffs along the water. Did I mention it’s free and you could climb for awhile! A fleet of house boats await spring/summer visitors in dry dock and may be worth exploring on a future trip.
Horseshoe Bend is a recognizable icon of the west and it’s the Colorado River that makes a distinctive horseshoe shaped curve through the rocks outside Page that offered us a great view and another fun hike. We extended the hike across the rocks for a few less common views of the bend too, a few pretty high up. It’s a City run park and about 1.2 mile walk out and back or a bit more if you climb the ridge. We also had our first snow… ok it was more sleet with a few flakes but snow for them on the way out of the park. It was cool seeing it come in over the mountain.
Upper Antelope Point is another highly photographed slot canyon in the southwest. It is located on Navajo land and requires reservation for a guided tour. We chose Navajo Tours for an authentic experience and they were also the lower priced tour company at $100 per person. They used an elevated 4x4 truck to drive us to the slot canyon, about 3 miles from the office just off the road. The ride was… fun and we bounced to the canyon for a roughly 1/4 mile walk through the slot canyon’s colorful walls. The exit you see a line of tour vans from another company and you get a sense of how many people come to see the slot canyon. The lighting and the rock make for a unique space for photography and our son Peyton, Michele and I all landed some great shots. one fun note about the canyon’s name… there are no antelope and never were. The name stuck from white settlers naming different deer wrong as they adventured west. At least we get to see some cool rocks!
Antelope Point Marina and RV was a pleasant surprise that offered a great view with some additional rock mounds to climb with the dog and the boys. It’s amazing on top of the mound with a sea of varied polished (by nature) rocks the boys and I enjoyed. Some volcanic, quartz, agate and others I’m still looking up. Fun spot for our final sunset after some grilling with Jayden.
