Glen Canyon - Hanging Garden Viewpoint
If you’re looking for an off-the-beaten-path vacation with beautiful hikes, adventure, and minimal crowds, Page, AZ, has what you’ve been dreaming about. The reason Page remains a quiet town despite some incredible features is that it takes some driving to get there. Situated on the Northern edge of Arizona, Page is a 4-hour drive from Phoenix, 4.25 hours from Las Vegas, and 5.75 hours from Salt Lake City. However, on your drive to Page, there are some great National Parks to stop at along the way. The Grand Canyon South Rim and North Rim (note the North Rim is only open May – October each year), Zion, and Bryce National Parks as well as Monument Valley Tribal Park are all with 3 hours or less from Page.
The below itinerary would be a very packed day and could be better split into a two-day trip. Or, consider renting a house boat on Lake Powell and spend a whole week here. These are my favorite things to do in Page, AZ.
Horseshoe Bend
Horseshoe Bend
Horseshoe Bend is a short hike (0.7 miles one way) from a trailhead just outside of Page, AZ, to an iconic viewpoint of a bend in the Colorado River. Currently there is no fee for this hike, but due to the extreme popularity both trail upgrades and parking upgrades are underway, and the end result will include a fee. Although short, the majority of this trail is down a hill (easy to get there and a bit more challenging to get back), and there is no shade at any point on this desert adventure. Bring water and go at an appropriate time of day based on the temperature.
Horseshoe Bend
Speaking of time of day to visit, which time is best? We went in the morning, when the majority of the canyon was lit in sunlight, and when the crowds were thin. Pictures of the sun setting are phenomenal, but realistically, I’m only an amateur photographer. To deal with large crowds and end up with less than perfect shots, I didn’t think it would be worth it. Plus, I didn’t want my kids staring at the sun… This view is amazing any time of the day.
Antelope Canyon
Lower Antelope Canyon
Antelope Canyon is a tight slot canyon with incredible colors and rock shapes that play with your imagination, and it’s one of the most beautiful places I have found myself in. There are two options to view this slot canyon – the upper canyon and the lower canyon. Both require the purchase of tour tickets that are a little pricey, however the tour guides will also help set up your camera settings to get the best possible pictures, and that alone I thought made the price worth it.
Because Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon, when it rains, flash floods can occur within the canyon. On Aug 12, 1997, eleven hikers were killed in a flash flood within Antelope Canyon. As a result of this, to ensure future hiker safety, the only way to get into this canyon is on a guided tour.
Tickets for the Upper Antelope Canyon can be purchased at: https://www.antelopecanyon.com/. These tours are 90-100 minutes long and include a ride from the main building to the canyon entrance.
Tickets for the Lower Antelope Canyon can be purchased at: https://lowerantelope.com/. These tours are 45-60 minutes long and take off right from the main building. The tickets currently are a little cheaper for the lower canyon. This was the tour we picked.
Lower Antelope Canyon
The tours are not very big, and this is a popular activity in Page, so consider booking your tickets ahead of time.
Children are welcome on the hike with a ticket, but they have to be able to walk or be carried in a front or back carrier. This is a slot canyon – so there are some tighter spots to navigate through. My older son did this when he was 7 and loved hiking though the tight walls because he fit through them easily. The websites have more information if you are interested in these tours.
Lower Antelope Canyon
If you try to do all of these activities in the same day, I would suggest based on the canyon’s location, to do this one second (after Horseshoe Bend) in the morning.
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Lake Powell
Lake Powell
Lake Powell is a flooded canyon, created by the Glen Canyon dam. Its primary purpose is water regulation to the lower states (Arizona, Nevada, and California) and to ensure that the Colorado River water is not overused by the upper states (Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and New Mexico). The resulting lake is more than 161,000 acres with 1,900 miles of shoreline, and a max water depth of 583ft.
Lake Powell - Antelope Canyon
If you don’t have your own boat to bring to Lake Powell, you can either rent a boat or take a tour boat. Both options are provided by Lake Powell Resorts & Marinas: https://www.lakepowell.com/things-to-do/boat-tours/. You can make reservations through this site. When you are in Page, go to the Wahweap Marina. The Wahweap Marina is within the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which has a vehicle fee to get inside. If you have the Annual National Park Pass though, this fee is waived. Lake Powell Resort (hotel) is in the main parking lot. Go inside the main building of the resort and there is a desk where the boat tours take off from. We did the Canyon Adventure Tour, which was 2.5 hours long. My boys were 6 and 10 years old when we did this boat ride, and if I were to do this again, we would have booked the shorter 1.5-hour Antelope Canyon Tour. We all enjoyed being on the water surrounded by the impressive canyon walls, but 2.5 hours was a long time for the boys to sit.
Lake Powell
I would love to come back and rent one of the house boats for a few days. On my list of things for a future trip.
Glen Canyon Visitor Center
Glen Canyon Visitor Center - Junior Ranger Pledge
The Glen Canyon Visitor Center has a short video on how and why the Glen Canyon Dam was constructed. You can then walk from the visitor center over the bridge and look down onto the dam. Also, if you have kids, there are 2 Junior Ranger badge opportunities: Glen Canyon and Rainbow Bridge. Rainbow Bridge is accessible from Lake Powell, but the boat ride to get there is 7 hours long. The kids can at least learn about this National Monument even if they don’t get to see it. To get the Junior Ranger booklets to earn the badges, just stop at the desk inside the visitor center. Both books are easy to work through and didn’t take us much more than 30 minutes to complete.
Hanging Gardens
Hanging Gardens Hike
Hanging Gardens wasn’t originally in my plan for our day in Page, AZ, but I saw a reference to this hike while we were in the visitor center, and it was just a short distance away on our way back to the hotel. The boys had the wiggles after being on the boat for so long, so we stopped here before supper. This ended up being an amazing hike. The trailhead is marked in the above map.
Hanging Gardens Hike - Viewpoint
The trail to the hanging gardens is 1-mile round trip. The hanging gardens themselves are cool – the sandstone has holes inside of it and when it rains, water slowly moves through the sandstone and drips out of the wall. Fern-like plants grow upside down along this rock wall because of this water. This wasn’t my favorite part of the hike though. On our way back, we took the branch of the trail that says “viewpoint”. We walked up onto the top of one of the sandstone hills to a beautiful overlook of Lake Powell. The boys loved climbing up and down and running around the hills, and the view was impressive.
Glen Canyon “New Wave”
Glen Canyon - New Wave
If you make it over to Hanging Gardens, before you head back to the city, go left from the parking and keep going down the road until it ends near the dam. Park in the main lot. There are no trails here, but lots of hills to climb and explore. When we were here, it was the end of the day. The sun was just setting, and we were the only ones here. This was my boys’ favorite part of the day. And for me, this was a more pleasant place to enjoy the sunset away from the crowds of Horseshoe Bend.
Glen Canyon New Wave
For other nearby vacation ideas, check out my other posts:
A 3-day itinerary to Zion National Park - A guide to trails in and around Zion National Park with recommendations for travelling with children and other ideas if you are a more experienced hiker. Day 1: Kolob Canyon, Timber Creek Overlook, Kanarra Falls, and Pa’rus Trail. Day 2: Angels Landing or Upper and Lower Emerald Pools from the Kayenta Trail, Hidden Canyon, and Riverside Walk. Day 3: Canyon Overlook Trail, Pink Coral Sand Dunes State Park, and Moqui Caverns.