Trip Motivation
In September 2019, we looked into taking a quick vacation somewhere fun. We still had Southwest companion passes and had recently seen a friend post pictures from Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona. Using other people’s vacations to brainstorm ideas is one of our favorite ways to decide where to go on vacation. Read more about our flights to Phoenix and our stay in Sedona, AZ.
Page, AZ Hotel
In Page, we stayed at the Hyatt Place Page Lake Powell. From Phoenix, we drove about 5 hours to this hotel where we stayed 2 nights It was too cold for pool time and most of our time in Page wasn’t spent at the hotel but we enjoyed our stay. Hyatt Place is one of our favorite brands because of the included hot breakfast and roomy suite space with pull-out couch that makes sleeping with kids easier. The hotel cost 12k points/night. You can earn Hyatt points from Hyatt stays, the Hyatt credit card and Chase points which can be transferred to Hyatt. Learn more about points here.
Horseshoe Bend
Our very first stop in Page was Horseshoe bend. There was a bunch of confusion over time zones so we thought we were getting there for sunset but were wrong…. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ From March to November, Page is on the same time-zone as the rest of Arizona but different from Monument Valley and other Navajo nation areas (which we didn’t visit on this trip.)
It was a quick 30 minute hike to the outlook. It felt super weird to walking on sand not on a beach. The hiking carrier we got for Ellie has been great. People were taking cliff selfies but we didn’t get anywhere closer than 10 feet to the edge. There were well-traveled paths that were not paved so keep a hand and eye on younger kids. Carter definitely had to pay attention so he wouldn’t trip on rocks. Note that there were not real bathrooms (Carter thought it was cool to pee in a fancy hole) here.
Antelope Canyon-Lower
Antelope Canyon was gorgeous and the motivation for our trip. There are several options for different tours. We chose the lower canyon tour. The cost was $50/adult and $30/child. Ellie was on Ben’s shoulders and the hike was fine skill-wise for Carter. We walked down stairs into a tight canyon where water has made the walls swirly and smooth. The guides knew they were there for people to get their Instagram shots in and helped with settings and pointing out famous slideshow backgrounds and magazine covers.
The hike was about an hour in the canyon and the whole adventure took about 2 (waiting, a short hopi dance shore, walking there and back) There are other tours offered for more serious photographers and there’s also an upper canyon tour that’s supposed to have more light beams but we were pretty satisfied with the amount of awesome sights we saw.
Other Activities
Ben also thinks vacations are a good time to have free time for running. He enjoyed a 3 mile neighborhood run and a 10 mile rim view trail run. He usually uses strava in a new area to see where other people run nearby.
On our way out of town, we stopped for a short visit at the Glen Canyon Dam info center. I thought it was pretty interesting but our kids were not very interested so we didn’t pay for the tour.
Food and Drinks
In addition to hotel breakfasts, we ate delicious meals at nearby local restaurants including pizza, Thai food, and fried chicken.
Final Thoughts
We spent just a few days in the area but really enjoyed the beautiful sights. This area is also close to Utah and many of the national parks in that state such as Bryce Canyon and Mount Zion. This would make a great stop on a longer southwest road trip . If you’re anywhere near the area, I would highly recommend coming to Page, AZ see the “swirly rocks”.
