In this post, I will share the details of our day trip to Page, Arizona from the Grand Canyon to see Horseshoe Bend, Antelope Canyon, and Glen Canyon. Including our full day itinerary and the tips that we learned from our experience.

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As a part of our weekend trip to the Grand Canyon, we decided to take a day trip to Page, Arizona. It was only a 2-hour drive from the Grand Canyon and we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see some more of Arizona’s natural wonders.

We had briefly seen Horseshoe Bend before during our road trip to California, but we wanted to visit again to get a better look. But the main goal of the day trip: seeing Antelope Canyon. Neither of us had been before and the images of the wave-like rocks of the slot canyon have dominated travel blogs, magazine covers, and captivated our hearts. While we were in the area, we also hoped to discover a little bit of what Glen Canyon National Recreation Area had to offer.

Drive to Page, Arizona

From the Grand Canyon’s South Rim, driving east towards the Desert View Watchtower had given us a head start on our drive to Page, Arizona. The drive would take about 1 hour and 50 minutes rather than the 2 hours and 40 minutes it would have taken from our hotel, the Grand Canyon Inn in Valle.

The views were beautiful

The drive from the Grand Canyon to the town of Page in Northern Arizona had no shortage of views. Intermittently along the road, there were pull-offs to stop and admire the landscape and stands selling Navajo jewelry and goods.

In the distance across the desert plain, you could see the split in the earth that was the Grand Canyon. The crack spidered across the land like broken glass. From this angle is was so unassuming. I could totally understand how 100s of years ago a herd of buffalo might have accidentally fallen into its chasm-y abyss.

After the seam of the Grand Canyon had fallen out of view, the land began to transform. The beige and orange, craggy rocks became red and rounded. There were fewer plants and vegetation. It was like we were on the surface of Mars. This was the land that I remembered from our road trip across the US.

No cellphone service

During much of the drive to Page we didn’t have cellphone service, so keep this in mind and download maps ahead of time if you’re worried. The drive follows main highways and is well marked. Luckily, we had downloaded hours of music and two audio books (where my Harry Potter fans at?) in anticipation of all the driving that we would be doing on this weekend trip and for our drive to and from Page, Arizona.

Here and there service would come back for a moment, albeit very slow service. Over the course of the 2-hour drive, it was just enough for us to research were we wanted to go for lunch in Page.

Lunch in Page, Arizona

Page was smaller than I was expecting. As were many of the towns we had come across during our weekend trip. Which meant we were left with a handful of restaurants to choose from for lunch on our day trip to Page, Arizona. Luckily, a few looked pretty good, especially BirdHouse.

BirdHouse

BirdHouse is a fried-chicken focused casual eatery, reminiscent of Crack Shack from San Diego. It even has a giant rooster statue out front. And like Crack Shack, its chicken was absolutely delicious.

They made my chicken tenders fresh from the fryer – they were so fresh that they were too hot to eat when they were brought out! I got a honey butter flavoring that was oh so sweet and delicious, while Peter got a spicy seasoning that had a serious kick to it. Plus, BirdHouse carries local craft beers by the bottle. Winner winner chicken dinner.

Links:

Birdhouse Website
Birdhouse on Yelp

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area

Since our tour of Antelope Canyon was at a scheduled time, 5:30pm to be exact, we had a few hours to kill after lunch. Peter did some quick research while we ate lunch and all of the things to do around Page, Arizona were a part of Glen Canyon.

Glen Canyon National Recreation Area encompasses over 1.25 million acres across Utah and Arizona including sites such as Horseshoe Bend, Glen Canyon Dam, Lake Powell, Lone Rock, and so much more. One could easily spend weeks exploring the ins and outs of this magnificent land. But unfortunately, we only had a handful of hours to spare during our day trip to Page, Arizona. So we narrowed down our options to destinations that weren’t too far away and that didn’t require any long hiking to reach. We chose to visit Lone Rock, and along the way, Glen Canyon Dam.

Lone Rock

Getting to Lone Rock

We set off towards Glen Canyon’s Lone Rock. Lone Rock is 12.2 miles northwest from Page. The drive only took about 18 minutes. Lone Rock is technically just over the border from Arizona into Utah!

Tip: Again, consider downloading the Google Maps of the area before your trip if you’re not so good with directions or are unsure. Our cell phone service was pretty terrible for this entire day trip to Page and its surrounding areas! But there is plenty of signage leading to all of these different landmarks. The town of Page knows that’s why people are coming to visit its small community.

Admission

Admission to any of Glen Canyon Recreation Area is free with an America the Beautiful annual park pass (we got our money’s worth from it from our Grand Canyon weekend trip alone!). Otherwise, it costs $30 per vehicle to enter. Check out the Glen Canyon Fees & Passes page for more pricing and admission fee information.

Lone Rock Beach Campground

The Lone Rock is accessible from Lone Rock Beach Campground. The campground offers primitive camping on the sandy beach and dunes surrounding the water. During our visit, there were tons of tents and campers set up across the sandy dunes. There were people listening to music sitting around their campsites, others sat with their feet in the water with lawn chairs propped up along the shore. Everyone was enjoying their sunny, Memorial Day weekend.

Lone Rock

The impressive rock formation of Lone Rock is just that – a towering rock column sitting alone in the waters of Lake Powell. Quite the backdrop to the campground and worth the visit whether you’re camping or not!

The shore to view the rock is easily accessible. Once you’ve passed the campground entrance, park at the paved parking lot and walk to the beach! Note: The roads of the campground itself beyond the parking lot are sand so unless you have 4-wheel drive, maybe just park and walk the rest of the way as we did. While it certainly wasn’t a “hike”, the sun was HOT and the sand turned every two steps into one. It was a bit of a workout!

Once we reached the shoreline, we sat and enjoyed the view. We dipped our toes in the water and watched jet skis and boats cross the waves. I wish we had brought our bathing suits!

Glen Canyon Dam

On our way to the Lone Rock Campground, we had crossed the bridge that overlooks Glen Canyon Dam. Returning to Page, we stopped at the Carl Hayden Visitor Center at Glen Canyon Dam to get a better look. From the visitor center, you can walk across the bridge to look down upon the dam.

The Glen Canyon Dam is the “second highest concrete-arch dam in the United States”, second only to Hoover Dam. Along with storing the water of Lake Powell for times of drought, the dam also produces hydroelectric power. If you’re interested, tours of the dam are available from the visitor center.

Tour Upper Antelope Canyon

What you should know before your visit

While Antelope Canyon turned out to be one of our favorite things from the trip, it was a bit of a rollercoaster. There were a lot of things we didn’t know before planning our visit to Antelope Canyon. For one: Our original plan was just to drive there and hike it ourselves. Ha! So naive. Turns out that a hired guide is required in order to hike either Upper or Lower Antelope Canyons. We learned a lot from this experience. Luckily it all worked out and was totally worth it in the end.

Check out the dedicated blog post on what you should know before visiting Antelope Canyon! Including what we learned and tips to make the most of your visit. So that your trip can go smoother than ours.

Our experience

Antelope Canyon was breathtaking. Beforehand, we had been worried that having to go with a guided tour, stuck in a group of people, would detract from the visit. But our guide did a great job of ensuring everyone in our group got the pictures that they wanted and shared tons of interesting facts and history about Antelope Canyon.

Touring Antelope Canyon was my favorite activity from our day trip to Page, Arizona and possibly from our entire Grand Canyon weekend trip itinerary. Why? For me, I think the act of walking through the narrow slot canyon brought it to life. It was something that I could touch and feel and was indisputably real. I didn’t get to experience that same feeling at the Grand Canyon, and maybe I would have if we had hiked down into the canyon. Next time for sure! But I would definitely recommend visiting Antelope Canyon if you ever have the opportunity.

Watch the sunset at Horseshoe Bend

By the time our tour of Antelope Canyon had concluded the sky was starting to dim. The clouds were rolling in and the sun was just beginning to think about setting. We would have to hustle to get to Horseshoe Bend in time to watch the sunset as we had planned.

Getting to Horseshoe Bend

From the building of our Antelope Canyon tour group, Adventurous Antelope Canyon, it would be a 9.7 mile drive to Horseshoe Bend. This drive took about 16 minutes. The entire way, we watched nervously as the sky continued to grow darker. But we would just narrowly make it there in time for sunset at 7:30pm.

If you’re going to Horseshoe Bend directly from Page Arizona, it’s about a 5.5 mile drive that should take only around 12 minutes.

Admission

At the entrance to Horseshoe Bend, there is a booth you must stop at like at any national park. However, unlike many of the other locations that we visited, admission to Horseshoe Bend cannot be covered by the America the Beautiful pass. That is because Horseshoe Bend is controlled by the city of Page rather than as a national park or monument. But fear not. Admission is only $10 per vehicle and $5 for motorcycles. After you enter, you can park anywhere in the large, paved parking lot.

In the past, the Horseshoe Bend did not have an admission fee. This was put into effect in 2019 to help control increasing crowds due to the landmarks growing popularity.

Our experience

This wasn’t our first time visiting Horseshoe Bend. We had made a quick stop at Horseshoe Bend almost 2 years ago on our road trip moving to California. But it was a quick pitstop on a some 8-hour mile journey for that day of our road trip. So we know we had to stop back at this beautiful famous landmark.

As we pulled into the parking lot, the sky was growing cloudy and we knew we were short on time. Despite the fast-approaching dusk, the area was somewhat busy. We hustled our way along the short trail past tourists on their way back from the overlook of Horseshoe Bend. The wind whipped up at us from the canyon below. But it was all so worth it. We got our pictures (not too close to the edge!) and enjoyed the view for the last remaining moments of daylight.

By the time we made the short hike from the Horseshoe Bend overlook back to the parking lot, the sky had grown dark. It was time to make the long drive back to our hotel in Valle.

Drive back to our hotel

After driving a few minutes from the Horseshoe Bend parking lot into Page to fill up on gas and caffeine, we hit the road. It was about a 3-hour drive. We got back to the Grand Canyon Inn & Motel around 11pm and immediately went to bed, exhausted from the long day trip to Page full of adventure.

As quickly as it had begun, our day trip to Page, Arizona was over. This also marked the end of our weekend trip to the Grand Canyon. I wish we could have stayed in Page longer than a day and explored more of Glen Canyon.

Are you planning on taking a day trip to Page, Arizona?

Have you ever visited Page? Or one of its beautiful nearby landmarks, Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend, or any part of Glen Canyon? If you have a question about our day trip to Page, Arizona or any part of our experience, please leave it in the comments below.

I hope that this day trip itinerary to Page, Arizona was helpful in planning your own trip to the area. If you enjoyed the post, please share it with your travel buddy using the social share icons. Or pin it for later reference using one of the Pinterest images below.

Also, make sure to read the dedicated blog post on our experience at Antelope Canyon and what you should know before you visit. In the meantime, follow Adventures with Pinny on Instagram and Facebook so you don’t miss a thing. Thank you for stopping by our blog!