Page: Antelope Canyon, Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell

Page is a small Arizona town with little charm of its own, but it is surrounded by sights we have all seen in photos: the orange walls of Antelope Canyon, the bend of Horseshoe Bend and Lake Powell. Everything is a few minutes’ drive away. One full day lets you see the essentials, provided you booked Antelope Canyon before leaving home.

History and origins

Page is a recent town. It was founded in 1957 to house the workers on Glen Canyon Dam, on the Colorado, and is named after John C. Page, a former head of the federal agency that built the dam. Completed in 1963, the dam created Lake Powell upstream, which drowned a large part of Glen Canyon. The decision remains contested: some environmentalists are still calling today for the dam to be removed.

Antelope Canyon lies on Navajo Nation land. It is a slot canyon, carved over millions of years by flash floods: during summer storms, water rushes into the sandstone and polishes the walls into waves. The place is sacred to the Navajo. They call the upper part Tsé bighánílíní, “the place where water runs through rocks”.

What to do there

• Lower Antelope Canyon 📷The sculpted walls of Lower Antelope Canyon: the lower part of the canyon, narrow and V-shaped. You go down metal staircases 📷The stairs leading down into Lower Antelope Canyon and walk between orange walls sculpted into swirls. It’s the cheapest option, with the most time slots.
• Upper Antelope Canyon: the upper part, at ground level, wider at the bottom than at the top. This is where you see the famous light beams falling from the ceiling, in summer around midday. It is also the busiest and the most expensive.
• Horseshoe Bend 📷The cliffs of Horseshoe Bend: a horseshoe-shaped bend in the Colorado, seen from a 300-metre cliff. You reach it on a wide, easy 1.2 km path, in full sun.
• The New Wave 📷The striped rocks of the New Wave, near Page: near the dam, the short Beehive Trail leads to striped, wave-shaped rocks. It’s free, and there’s hardly anyone there.
• Glen Canyon Dam: you can see it from the bridge and from the Carl Hayden Visitor Center, right next to it.
• Lake Powell 📷The Lone Rock monolith, on Lake Powell: swimming at Lone Rock Beach at the foot of an enormous rock, boat hire, or a cruise to Rainbow Bridge, one of the largest natural arches in the world.

Stories and good to know

• The light beams in Upper Antelope Canyon can only be seen in summer, around midday, in sunny weather. Bear that in mind when choosing your time.
• Seen from above, the slot of Lower Antelope Canyon is so narrow that you hardly notice it 📷The exit from Lower Antelope Canyon, almost invisible from the ground.
• The floods that carved the canyon are still dangerous. In 1997, eleven visitors lost their lives there in a flash flood. Since then, visits have been tightly supervised and are cancelled at the slightest risk of a storm.
• The Wave, the famous wave-shaped rock on the Utah border, only admits 64 people a day, drawn by lottery. We have tried the lottery several times, without success.
• Lake Powell is emptying. At the end of August 2026 it reached its lowest level ever recorded, at 22% of capacity. As it drops, parts of the canyon drowned for sixty years are coming back into view.

Practical information for your road trip

• Antelope Canyon: the price depends on the time slot. Bring a cash tip for the guide. Bags, backpacks included, are banned in Lower Antelope Canyon: you take only a bottle of water and your phone or camera.
• Horseshoe Bend: the site is run by the city of Page, so the national parks pass is not accepted.
• Lake Powell: entry to Glen Canyon National Recreation Area costs $30 per vehicle, and it is covered by the national parks pass. With the lake at its current level, check before counting on a swim: the water has receded a long way.
• Getting there: Page is about 2 hours 30 from the Grand Canyon (South Rim), 2 hours 15 from Monument Valley, 2 hours 45 from Bryce Canyon and 4 hours 30 from Las Vegas.
• Time: Page stays on standard time all year round, whereas neighbouring Utah and the Navajo Nation move an hour ahead from March to November.
• What to bring: good shoes for the stairs in Lower Antelope Canyon, and water for Horseshoe Bend.
• Where to stay: in Page, where there is no shortage of chain hotels. Two nights let you do everything without rushing.

Our experience in Page

We spent two nights there in May 2024, during our road trip 1, between the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley:

⏳ Our day-by-day journals are coming soon.