On the 26th day of the trip, the plan was to head to Zion National Park. However there were a couple things going on within Zion that gave us some concern. First, there had been some flash flooding that had messed up the roads in the park the previous week. It sounded like this was causing some congestion and limited access to certain areas. Also, we had seen on the news that Zion was one of the busiest National Parks in the country. The mixture of the crowds and problems with the roads due to the flash flooding made us second-guess going there. This was the tail end of the trip and my kids were not going to wait in long lines to ride buses.
One of the places that we had also wanted to go to on the trip was Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona. Antelope Canyon is a beautiful slot canyon with amazing photo opportunities. Antelope Canyon is under the Navajo Nation control and Navajo leadership had the location closed due to COVID. Rumor had it that it would reopen while we were on the road, they just didn't have a date yet. Since the canyon is small, tours sell out early. So I spent the first half of the trip checking every day to see if it would open. It just so happened that the Navajo leadership opened Antelope Canyon for visitors again on the last day we were in Kanab. Score!!! So it was a no-brainer for us to swap out Zion National Park for Antelope Canyon.
We started the day in Kanab, Utah and drove down to Page, Arizona. The ride is a little over an hour. We were a little unsure what time to get there for our 12:30pm tour reservation. This part of the country is real tricky due to the different time zones and optional use of Daylight Savings Time. Something everyone needs to keep in mind when traveling here.
We arrived in Page about 2 hours before our reservation time at Antelope Canyon. So we went to Horseshoe Bend. This is where the Colorado River makes a U-turn before emptying into Lake Powell. The park that is here is run by the city of Page and it costs $10 per car to get in there. The view here is beautiful, so it is well worth it.
Warning, the walk to Horseshoe Bend is about 1.5 miles round trip, is paved and you cover less than 300 feet of height change round trip. However, it's a tough hike in a dry place with little shelter. It's hot too! We saw a lot of people who were not in good shape struggling to get out and back. Having at least a half gallon of water is necessary. It's no joke!
In order to get good pictures of the bend, you have to get pretty close to the edge. As you know I'm probably not the best when it comes to heights. So I got limited pictures there, but here are a few.
While we were there, we had an interesting incident happen where some tourist was trying to get a good picture, got too close to the edge, and slipped. He was not near a railing and was real close to the edge, so his stuff fell over and down into the canyon below. He was real close to falling over the edge himself. It was a very scary moment when you're there with little kids. I really made sure the girls didn't get near the edge. Norah was irritated cause there were a lot of rocks she wanted to climb, but it just wasn't safe.
After visiting Horseshoe Bend, we grabbed a quick lunch in Page at Subway and went to Dixie's Lower Antelope Canyon Tours. There we checked in, were assigned a tour guide, and headed down to the slot canyon.
The slot canyon is down under this. As you can see, there's not much of an opening to get down there. And it's like 70-90 feet below that we walked. You had to go on a bunch of ladders to get there which are scary for those who don't like heights.
There really isn't much to say about Antelope Canyon other than it looks unreal. I've uploaded a bunch of pictures below for you to take a look. It's just so beautiful and like other things on this trip, the photos do it no justice.
As you can see in the pictures, we did have to wear masks in Antelope Canyon and on the Navajo property. This was still a local mandate from Navajo leadership.
After Antelope Canyon we decided to drive back to Kanab, Utah. Norah was still bitter about not being able to climb on rocks earlier at Horseshoe Bend, so we stopped at the Toadstool Hoodoos so she could. She was hesitant to go as it was really hot and she was very tired, but I told her she could get out of the car explore there. If she decided she wanted to do the hike, we could go. She got out and loved it.
The wife and my oldest daughter really weren't into hiking out there either. However, they kind of had to as it was like 100F and they couldn't stay in the car. The hike out and back was like 3 miles and was amazing. The scenery at the Toadstool Hoodoos was absolutely beautiful. It's amazing to see these rocks perched up on top of other rocks, looking like toadstool mushrooms.
Norah made the best comment here at the Toadstools. As we are walking back together, she was telling me how much she loved this hike and how was the best hike she'd gone on in the whole trip. She then said something pretty remarkable. She said, "Sometimes the best hikes in life are the hikes you don't want to take." What an amazing observation from my little zen master.
After hiking the Toadstools, we went back to our hotel. Everybody was dirty and dusty from all the hiking we did that day. Unfortunately, the pool was not open when we got back to the hotel. They had to do some sort of emergency maintenance on it and that was very disappointing to everybody. So we showered up and decided to check out downtown Kanab.
We grab dinner at the Rocking V Cafe. The food here was great. I got a pork chop that tasted amazing.
The girls also had fun playing cards at dinner while waiting for their food.
Afterwards we walked down the street to a trailer that was selling ice cream and Manina and Norah got ice cream. Avery wanted a snow cone from a different trailer around the corner.
After that we went back to the hotel and went to sleep as it was a very long day with hiking that was over 6 miles in 100 F heat.
