This day turned out to be the most exciting part of our whole trip. We got to see so many amazing places, try new things, and travel a long way while feeling really happy. Haha, that’s a good summary of what happened on this day. But let’s start from the beginning of the day.
The hotel we stayed in was really nice, and we loved their breakfast. The gym was good too. I did some exercise in the morning and felt great about the day ahead. We had booked a tour for Antelope Canyon a few weeks ago, and it was scheduled for around 12:30 PM. Since we woke up early, we decided to go to an overlook for the Glen Canyon Dam. Since Page is a small town and the Dam is close by, it only took us a few minutes to get to the overlook. We had to walk a bit from the parking lot to the viewing area. The walk was enjoyable, walking on red sandstones, and with so many visitors, we often had to walk on rocks and sand. The view of the dam was awesome. We also visited the visitor center of the dam and a marina on Lake Powell. It was an amazing experience.
One of the best parts of the day was visiting Horseshoe Bend. It’s such a famous spot. I think most people have seen pictures of it online or somewhere else. But seeing it in person was even more amazing. Pictures really can’t capture the beauty and the view from the top of the mountain. After that, we went straight to the Antelope Canyon tour. This canyon is one of the most unique places I’ve ever been to. You really have to be there to understand how incredible nature is to create something like this (see photos). The tour was led by a tribe from the Navajo nation, one of the many Native American groups. The whole tour lasted about an hour, and our guide was really helpful, showing us how to take great photos from different angles inside the canyon.
After a quick and simple lunch, we hit the road again, heading to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The journey was filled with laughter and happiness. The landscape and the view from the road were unforgettable – so calm and grand at the same time. We saw many ridges, small canyons, and flat mountains on a vast plateau of land. Sometimes I thought I was driving on a grassy plain, but it turned out I was on the top of a canyon rim. Around 5 PM, we arrived at the entrance of Grand Canyon National Park. Since it was our first time at the Grand Canyon and I didn’t know we were actually driving into the park (I thought we were on a regular road to our hotel), the experience was even better. There were several stops along the way where we could park the car and walk to different viewpoints. When I stood by the edge of the Grand Canyon rim and looked down to the Colorado River, it was incredible. I’ll never forget the view that day. It was truly breathtaking. The drop from the top rim of the Grand Canyon to the bottom of the valley is about 5000 feet. There are some trails that go from the top rim all the way down to the riverbed. None of them are short – some are 6 to 7 miles long, and it takes several days to hike down to the river. After visiting 5 or 6 stops, we finally reached our hotel just outside the park. To our surprise, there was a nice Mexican restaurant near our hotel. We had some steak fajitas for dinner and ended the day feeling content.