Thanksgiving in Page, Arizona

What comes in mind when people say Arizona? Sedona? Grand Canyon? Phoenix? Sure, but that is not it. Don’t forget to pay a visit to a small town in northern Arizona, Page. This place has so much amazing landscape and scenery that you surely do not want to miss. What drives us here? Of course, the Antelope Canyon, but there is so much more than just the Antelope Canyon.

Glen Canyon Dam

Glen Canyon Dam is the second highest concrete arch damn in US after the Hoover Dam. It is one of the most complex and extensive river resource development in the world.

Horseshoe Bend

This place has become a very popular tourist place. The parking is limited so most visitors park the cars along the road. It is an easy nice hike from the parking lot to the horseshoe bend.

The horseshoe bend may be best for pictures around noon time where the sunlight is on the top without any shadow. But, we rather skip the crowd and cope with a nicer temperature in the morning.

The New Wave

You need to have a permit to gain access to The Wave, and permit is by lottery. You can apply by clicking here. We knew our chance was slim and with small children, hiking a long distance back and forth wouldn't be wise for the time being. Surprisingly, we found a place similar and in a much smaller scale and they called it, 'The New Wave.' The rock formation is not as rich as ones in the Wave, but we'll take that. Absolutely stunning view and easily access via unpaved road with rock trail should you choose that route.

The New Wave is like a hidden gem, which was suggested by the personnel at the visitor center. Very closed to the Glen Canyon Visitor Center, going slightly north of 89, it will be on the left through an unpaved road.

There are some trails indicated by some small rocks placed along the side. We didn't realized that at the beginning and climbed from the side of the rock mountain which was super fun!

We made it! Hooray!

A hidden gem still holds true because there was practically no one there, so we pretty much had the whole place to ourselves. The view was beautiful and kids had fun climbing up and down. The wave in the bucket list, checked!

Antelope Canyon

For real, this is the place where a photographer made over $1 Million dollar? This gem belongs to the Navajo, so for you to gain access to this Canyon, you must be guided by a permitted tour guide or a Navajo. Our tour guide did a wonderful job telling some stories and also showed everyone what's the good camera setting for different phones.

The Upper Antelope Canyon tour is very famous, they usually sold out in weeks or months ahead. Make sure you make reservation early. When making the reservation, the preferable times is between 10:30-11:30am, when the light beam is at its maximum, so the canyon is bright inside. The picture above was taken around 2pm for you can tell it is already a little dark.

Daddy was somewhat disappointed about the whole experience of the Antelope Canyon. Sure, you will have many beautiful pictures of the Canyon to share in your social media. The whole tour experience was merely just a tour guide walk you through the canyon and tell you where to take those million dollar photo you see throughout the internet. It costs over $150 for family or four. The main issue was we were merely led from one spot to another for a brief moment for photos snapping and viewing. It took about 20 minutes between the pickup place and the canyon. The actual time spent in the canyon is less than 30 minutes. It just felt rush and we didn't really get to enjoy the view and experience.

The Beach, Wahweap

Not far from the New Wave housed Warweap RV & Campground National Park. We made it to the border of Arizona and Utah, Wahweap Beach. Beautiful view with clear water. There isn't much at the time we visited but we can see this is a very popular recreation destination during summer times.

This was taken from the Wahweap overlook and you could easily see the back side of the Glen Canyon Dam. The rock mountain across is so gorgeous.