Antelope Point RV Park, Page AZ

Antelope Point RV Park, Page AZ

Before heading to Page AZ, we made a quick pitstop at a BLM (Bureau of Land Management) site about a mile down the road from where we stayed in Virgin UT.  We have researched a lot about staying on BLM land which is an inexpensive way to camp and is free in most cases. It’s super remote and is completely off the grid camping.  The biggest challenge we face is not having an internal grey/black tank.  Ours is external and is 36 gallons. Completely full, it would weigh 288lbs!  Way to heavy to lift into the camper to transport to a dump station. We can hitch it up to the truck but that will only work for short distances. Looking back, we probably should have gone with a smaller tank like 11 or 15 gallon as it would be much easier for us to transport. Once we find a way to offload our 36 gallon tank and pick up a smaller one we will certainly add some BLM stops to this trip.  Here are a couple of pics we snapped at one of the sites that was unoccupied.

After the BLM pitstop, we made our way to Page Arizona. It’s not a complete trip to Arizona until you visit Navajo Nation and Page Arizona is another one of those out of this world bucket list places to see.  It’s dry and barren and after gazing at the landscape for a while, your imagination runs wild picturing what it may have looked like millions of years ago. Perhaps we are standing in the middle of a gigantic sea bed where this area teamed with prehistoric life or maybe this section of earth has always been a vast wasteland that has slowly eroded over time from heavy winds and rain that shaped the area leaving behind incredible rock formations that give us pause.  Either way it was fascinating to see up close and personal.

We only spent 2 nights here with the main goal of visiting Antelope Canyon and Horseshoe Bend. It’s definitely worth a repeat visit to see more of the slot canyons, Lake Powell and a few other points of interest, but for this visit we only had one full day which limited us to a couple of stops.

We stayed at a new RV park right next to the Lake Powell marina. Antelope Point RV Park is so new that it doesn’t even show up on the satellite view of Google maps yet.  The RV park is really nice though.  Each site has a concrete pad, artificial turf, beautiful views and small trees that will provide some nice shade in a few years.  The downside to this site is that there is no dog run and it lacks bathroom facilities so the only options are to use your own or make a short walk over to the bathrooms at the marina (bathroom only, no showers).  It’s a perfect spot if you are planning to visit the lake, it’s close to town (Page, AZ) and it is close to all of the sight seeing companies that are run by Navajo Nation.

The first excursion on our agenda was to visit Horseshoe Bend for the proverbial Instagram sunset photo. This view has become so popular (most likely due to Instagram) that it now costs $2 to park in a newly constructed parking lot complete with bathroom facilities. I guess if there is an opportunity to profit off of a tourist attraction, Arizona is going to find a way 😉.  Similar to the RV park, the parking lot at Horseshoe Bend and the pay station are so new that they also don’t show up on the satellite view of Google maps. On the map, it’s just a small dirt lot with a handful of cars and probably just a handful of people at the viewpoint. Fast forward to 2022, it’s a paved lot that can accommodate a couple hundred cars and the half mile hiking path is full of tourists making their way to the edge of the cliff to take their selfies and all for good reason – the view is remarkable!  Once we arrived at the viewpoint to take our selfies just like everyone else, it seemed like almost every inch of space along the rim was occupied like hundreds of ants lined up at a drop of sugar water drinking their fill. After navigating our way through the crowds, I finally settled upon an unoccupied slice of rock that seemed suitable for capturing Horseshoe Bend at sunset.

Satisfied with my captures, we headed back to camp.

Our second excursion was a tour of Antelope Canyon.  This area is becoming so popular that they are limiting the number of people in the canyon, they are no longer allow tripods and they push each group through in about an hours time and the only way to visit any of the slot canyons is through one of the Navajo Nation tour guides. There are only a handful of companies and you have to book several months in advance to get the best tours. I had connected with a tour company months before we left on this trip and didn’t realize until a few days before that they didn’t offer tours to Upper Antelope Canyon which is one of the top destinations for photographers.

There are other sections of the canyon that look amazing but Upper Canyon is the most popular as during certain times of day you can capture sun beams coming into the canyon.  Unfortunately, I had to scramble to get us a tour for upper canyon just a few days before our arrival and we ended getting the last two spots for a 9am tour which was about an hour before the sun beams would be entering the canyon. I just chalked it up as another life lesson learned and we made the most of what we were able to see.  Although we didn’t get to see the canyon at its most spectacular moment it was still pretty freaking amazing to see.

After our tour we decided to take a drive down to the Colorado river near Paria Beach which took about an hour.  We were hoping that we could launch our kayak and explore the river for a bit but learned that launching personal watercraft isn’t allowed there so we just chilled on the beach for a while before heading back to camp.  We did make a pitstop along the way for a daytime shot at Horseshoe Bend.

To round out our time in Page, AZ, we were treated with another spectacular sight – a total lunar eclipse!  The moon was partially eclipsed as it rose above the horizon and I was able to catch it over Olive a bit later once it reached totality.  Very cool sight to see!