During the summer, we took a road trip from California to Arizona to visit the famous Antelope Canyon & Horseshoe Bend. It was long drive for our 10-month old baby, so we split the trip up into 2 legs and stayed overnight in Las Vegas, a good midway point.
Watch our family travel video to Page, Arizona:
Where we stayed in Page
We stayed at the La Quinta Inn, a nice and modestly-priced hotel in Page. Being a touristy small town with its nature attractions, there are a lot of hotel options.
It was made more affordable by booking on Expedia, where we book all of our hotels. Each time we book through them, we build up credits that we can use towards future reservations. If you plan on going on a lot of family trips, it’s good to choose a program and stick with it to build up points that can be applied for credits, whether it’s Expedia or another travel agency.
Or, you can also find a home on AirBnB for a more unique experience.
What we did in Page, Arizona
Antelope Canyon
This is a narrow canyon that you can walk through. What’s unique are the high carved walls and the sunlight that peaks through. There are 2 parts of the canyon: the Upper and the Lower. Since they are on Navajo lands, both a require that you book a tour through one of a few native-owned companies in order to see it. We visited the Lower Antelope Canyon, and went through Dixie Ellis’ Lower Antelope Canyon Tours. Morning tours are much cooler, but it’s the noon tours where you see the rays of sunlight shining into the canyon.
Horseshoe Bend
This winding part of the Colorado River creates a beautiful scenic view. The parking lot can get pretty crowded, and then it’s about a mile hike from the main road with no shade, so plan accordingly. However, renovations are being done to expand and update visitor accommodations.
Glen Canyon Dam
It wasn’t shown in the video, but the Glen Canyon Dam is a nice bridge and scenic overlook of Lake Powell and the Colorado River.
We discovered many of these main attractions by looking on TripAdvisor. You can also find other top places to go and things to do in Page, along with creating and saving a shareable itinerary.
Map of places we visited in Page
This map shows the locations of where we went in Page from our travel video.
Travel lessons from our Arizona trip
You learn something new with every trip. Here are a few tips:
- Some places are good to visit only some times of the year. Arizona is a horrible place to visit in the summer, which we did and learned from. The heat was unbearable, and as beautiful as these places were, we just couldn’t spend much time admiring them because of the heat, especially for our baby.
- For road trips, consider breaking up the journey if it’s a long one, especially for younger kids. Make the stops into fun destinations rather than seeing them as just pit stops.
Travel gear that was helpful on our location trip
Here are some recommended items we took on the trip that helped make it easier, or was used for taking our photos and videos.
Canon EOS Rebel T4i – This is a nice entry-level DSLR camera that I used on the trip. It’s easy to use and takes solid pictures. There are newer versions of the rebel that offer more features, but you can get the older models for fairly inexpensive now.
GoPro Hero5 Session – This is what I used to film the majority of the video. It’s an incredible little action camera that’s waterproof and has mild stabilization. It’s a cube shape and doesn’t have a viewing screen like its newer models, but is perfectly convenient quick action recording in Full HD. Find it on Amazon or eBay.
Ergobaby 360 All-Position Baby Carrier – We used this carrier to take our baby on hikes. It’s incredibly flexible, allowing you to carry your baby on your back or front, and allow your baby to face out or in when carry in front. It’s also very comfortable with great back support.
