Details on the roadtrip

I made this roadtrip over a weekend (Saturday to Sunday) and left Page out, because I have already been there twice. I flew from Los Angeles to Phoenix and found Phoenix to be the perfect airport destination, to start the trip from. Inland flights to Phoenix are quite cheap as I experienced!

If you have 3 days I would suggest you to combine Grand Canyon, Page and Sedona to one roadtrip.

If you have 4 days or more, I would add Kayenta (Monument Valley) to the roadtrip. Driving east after visiting Page would also be an option, but there are just so many things to see, you would maybe need a week and more to see everything in that area.

My adventure

• Click here to read everything about my trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona!
  

  Devil´s Bridge!

Schedule

Day 1:

• Start of this roadtrip is in Phoenix in the morning! I arrived at 9 am and started driving after picking up my rental car.
• First stop of the roadtrip is the Grand Canyon. You will enter through the South Entrance on the South Rim side of thee Grand Canyon. Enter the park and just drive your way through the park until you end at the East Entrance. I liked to drive all the way trough the park, because it became emptier the further you came to the east entrance. It seemed to me that most of the people were just driving into the park, stopped at a few vista points and made their way out again. But to really enjoy the Grand Canyon, you should really take the drive to the east entrance. On the last vista point before the exit you will be able to see the Colorado River winding itself through the Grand Canyon. This experience is really worth driving! If you take your time driving and stop at every vista point you will be fine with 4 hours. Enjoy! :-)If you want to have the “real” Grand Canyon experience, you have to hike to the Colorado River – the scenery is honestly changing with every meter you take down that canyon… If you want to read more about my adventure down to the river click here!
• Alternative for 1 more night: I really liked the Mather Campground located inside the Gradn Canyon Nationalpark – so if you feel like you need to soak the Grand Canyon experience at the Grand Canyon even more, try to get a reservation online in advance. You can walk in 10 minutes to the edge and the campground is really nice and cheap! How cool is that? I even got a visit from a female elk 🙂

Mather Campground

• Drive to Page after heading out of the east entrance of the Grand Canyon. You will need approximately 1.5 hours to drive to Page from the last vista point.
• If you like camping or are travelling with an RV, you could stay at the Wahweap Campground. I stayed here two times so far and would always come back. You have a nice view over the Lake Powell from here – but no access to acutally swim in the Lake. If you are into walk in campgrounds, you could also try out the Campground at Lone Rock – but I was always too afraid of not getting any space, because I always travelled to Page in the high season. But the camping spots there looked really nice, and you can hop into the water there!

Day 2:

• Today you will discover Page! There is a lot to see, so get up early..
• If you are a morning person don´t miss out on a beautiful sunrise!
  • I enjoyed watching the sunrise over the Lake Powell, when I visited Page the last time. It´s not easy to walk down to the Lake from the Campground, but it is a beautiful sunrise.
  • I always wanted to check out the sunrise at Horseshoe Bend – I will do this next time for sure!
• Eat some breakfast and pack your things to start the day.
• Afterwards I suggest to make your way to the Antelope Canyon. There are so many different opinions on which of the Canyons to visit – lower or upper Antelope Canyon? I wrote something about my decision for the Lower Antelope Canyon here! You might have to wait a while to get on a tour – I took Ken´s Tour one time and the other time Dixie Elli´s – I loved both of them! But it just depends on the guide you get I guess 🙂 The guide from Dixie Elli´s showed all of us the perfect camera settings – it didn´t matter to him what kind of camera you were using, DSRL, iphone, Samsung. He was able to show them all 😉 Your time down in the Antelope Canyon will be between 30 minutes and an hour.

• Some tips for the Antelope Canyon:
  • Don´t wear sandals!!!! The sand outside of the Canyon is SO hot in the summer time – you will honestly burn your feet…
  • Stay at the end of your group – that way nobody will be in your pictures! It is just so much more beautiful, when nobody is walking into your picture.
  • Take water with you! It is cooler in the canyon – but this temperature difference is driving a lot people crazy. I went two times to the Antelope Canyon und both times one person suffered of dehydration… So take your water & drink it 🙂
  • Take a hat! Yes! You might be in the Canyon after you enter the slot and there is shade. BUT. You might have to wait infront of the slot for a little while. The last time I went wen had to wait 30 minutes in line to get into the Canyon. There is no shade at all and you will just be standing there in the hot, hot, hot sun! So you are going to love your hat…
• Depending on how hot it is you could head to the Horseshoe Bend directly or take a drive to the Lone Rock to jump into the water…
• So…Horseshoe Bend. It is a approximately 1.25 walk roundtrip. There is no shade! Take plenty of water and a hat! What´s more to say? Nothing. Just enjoy! It is a really cool place… What the nature can build is just incredible! A picture will say more than a thousand words:

Horseshoe Bend

• If you are still up for a little adventure you should check out Waterholes Canyon- you can read everything about this “secret spot” here. This Canyon is on navajo country, so you need to obtain a permit before going there! You can get the permit at the Upper Antelope Canyon entrance 😉 They will get you the details on directions to the Canyon. What I really liked about Waterholes Canyon is, that it is far away from being touristy- when I went there I only met one couple along the way. You could easily walk around there for a few hours – it is a beautiful area 🙂

Waterholes Canyon

• After you are done with the things to see in Page, you should continue your roadtrip and drive to Sedona. It is a 2:50 drive – so you will arrive in the evening. There are many hotels or airbnb places around but I have a tip for you:
  • It is allowed to camp primitive style at some areas around Sedona…FOR FREE. You just have to follow the 89A South out of Sedona after passing the city. Circa 5 miles after you left the city there will be a brown sign saying “Oak Creek Trailhead” – head into the “Dirt road” (totally managable without 4 wheel!!) – you will already see some RV´s and tents…The places are marked with a little sign, so you know you can pop up your tent there… Just choose one and enjoy the beautiful sky 🙂

My tent under the stars!

Day 3:

• I started the last day of the roadtrip really early, because my flight left on the same day in the evening. If you have some more time, you could easily sleep a little longer 😉
• I suggest you to do the Devil´s Bridge Trail in the early morning. It is a really nice hike of approximately 4 miles roundtrip. You will need around 3 hours to enjoy the scenery and not be in a rush. You can read everything about the Devil´ Bridge Trail here.
• Afterwards you could head to the West Fork Trail It is 6 miles roundtrip and very diverse! There are some places were you could hop into the water and refresh yourself on a hot day…I wasn´t able to make this trail to the end, because I still wanted to see Slide Rock State Park. But if you are into nature I think it would be the better option to finish the trail and miss out on Slide Rock State Park.
• Slide Rock State Park is kind of cool. BUT it is crowded… Like…Really crowded! The parking lot tends to fill up really quickly, so you should be allerted to walk a while along the street to get to the State Park. Other than that: it is soooo much fun – the water is really transferring you through the red rocks – it is quite quick and I had the best time: felt like a little kid 🙂
  • I didn´t bring water sandals and was totally fine. I didn´t find the rocks super slippery… But sure – if you have some why not take them?
  • I read some reviews online saying that the rocks are sharp and destroyed the bathing clothes – I didn´t experience that – just had a big, big bruise on my butt 😉 So be prepared for this to happen – but hey this is nature! If you would just want to slide a bit you could  go to a waterpark…
• At this time it was 3 pm. If you have some time left I recommend the Bell Rock Trail! It is on the way out of Sedona – so no detour 🙂 The trail is absolutely easy if it didn´t rain 😉  If it´s raining the trail might be floated with water – either you hop into the water or you might have to turn around. When I visited this place another time there was a waterfall running down, where a trail used to be…

Rainy Bell Rock Trail 😉

• After this trail your time should be up and you will have to head down to Phoenix to mark the end of your roadtrip;-)