Page, Arizona

March 2015
A couple of years ago I had seen a photo in a book of a place called Horseshoe Bend in Arizona.  I put it in the back of my mind thinking I'd never get there.  During this trip I mentioned it to Stu and before I knew it we were heading to Page, Arizona (which is right near the Utah border) and he had arranged (through house exchange) accommodation.  It was sad to leave our fantastic accommodation in Sedona, but we were ready for the next adventure.It was a very quiet road (a really slow speed limit) and we arrived in Page mid afternoon.

The owners of the house were driving from their home in San Diego, California so once we had found the house we went and did a bit of exploring around Page.  First stop was Glen Canyon Dam.  I had heard of it, wanted to see it, but didn't think I would...because I didn't know where it was!  Duh!  What an amazing architectural masterpiece!

We'd only been in Page for an hour and at this stage I was thinking we should be staying here for longer than 2 nights, but unfortunately we were on a schedule to get the car back to Denver by April 1. While we still had light we decided to try and find Horseshoe Bend which turned out to be about 5kms from Page.  There was a small sand hill to climb up and then down and suddenly you were amongst spectacular scenery.

There was no safety rail, and you could get as close to to the edge as you were brave enough to.  And there was Horseshoe Bend. It was another of many WOW moments we've had in the US.

We stayed until the sun went down, then made our way back to the house where our hosts had just arrived.  There were two couples..the owners and their long time friends. The house was overlooking Lake Powell

and we had our own bedroom and bathroom that was separated from the main house by a courtyard.  It was just perfect.

That evening the 6 of us went out to a Mexican restaurant for dinner (and our guests refused to let us pay) and we got to know them all a little better. The decor was great, but unfortunately the photos weren't!

The next morning Stu and I got up before sunrise as we wanted to go back to Horseshoe Bend and watch the sun come up, enjoy the solitude and the peace.  Alas that was not to be as there were heaps of people, including a large group of college students who had slept there the night and proceeded to sing songs, shout and laugh loudly at each other and scare the bejesus out of me by standing too close to the edge!
We found a spot to have brekky (cereal in our plastic plates) with pretty nice views

then made our way back to the house where the hosts had offered to take us for a ride up Lake Powell in their jet boat.

We couldn't believe their generosity.  Lake Powell is longer than the entire west coast of the US and is stunning!

and dare I say, like the Grand Canyon, you can never have too many photos of Lake Powell!

 Lake Powell was another place I had heard about but didn't think I would ever get to and if I did it would be too expensive to take a boat ride up it.  Here we were, with people we had only met the night before, who had put us up in their home, taken us out for dinner and then taken us upstream for 70 miles (2 hrs one way) to share with us a beautiful part of the world.
Fortunately our skipper knew the lake very well as we went around bends and through gorges

and we ended up at a marina.

There was a mile walk to see Rainbow Bridge National Monument and the guys suggested we do the walk while they wait in the boat as they'd seen it plenty of times before.

To do this with a tour guide would have cost us a couple of $100 each and we would have been with a large group of people.  Today, we had the place to ourselves...and we were back in Utah.

We later found out it is one of the 7 Natural Wonders of the World and we could see why.

And another Grand Canyon, sequoia cactus, Lake Powell moment...lots of photos of the same thing!

We were so privileged to have seen this, on our own.  We walked back to the boat where the guys were waiting for us and had prepared lunch  (could this day get any better!!) and we started the trip back to the boat ramp, surrounded by amazing scenery.

passing a group of paddlers on our way....

and stopping to get fuel (gas) at a marina, which was expensive and we offered to pay and were told that "no, you are our guests".

We arrived at the boat ramp and the guys took us around the marina to show us some of the multi million dollar houseboats!

before they radioed in to the people who ran the marina who drove their car and trailer down and picked up the boat. Valet parking!

It was such an amazing day and we loved every minute of it.

That evening we offered to take everyone out for dinner...we wanted to do something to thank them for their unbelievable hospitality, but they refused and instead prepared a delicious BBQ and fabulous margaritas at their house, watching the sun go down.  This part of Arizona is spectacular and I only wish we had longer there but we had to leave early the next morning to drive to Grand Junction in Colorado to stay with our friend Linda, before we made our way back to Denver to drop the hire car off.