Thursday, October 20

 Thursday was our last day at the Grand Canyon. We had scheduled a sunrise tour for that morning and met our tour bus about forty-five minutes before sunrise. As it turned out, we could have saved ourselves the cost of the tour. The shuttles could have taken us to the same place and we would have missed only the driver's narration. 

In any case, we drove to Hopi Point to watch our last sunrise at the Canyon.

When we got back to the lodge, we packed our gear, loaded the car and began the drive east again along SR 64. Our next stop would be Page, AZ, a three hour drive north with a few stops along the way.

Susie took this of me on one of our stops en route.

We stopped at a side attraction offering a view of the Little Colorado River. The site had the requisite Navajo pottery and jewelry for sale, and a sign warned us to stay on the trail and look out for rattlesnakes and scorpions. We did and were treated to this view of the Little Colorado.

The landscape along the trail.

It's hard to capture this in a photo. The canyon walls are scary steep and solid rock.

Susie enjoying the view.

SR 64 connects with Hwy 89 which would take us up to Page. It's a gorgeous drive with amazing rock formations, desert and tantalizing invitations to go off trail. Since we were on a schedule we had to bypass several of these opportunities, but we still enjoyed the ride.

The Vermillion Cliffs

We arrived at Page and enjoyed a prime rib dinner in a local family restaurant. Page is a relatively small town of just over seven-thousand residents, but it sits in the heart of many of Arizona's scenic hot-spots. Lake Powell is there. Horseshoe Bend is just SW of town. Monument Valley, Glen Canyon National Recreational Area, and Bryce Canyon National Park are all within easy driving distance. But we only had one more day and that would take us to the Upper Antelope Canyon, a slot canyon famous for it's fantastic shapes.