DAY 6 – Wednesday, 5/3/17 – Arizona to Colorado

We were on Desert View Drive again by about 5:00 am.  We stopped back at the Watch Tower – it was open this time. – we took a few photos before heading out of the park.

We thoroughly enjoyed our stay at Yavapai Lodge and highly recommend that if you’re planning to spend more than a day at the Grand Canyon that you look into lodging inside the park.

We were surprised by the continued beauty of the landscape outside of the park.  We stopped at a scenic view, hiked to the end, made friends with lizards, and bought a stone pendant from Native Americans who were selling their wares along the road by Little Colorado River.

Right before getting into Page, Arizona, we noticed cars turning into an unmarked road.  We drove by. We drove to church alley (seven churches in a row). We stopped at a Super 8 motel to pick up literature for things to see and do in Page.  We ate lunch at Sonic and then went to the Antelope Canyon Tour Company.  A family of six didn’t show up, so we were able to get on the 1:30 tour – SO LUCKY! It was a scary, but beautiful, drive in the back of a truck to the canyon.  Antelope Canyon was amazing, and our guide did a great job and helped us to take cool photos.

After the canyon tour, we stopped at the Lake Powell Dam.

Then we went back to the busy turn off we saw before entering Page, and hiked out to Horseshoe Bend. SO COOL!

We mapped out our drive to Manitou Springs, Colorado (where we have a hotel Thursday night) and found the Ute Mountain Reservation Casino and Hotel about 3 ½ hours down Highway 160.  We made a reservation and proceeded on the amazing drive.  Civilization is nearly non-existent, but the land is spectacular! 

We arrived at the Ute Reservation Casino and Hotel around 9:00 pm.  After checking in, we went directly to the dining room.  Luckily, it wasn’t the hole in the wall food counter that we saw first.  We ordered too much food for so late at night.  There was a delay with our order coming out, so they offered us soup and salad bar at no charge, and then gave us a discount on top of that.

We listened to the end of  “S-Town” Chapter 5 in the hotel room.