Monument Valley: Mittens, Merrick Butte, and the Navajo Tribal Park
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park is roughly 120 miles east of Page -- about a two-hour drive via AZ-98 east, then US-160 east to Kayenta, then US-163 north to the park turnoff just above the Arizona-Utah line. (If a source tells you Monument Valley is southwest of Page or 90 minutes away, it is wrong on both counts.) The Mittens -- West Mitten Butte and East Mitten Butte -- are the formations most people recognize from road trips and film photography. Merrick Butte rises between them. This is Navajo Nation land, administered by Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation, a department the Navajo Nation Tribal Council established in 1957. It is a tribal park, not a national park: the National Park Service does not manage it, and an America the Beautiful interagency pass is not valid here.
Visitors can self-drive the 17-mile scenic loop road, an unpaved and often rough dirt route best attempted in a high-clearance vehicle -- low-clearance rental sedans take real damage on the sandy sections. Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation prohibits motorcycles and RVs on the loop drive outright; confirm the current vehicle rules at navajonationparks.org before you set out. The loop passes close to the main formations and offers multiple pullouts. Beyond the loop, most of the park is accessible only with an authorized Navajo guide. Guided Jeep tours run from operators at the park entrance and reach areas the self-drive road does not; Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation publishes the list of authorized Monument Valley tour operators, and that list is the one to book from.
Entry to the tribal park requires a fee -- verify the current rate at navajonationparks.org before your visit. Two logistics details matter more on this drive than on almost any other trip out of Page. First, the park enforces a last-entry cutoff well before closing -- mid-afternoon in winter, late afternoon in summer -- so a relaxed departure from Page can cost you the loop drive entirely. Check the current hours and cutoff before you leave. Second, the clocks: Arizona does not observe daylight saving time, but the Navajo Nation does, so from March into early November Monument Valley is one hour ahead of Page. Leave Page at 8:00 a.m., drive two hours, and it is 11:00 a.m. at the park gate. Build that lost hour into your plan or you will run the cutoff. The visitor center and View Hotel sit on the rim overlooking the valley. Sunrise and sunset at Monument Valley are exceptional; if you want either, plan overnight accommodation at the View Hotel or at one of the campgrounds and verify availability well ahead. A day trip from Page allows for comfortable viewing hours without an overnight but means missing dawn and dusk light.
Vermilion Cliffs and Lees Ferry
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument is roughly 45 minutes southwest of Page -- US-89 south to Bitter Springs, then US-89A west. The cliffs form a dramatic escarpment of red and orange sandstone running east-west, visible from the highway for long stretches. It is a 280,000-acre BLM national monument in Arizona, designated November 9, 2000 and administered by the BLM Arizona Strip Field Office. It is a separate monument from Grand Staircase-Escalante, which lies across the state line in Utah -- the two are often conflated and are not the same place. There is no entry fee for the monument itself, though several of its best-known slot canyon hikes do require a paid BLM permit (see below). Hiking access to the cliffs requires navigating unpaved BLM roads -- check road conditions and current trail information with the BLM before heading off pavement.
California Condor viewing at Vermilion Cliffs is genuine. The BLM has released captive-bred condors here annually since the first release on December 12, 1996, and the birds are frequently spotted riding thermals along the cliff faces, particularly in morning hours. Binoculars or a spotting scope help significantly, and there is no guarantee of a sighting. The BLM's Condor Viewing Site is not a pullout on the highway: it sits on House Rock Valley Road (BLM 1065), about 3 miles north of US-89A, and has interpretive panels, a view finder, picnic tables, a shade shelter, and a pit toilet. House Rock Valley Road is dirt -- BLM advises that two-wheel-drive high-clearance vehicles can usually manage it, but four-wheel-drive high-clearance may be required when it is wet. Do not attempt it in a low-clearance car after rain.
Lees Ferry is 42 miles from Page via US-89 south and US-89A west, then a 5-mile paved spur road that leaves the highway in Marble Canyon near the Navajo Bridge Interpretive Center. Note the geography: Lees Ferry sits roughly 5 miles upstream of Navajo Bridge, not below it. It lies inside Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, at the downstream river boundary where Glen Canyon adjoins Grand Canyon National Park, and it is the primary launch point for multi-day Colorado River rafting trips through the Grand Canyon. Day-use visitors come to fish the cold, clear tailwater released from Glen Canyon Dam; a valid Arizona fishing license is required, and Arizona Game and Fish publishes the current regulations and any special rules for the Lees Ferry reach. The nearby Navajo Bridge crossing is worth a stop in its own right: two parallel steel-arch spans -- the 1929 original, now a pedestrian bridge, and the 1995 highway bridge -- cross Marble Canyon roughly 470 feet above the Colorado.
The North Rim of the Grand Canyon
The North Rim is a long drive from Page -- realistically closer to three hours each way, not two and a half. The route is US-89 south to Bitter Springs, US-89A west to Jacob Lake, then AZ-67 south into the park; NPS puts the North Rim entrance station 30 miles south of Jacob Lake, with the rim itself another 14 miles beyond that. The 2026 season runs May 15 through October 15. Verify at nps.gov/grca before building a trip around it -- exact dates shift with snowpack and staffing, and after the fall closing date the road to the rim is gated.
Before you plan this trip, know what happened here. The July 2025 Dragon Bravo Fire destroyed roughly 70 structures on the North Rim, including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge and the North Rim Visitor Center. The rim reopened for the 2026 summer season, but on a limited-services basis, and two consequences matter for a day trip out of Page. First, there is no overnight lodging anywhere on the North Rim during the 2026 season. Second, and more important for your safety: potable water is not available anywhere on the North Rim in 2026, including at the North Kaibab Trailhead. NPS is explicit that visitors must bring all the drinking water they need for their visit and their hikes. Fill up in Page. A general store near the campground and a 24-hour pay-at-the-pump gas station are operating; confirm current conditions at nps.gov/grca before you leave. In burned areas, stay alert for debris flows, rock fall, flash flooding, and falling trees.
The North Rim receives a fraction of the visitors that the South Rim does, which is its primary advantage. The rim elevations are higher (around 8,000 feet) and the temperatures are cooler than on the South Rim. All paved roads inside the park reopened for the 2026 season -- AZ-67, Cape Royal Road, and Point Imperial Road. Cape Royal Road accesses several overlooks including Cape Royal, Roosevelt Point, and Angels Window. Point Imperial, which NPS describes as the highest point on the rim of Grand Canyon at 8,803 feet, is also reachable by car. Note the vehicle limit: RVs over 22 feet, and vehicle-trailer combinations over 22 feet total, are not permitted on Cape Royal Road or the scenic drive to Point Imperial because of narrow, winding road with blind corners. Hiking below the rim requires more planning on the North Rim because trail distances to the canyon bottom are considerably longer than from the South -- and in 2026, with no water on the rim, below-rim hiking demands that you carry and treat everything you drink.
A day trip from Page to the North Rim and back is doable but long -- count on close to six hours of driving for the round trip alone. Commit the full day, leave Page early, and you have enough time to drive Cape Royal Road and walk at least one rim trail. Because there is no lodging on the North Rim in 2026, turning this into an overnight means booking outside the park: NPS notes the nearest lodging, food services, and fuel are 45 miles north of the rim at Jacob Lake, with more options in Kanab, Utah. Check nps.gov/grca for the current status before you commit -- recovery work is ongoing and services can change mid-season.
Grand Staircase-Escalante: Slot Canyons Beyond Antelope
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is BLM-managed canyon country in southern Utah, north and northwest of Page. Its boundaries are actively in flux. A presidential proclamation issued in July 2026 reduced the monument from roughly 1.87 million acres to approximately 181,541 acres in two units, and the BLM's own pages had not caught up at the time of writing. Land removed from a monument does not stop being public land, but management rules, access, and signage can change. Check blm.gov for the current boundary and travel rules before you plan a route into this area, and treat any acreage figure you read anywhere -- including here -- as provisional. There is no single entry point and no entry fee. Access routes vary from paved US-89 turnoffs to remote dirt roads requiring high-clearance or four-wheel-drive vehicles; Cottonwood Canyon Road is the usual unpaved approach from the US-89 corridor.
Slot canyon hiking on BLM land differs from Antelope Canyon in one important way: you do not need to book a guided tour. You usually do need a permit, and this is where the two most popular routes near Page get misdescribed. Wire Pass and Buckskin Gulch, reached from House Rock Valley Road off the US-89A corridor roughly an hour from Page, are not in Grand Staircase-Escalante at all -- they lie in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness inside Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, on the Arizona side. BLM requires a permit for day hiking as well as overnight trips in Paria Canyon and Buckskin Gulch; Wire Pass is one of the four trailheads in that permit area. Day-use permits recently ran $6 per person per day, paid at a trailhead self-pay kiosk or booked in advance on Recreation.gov -- verify the current rules and fee at blm.gov before you drive out, because showing up without a permit is a citable offense. Check road and weather conditions too: flash flood risk in these narrow slots is real and lethal, a storm miles upstream can fill a canyon with no rain falling where you stand, and the same water makes the dirt approach roads impassable without warning.
Cell service is minimal to nonexistent in most of Grand Staircase-Escalante. Download offline maps before you leave Page. Carry significantly more water than you expect to use. Let someone know your route and expected return. This is backcountry desert: the scenery is exceptional and the margin for error is thin.
Glen Canyon Dam and Carl Hayden Visitor Center
Glen Canyon Dam is visible from the US-89 bridge just outside Page, and the Carl Hayden Visitor Center sits on the rim above it, roughly 700 feet above the Colorado River, overlooking the dam and bridge. The dam stands 710 feet high above bedrock, per the Bureau of Reclamation, and spans the Colorado at a point where the canyon walls close in. The visitor center has exhibits on the dam's construction, Glen Canyon history before the reservoir filled, and current operations.
Guided tours take visitors into the interior of the structure. Format, schedule, availability, and cost have all varied with staffing and security protocols, and tours are booked through the reservation desk inside the visitor center rather than simply walked into -- check nps.gov/glca or the Glen Canyon Conservancy for current offerings and pricing before making it a dedicated stop. The exterior viewpoints and visitor center are reliably accessible during operating hours. From the bridge, the view of the dam face and the blue-green water below is straightforward to reach without a tour.
The dam is not a full-day destination on its own, but it pairs naturally with a morning at Horseshoe Bend -- about 5 miles south of Page on US-89, with a 1.5-mile round-trip walk to the overlook -- or a visit to Wahweap Marina, northwest of Page and about 5.5 miles from the dam along Lakeshore Drive. One fee note worth knowing at Horseshoe Bend: the parking lot is on City of Page land and charges its own parking fee, and National Park Service passes do not cover it. Carl Hayden Visitor Center is worth an hour; add more if guided dam tours are running on your visit date.
Planning Your Day Trips from Page
Monument Valley, Lees Ferry, and the North Rim each require a full day from Page for a comfortable visit. Trying to combine two of these in a single day is possible for Lees Ferry plus Vermilion Cliffs, but Monument Valley and the North Rim each deserve their own day. Plan your Page itinerary around which destinations matter most to you, then assign each a day.
Fuel and food in remote northern Arizona can be scarce between Page and your destination. Fill your tank in Page before leaving. Carry food and, above all, water for the day -- restaurants and services are limited or unavailable at most of these locations. The View Hotel at Monument Valley has food service during operating hours. On the North Rim, the Grand Canyon Lodge no longer exists (it burned in the 2025 Dragon Bravo Fire); a general store near the campground and a 24-hour gas station are the extent of services in 2026, and there is no potable water on the rim at all. Hours and availability change seasonally everywhere out here -- verify before you rely on any of it.
For tour bookings that cover Monument Valley guided Jeep tours or other day-trip activities, the Lowdown Guide earns a commission on Viator bookings at no extra cost to you. Verify that any tour you book is current and operated by an authorized provider -- for Monument Valley specifically, authorized Navajo operators are the appropriate choice for guided access to areas beyond the self-drive loop.