Page, Arizona & Amangiri — the Desert Oasis

The small city of Page, Arizona, with a population of just over 7,000, lies at the heart of the Grand Circle, an area containing America’s largest concentration of National Parks and monuments, linked by designated scenic byways. Just 25-minutes northwest, Canyon Point, Utah is home to a dream destination for the luxury traveler: Amangiri! One of the most spectacular and luxurious hotels in the United States. Plenty of reasons to add the Arizona/Utah border to your bucket list!

Dream

Amangiri, Canyon Point, Utah: Photos cannot do justice to this stark, yet spectacular desert oasis! Like the villain’s lair from a James Bond movie, the angular, minimalist concrete structure blends perfectly into the dramatic white Entrada sandstone mesas and mountain ridges surrounding it. The sweeping, gated driveway from the main road to the hotel is part of the experience, providing great views of the 600-acre hotel estate, which is like a mini National Park.

The stunning hotel pool which is the centerpiece of the resort, intersects a striking sandstone escarpment, like two pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. The hotel’s main buildings and 34 rooms are arranged around it, a seamless integration of architecture with the desert landscape.

We stayed in a Desert View Suite and it was probably the best room we have ever enjoyed! The suite offered sweeping views of the desert and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in the distance, through floor-to-ceiling glass patio doors, with a private courtyard entrance and terrace with fireplace. Impeccably decorated in white and subtle earth tones and bathed in natural light, the 1,000 square-foot suite had a sandstone floor, incredibly comfortable sandstone bed and couch surround, double vanity and huge double rain shower room with a large window looking out across the desert.

Dine

Food at Amangiri is very good. Everything except for alcoholic beverages is included in the room rate and so there are no checks to sign during your stay! Diners can choose to eat inside the main building which contains the lobby area, dining room and open kitchen all in an open-plan setting, on the elevated patio overlooking the swimming pool, poolside or select in-room dining. Private dining is also available.

Some online hotel reviews from the recent past reflect a degree of disappointment with the dining options available at the resort. Our own experience was almost without exception very good, possibly reflecting improvements made since the arrival of Director of Cuisine, Sergio Caceres, who was previously at Boulud in New York. He personally greeted us during our stay and checked-in with us on a number of occasions to ensure that our expectations were being met. This level of personal, friendly yet unfussy service was reflected throughout all the hotel employees we encountered, from the front-desk staff to the chefs working in the open kitchen that greeted us whenever we should pass by. 

We enjoyed daily breakfast on the outdoor patio overlooking the pool, and at dinner we had the opportunity to order from no fewer than three different menus, including a daily-changing regional menu.

Do

Horseshoe Bend, Arizona: Just four miles southwest of Page along US89, this incredible natural wonder should not be missed. A short yet very hot 1.5 mile round-trip hike takes a steady stream of tourists to an observation point overlooking a perfect horseshoe shaped chasm, gouged 1,000 feet deep into the orange desert sandstone by the flowing emerald waters of the Colorado River. Something of an Instagram sensation, the popularity of Horseshoe Bend has ballooned with the advent of social media, and officials for the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in which it lies estimate that visitors will number 2 million in 2018.

Glen Canyon Dam and the Glen Canyon Bridge: The dam, built from 1956 to 1966, is the 4th tallest dam in the U.S. at 710 feet, and the hydro-electric power it generates serves about 5 million people in six states. Both the dam and the steel arch Glen Canyon Bridge next to it are engineering marvels and tourist attractions in their own right. The Carl Hayden Visitor Center at the dam is well worth popping into, and tours of the dam are available.

Our favorite way to view the dam is the short but very interesting trail just west of Page, reached via Scenic View Drive behind Denny’s Restaurant off US89. Take a turn west at the 4-way junction of US 89, N Lake Powell Boulevard and Scenic View Drive and look for the sign for scenic overlook.  

Antelope Canyon, Page, Arizona: There are several indescribably spectacular sandstone slot-canyons on Navajo Nation land just east of Page, the most famous of which is Antelope Canyon. Even if you don’t know its name, you have probably seen photographs of it. The canyon is split into two sections, Upper Antelope Canyon and Lower Antelope Canyon. 

This is another of the natural wonders near Page which is a victim of the social media generation. Visitors to the canyon doubled or tripled following the introduction of Instagram, and Upper Antelope canyon in particular can become very crowded and a little uncomfortable at times. Tour guides are mandatory for all visitors to the canyon, and at popular times organized tours sell out.

We took a private guide organized by Amangiri and visited four canyons: Upper Antelope, Owl, Rattlesnake and Side Canyon. Upper Antelope was the most spectacular but by far the most crowded. Despite the crowds, we would recommend it. We had a very different experience at the other three canyons, which are private canyons without the mass of organized tours. We were able to traverse them at a more leisurely pace and with few or no other people around.

Lake Powell: This is like no lake you have seen before. Created in 1963 when Glen Canyon was flooded after the construction of the Glen Canyon Dam, its incredibly jagged shoreline is almost 2,000 miles long. The vast blue lake surrounded by beautiful multi-colored sandstone walls has innumerable side canyons and offshoots, and has been a filming location for many feature-films and TV programs, most notably the 1963 classic Planet of the Apes.

The lake is immense, and there are many ways to explore it, including renting a house boat from the Wahweap Marina, kayaking, driving, hiking or mountain-biking. We took a mountain biking tour organized by Amangiri to Alstrom Point, one of the best overlooks on the lake. The tour-guide picked us up from the hotel in a four-wheel-drive vehicle and we drove for over an hour, much of it on unpaved and very rocky roads impassable in a standard sedan. We had a great time riding our fat-tire off-road bikes for an hour or so on the relatively level but uneven terrain around the edges of Alstrom Point and other nearby areas. The vistas were quite incredible.

Also on Lake Powell is Rainbow Bridge, the largest natural stone arch in the world. A sacred site for the Navajo, Rainbow Bridge is extremely inaccessible, other than via organized boat tour from Wahweap Marina.

On Property Hikes at Amangiri: For guests staying at the hotel, Amangiri has a series of well-marked, challenging and very rewarding hikes on its fabulous 600-acre grounds. These hikes equal many to be found in some of the best National Parks in the U.S. We did three during our stay: Cave Trail, Hoodoo Trail, and a section of the Coyote Trail culminating in a fantastic elevated view out across the hotel pool. 

In addition to these hikes, for which there is no additional charge, there are a series of Via Ferrata hikes, which are more complex and challenging, and for which a guide is mandatory. The signature Via Ferrata hike involves climbing up a series of steel staples imbedded in the near-vertical Entrada sandstone while secured on a safety line, and a walk across a fragile looking 238-foot-long steel suspension bridge with an 18-inch-wide grated deck, across a 400-foot gorge between two sandstone escarpments. This hike is definitely not for those with a fear of heights, and so we avoided it!

Images from the Southwest