All of us just fainted the whole night after the hike yesterday but wake up freshly at 7 AM without any alarm triggering, well, after a good 10 to 11 hours of good sleep. I spend some time planning the itinerary for the day, and decided to go with Horseshoe Bend and Grand Canyon East & South Rim before heading back to Chandler. Initially our plan was to cover Antelope Canyon, but it seem no slots available as we did not do the booking earlier.
The distance from Flagstaff to Horseshoe Bend was around 130 miles, which converted to around 2 hours of drive time, on a very scenic surrounding. After leaving Flagstaff which is quite greenery for a while, we start to have the flat dry desert kind of surrounding along the road. The road is straight, and incredibly long! After around 110 miles of drive, we pass by a very small town called Bitter Springs, and take an uphill path to have a stop of a viewpoint. You can't see that far from the flat ground, but from here, it was like infinite open view to the surrounding desert, and also on the road that we came from. Great place to stop by between Flagstaff and Page for a minor break.
Leaving Motel 6 via Flagstaff.
Incredible endless straight down hill road.
Flag ground, and still an endless straight road.
Unique scenery during the road trip.
Uphill path after Bitter Springs.
Breathtaking open view on the lower ground from high point.
Stall setup by Native American to sell some jewelry item.
Posing for casual tourist photo.
Casual tourist we-fie as well.
Smoking bad for your health, Abhishek.
Getting help from senior couple to take a group photo for us and this is his first take.
Learning from mistaken, and second shot was awesome, thanks!
Straight uphill road between the rocks.
Finally, almost there to reach Horseshoe Bend.
Another short ride, and we are there in the Horseshoe Bend car park, and very luckily we manage to get a best spot to stop our car which just next to the trail head. The trail was a short one, which just less than a KM one way to walk, but still safety notes are there to remind the visitor to bring enough waters before entering the trail.
All the information you need to know about the place.
Remember to take water with you, at least a bottle per head.
View back to the car park from the trail.
The view of the Horseshoe Bend from a distance.
Frequenent safety patrol helicopter flying around the area to react immediately in case there are any emergency situation.
Originally, we thought that this is just an ordinary viewpoint so we plan to spend only like 30 minutes here before moving on to Page for our lunch, but once we are on the edge, we are completely amazed by the superb view here, simply astonishing! Some note about the place, Horseshoe Bend is a horseshoe-shaped incised meander of the Colorado River, with the approximate drop of 300 meters down to Colorado River from the edge. End up I took a lot of photos of the incredible view from different angle, and so happy with my investment on ultra wide
lens for my Sony A6000 camera, which make it easy to capture the whole view of Horseshoe Bend, along with flowing Colorado River and the edge wall. We took lots of casual tourist photos here as well, and also challenging the guts level by seeing how far you dare to go over the edge with 300 meters of drop. Along the visit, I am lucky enough to know a pretty Japanese lady, Marika, who is travelling with a tour group from Las Vegas, after helping her to snap some photo. End up, we overspend the time by 1-2 hours of time, but no regret as it is really very beautiful piece of gem!
First view on magnificent Horseshoe Bend.
The crowd along the edge.
The other side of the crowd.
Jophine with Horseshoe Bend.
Anyone dare to crawl over these narrow rock towards the edge?
Abhishek give it a try.
The best Beng Hooi could do, safety first.
A mother and her children, laying on the edge to have a perfect view. Please be careful!
Seriously, I could sit here for this view just doing nothing even for a day, if time permit.
Me with the crowd, and the view.
Seriously an unreal scenery, you have to be there to really feel how special it is.
Nice to meet you pretty Marika san~
Close up a little bit.
Beng Hooi with another strong effort to get close to the edge.
Abhishek join the fun.
Jophine giving his best try as well.
Its my turn~
Beng Hooi having enough of the scare, volunteer to snap a photo for us.
Cool Abhishek with Horseshoe Bend.
From another angle, these girls seem standing on the edge without any fear.
Another close up view from further right.
Curly surface rock surrounding the view point.
Another stress test, Beng Hooi best effort.
Jophine play safe from the edge.
Abhishek going all in!
I going all as well, toward the edge!
Is time to leave now.
Solid as a rock.
Back to car park finally, next stop to Page to have our quick Subway lunch.
Horseshoe Bend - USA
October 2017
