Things to do in Page, AZ at night

A town that began with a dam

Page was founded in 1957 as a housing community for workers and their families during the construction of Glen Canyon Dam. The site was obtained in a land exchange with the Navajo Nation, and the town was named for John C. Page, the commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation from 1936 to 1943. After the dam was completed in 1966, Page incorporated as a town in 1975. It has since become the gateway to the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area and Lake Powell, attracting more than 3 million visitors per year, a large number for a city whose 2020 census population was 7,440.

Why evenings need planning

Most people arrive in Page for a day outdoors: the lake, an overlook or a slot canyon. The National Park Service describes Glen Canyon National Recreation Area as encompassing over 1.25 million acres, with water-based and backcountry recreation. Wikipedia counts five marinas and four public campgrounds in the area. That leaves the evening open, and a small town offers fewer choices than a city does. The main evening booking in town is the dinner and dance show, and the others are views you walk to while the light changes. Treat the dinner show as the anchor and the viewpoints as the day-end extras.

Dinner and dance at Red Heritage

Red Heritage is a Navajo-owned and operated dinner theater at 644 N Navajo Dr, Building E. The ticket covers entry to the show, a dinner with Navajo tacos on fry bread, dessert and a soft drink, over about two hours. The programme shows several styles of powwow dancing with hoop dancers, a flute, a live drum and oral storytelling. It is the only evening in this guide that is staged and booked ahead, so it carries the planning risk: the ticket is flagged as likely to sell out. The organiser's home page adds that tour operators and large group accommodations are available upon request, which helps if you travel as a party.

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Lake Powell at the end of the day

Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River, created by flooding Glen Canyon with the Glen Canyon Dam. It is a major vacation destination visited by approximately two million people every year. Glen Canyon National Recreation Area was created in 1972, after the flooding. The lake and its sandstone shores sit close to town, and the end of the day is a natural time to look at them. Seen from a lakeside overlook, the water runs between sandstone shores and the marinas that serve the recreation area.

Glen Canyon Dam

The dam is a concrete arch-gravity dam on the Colorado River in northern Arizona, near Page. It is 710 feet high and was built by the Bureau of Reclamation from 1956 to 1966. Since Lake Powell first filled to capacity in 1980, its water levels have fluctuated greatly with water demand and annual runoff, so the shoreline you see differs from year to year. The National Park Service points visitors to the Carl Hayden Visitor Center. Opening hours and what is offered at the centre change, so check the National Park Service page before you drive out.

Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend is the panoramic view of a 270-degree bend in the Colorado River. The National Park Service says the hike to the overlook is 1.5 miles round-trip, and that the trail is accessible under the regulations of the Architectural Barriers Act. The City of Page requires visitors to pay for parking at the trailhead, and America the Beautiful passes do not apply to that lot. The National Park Service calls Horseshoe Bend a social media darling and one of the most recognized and visited places in the recreation area, and it warns visitors to watch their step at the 1,000-foot drop.

Antelope Canyon as context

Antelope Canyon is a slot canyon on Navajo land east of Lechee, Arizona. It was opened to tourism in 1997 and is visited exclusively through guided tours, in part because rain falling dozens of miles away can funnel into the slots with little notice. Navajo Nation Parks and Recreation oversees the Lake Powell Navajo Tribal Park. This site does not sell canyon visits, and they are a daytime activity in any case, so for the evening this guide stays with the dinner show and the viewpoints.

Checking the clock

Clocks are a trap for visitors who move between Page and Navajo land: the Navajo Nation observes daylight saving time on its Arizona land, and the rest of Arizona does not. The two clocks can differ for part of the year, so confirm which time a venue or a guide uses. A booking on Navajo land can therefore quote a different local time from a booking in Page. For the dinner show, your confirmation shows the arrival time for your date, and the booking calendar shows the same time, so use those and not a time you remember from another stop.

What to wear and carry

Page sits at an elevation of about 4,300 feet and has an arid climate, with hot, very dry summers and chilly winters with very little snow. It sits high on the Colorado Plateau. For an evening out that means layers in the cooler months and water in the warm ones. Bring a charged phone for the confirmation, and shoes you can walk in at the overlooks.

How Glen Canyon became Lake Powell

A dam in Glen Canyon was studied as early as 1924, but the plans were first dropped in favor of Hoover Dam. By the 1950s, rapid population growth in the Colorado River Basin led the Bureau of Reclamation to judge additional reservoirs necessary. Glen Canyon is a series of deep sandstone gorges, now flooded by the reservoir. Lake Powell is named for John Wesley Powell, who in 1869 led the first expedition to traverse the Colorado River's Grand Canyon by boat. The dam remains a central issue for modern environmental movements.

Who this isn't for

A seated dinner show is not for visitors who want to stay outdoors until dark, and the ticket is not suitable for people with epilepsy. If your trip is a single day, with a slot canyon in the morning and a long drive out in the evening, there may be no room for a two-hour dinner. Page also has fewer late-night options than a city, so plan the night rather than expecting to find something once the day trips end.