A few weekends ago, some friends and I went up north to Paige to visit a few spots that have been on my bucket list for ever! Horseshoe Bend and Antelope Canyon are beautiful natural wonders of the world on Navajo Indian Reservation in Northern Arizona. I was born and raised in Arizona, but I’ve never made it to these places, and made it my mission this Summer to explore my own backyard. This was one of the spots that I made a point to check off my list, and I’m so glad that I did!

The trip was perfect because we bought a Groupon for a tour of both places as well as the Colorado River and Glen Canyon Dam. The Groupon (see it here) was for two people and ended up being only $134 a person, which included lunch and all transportation for the day. Soo worth it!

Horseshoe Bend was absolutely amazing. I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of this place before…it’s all over Instagram! The horseshoe was formed over millions of years by the Colorado River; it’s literally a thousand feet below ground and the water is so blue and beautiful. We enjoyed a couple beers while soaking in the beauty of this place.

After seeing Horseshoe Bend, we saw the Colorado River and ate lunch at the Glen Canyon Dam…it was breathtaking! We made our way to Antelope Canyon, and stopped at an empty gas station to get picked up by our Navajo guide (you can’t get onto the land without a native guide). There, we watched a Navajo native perform the hoop dance, which is a traditional Navajo healing dance. It was such a beautiful dance; the native mentioned that outsiders typically aren’t allowed to see this dance because there is always someone sick in the circle that they are trying to heal, but we were able to watch it since his dance was for performance purposes.

Our next stop was Antelope Canyon! My jaw was dropped the entire time we were there. This canyon used to be a riverbed where lush greenery grew for Antelope to feed off of. The river would rush through the canyon and create these beautiful ridges that you see in the photos. Since the drought, water only runs through the canyon when storms come. The ridges in the stone are a mind trick – they look one way in person, and completely shift their shape with different angles of the camera. The same thing happens with the colors. In person, it has an orange-brown hue, but the camera picks up purples in the shadows…it’s absolutely amazing. Our guide said that when he was really little, the canyon used to be his playground where him and his family would come and run through and climb on the walls. Now, it’s become a world wonder where hundreds of thousands of people travel across the world to see every year. In the past 25 years, it’s been made famous by photography and film as more people have discovered its beauty. Britney Spears filmed her ‘Not a Girl, Not Yet a Woman’ video in the canyon, it’s the Windows ‘Sandstone’ background theme, and the world’s most expensive photograph was of the canyon and was auctioned for $6.5 million.

Basically, this is something that needs to be on your bucket list!