The City of Page sits atop a mesa that varies in height from about 50′ along the south side of town to several 100′ along the north. I found the 10.3-mile Page Rim View Trail on my AllTrails app and decided to hike it across the four days we were there. On the left below, the trail is shown in green, and the rim of the slightly darker orange mesa is visible in the satellite view on the right. At the most southern point of the mesa (looks like a water droplet in the satellite view just right of the center bottom) was our campground sitting between the droplet and the north-south highway running into Page. The Colorado River is seen snaking north of town and afforded some excellent picture opportunities on day 3 and 4.
Here’s the southern tip of the mesa (the water droplet again) as photographed east from our campground.
Day 1: I left the campground to the west, turned right onto an ORV trail, which paralleled the highway into town, and hiked a quarter mile north before picking up the Rim View Trail east. The official trail did not traverse the water droplet, but I hiked it regardless because it overlooked our campground, had some interesting geological features, and provided a fascinating view of the south vista.
From the southeast corner of the rim, the trail and I turned north toward the south end of the airport. A number of planes flew about 100 feet over my head as they approached for landing but I was too slow to capture a video. I exited the rim trail near the southeast edge of the airport and walked into town to meet MFI at the local Safeway Starbucks for our morning Americano. Day 1 covered 3.1 miles total, both on trail and off.
Day 2: I began the second hike the same way as day 1 but turned left (west) once I hopped onto the trail. The rim on this part of the mesa was much lower and not well defined, but the views to the south and southwest were very picturesque. The shadowed crack-like feature along the bottom of the second picture is the top of the Colorado River canyon before it enters the Grand Canyon.
Once the trail turned north, the rim became much more defined and began to increase in elevation. Below me left was the Lake Powell National Golf Course with bright green fairways and greens in contrast to the Navajo Sandstone.
At the northeast corner of the golf course, I turned east and was surprised when the trail wound right behind a tee box. Was even more surprised when I got a closer look at the hole.
The trail continued adjacent to the golf course, and I hopped off just after passing the clubhouse. The rim I’d be hiking on day 3 was visible to the north. I hiked into town, and MFI picked me up for our morning coffee. Day 2 covered 3.32 miles total, both on trail and off.
Day 3: I started the third day where I had hopped off the trail the day before and headed north to what was the most remote and scenic portion of the trail. It did a wide u-turn from the northwest to the southeast and finally turned east toward the north end of the airport. The Colorado River was always on my left where it continued cutting the gorgeous Glen Canyon into Navajo sandstone. Halfway along the north part of the trail, MFI agreed to meet me at Grandview Overlook Park. Every once and a while I would look behind me and see a great photo op worth capturing.
I joined MFI at the overlook, and she took me for coffee. After the first two days of hiking, we had gone to the Safeway Starbucks (a known quantity). Today, we decided to give a new place a try, Lake Powell Espresso, and were not dissappointed. We enjoyed our usual decaf Americano with an extra shot and topped with steamed heavy cream, and we added a warmed blueberry scone. We got a kick out of their chalkboard message. Not so friendly competition? As it was, we supported both local and franchise coffee shops. Such a great way to end a trail hike. Day 3 covered 3.57 miles total, both on trail and off.
Day 4: I started the last day where I had ended day 1 and hiked counterclockwise to again meet MFI at the Grandview Lookout Park. The trail took me north, parallel to the airport, then turned west to complete the rim trail loop. There were multiple views of the three most prominent geological features. Left to right they were Boundary Butte, Tower Butte, and Navajo Mountain (refer to background in third picture below). All three were mostly backlit by the morning sun, so I’ve included pictures from day 3, which show all three in close-up and full sunlight.
The last day covered the final 3.39 miles for a total 4-day hike of 13.38 miles. Overall, I rated the hike as an easy stroll, although the close proximity to the edge of the rim was periodically dicey and required paying very close attention, particularly when the distance of a fall was significant. There was a spot on day 4 where the Colorado made another horseshoe turn, albeit only 180 degrees and lacking the 1000′ deep canyon of “The” famous Horshoe Bend. Nevertheless, I took the requisite picture for inclusion here, since this one just doesn’t get any notoriety. I give this hike a thumbs up for all Page visitors.
