Horseshoe Bend Visit: Nature’s Majestic Curves

Photographing Horseshoe Bend is popular all across social media. Therefore visiting Horseshoe Bend has been skyrocketing as a destination which has led to mass improvements at the park. Learn about what to expect when visiting this famous landmark just outside of Page, Arizona.

What to Expect While Visiting Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend has changed immensely in the last two years. When I last visited Horseshoe bend two years ago it was just a bend in the river that you walked over to from a dirt parking lot.

Now Horseshoe Bend has become a state park. The parking lot has transformed from a dirt lot to a more organized concrete parking lot with lines. However, now you have to pay an entrance fee in order to visit the famous Horseshoe.

National park passes cannot be used at Horseshoe Bend.

Another change is there is now a platform to look out over the Horseshoe Bend when previously you only roamed around the rim to try and find a good rock sticking out far enough to get the classic photo.

The last change is an entrance fee. The entrance fee is only $5 so it is cheap to visit nonetheless.

How Much Time is Needed for Horseshoe Bend?

To be fair, the only item at the park is Horseshoe Bend. You will park in the lot, walk the approximate 20 minutes (probably less) up a small hill and then down towards the river bend. There you can walk around the rim for as long as you want taking photos – then you walk back up the hill to the parking lot.

Walking wise you may spend about 40 minutes (this is probably a super overestimate).

Otherwise, the amount of time you spend at horseshoe bend is dependent on how long you want to view or photograph this social media icon. That can be five minutes or longer.

Ultimately, this can be a quick road trip stop – there is no massive hiking trail to reach the attraction it is more like a side of the road quick pit stop attraction.

Best Time to Visit Horseshoe Bend

The only thing that I would argue impacts a visit to horseshoe bend is the time of day. During the daytime, the sun is directly on the river bend. It bleeds out the colors and it really just isn’t photographically pretty.

Sunrise is too early, and probably won’t be open, additionally the rises on the opposite side of the horseshoe bend, so sunrise would be behind you.

The perfect time for visiting Horseshoe bend? Sunset.

The sun sets in the horizon of horseshoe bend. This is when you get the beautiful contrast of blue and green of the water to the red and orange of the canyon wall. If you are lucky and the dust that Arizona is known for is strong, you will also get a very fiery sunset as a backdrop. Ultimately, you cannot beat a beautiful sunset at Horseshoe bend.

What that means though is you have to be prepared to arrive early and wait. You cannot show up right at sunset and hope to get one of the prime spots along the front of the canyon. People are camped out on picnic blankets with their go pros long before sunset and the masses only pile in behind them trying to get that “famous shot”.

Arrive upwards of 45 minutes to an hour before sunset if you want to get that perfect famous shot. Otherwise, you may have to settle for a more dusk set photo as a lot of the people will not leave their spot and instead do photoshoots there through the entirety of the sunset.

Traffic at Horseshoe Bend

Overall the traffic at Horseshoe Bend is manageable – making visiting Horseshoe Bend very easy to visit any time of the day. People migrate through it fairly quickly as the only attraction in the area is the river canyon, and once you’ve photographed it a couple of times there is not much else to do other than enjoy the view.

As mentioned above though, there are a lot more visitors during the hour of sunset and you will find a lot of photoshoots going on and hogging up all the canyon view spots. So if you want to get that photo yourself you will need to arrive early.

Facilities at Horseshoe Bend

Now that Horseshoe has become a park the facilities are much nicer.

You will find bathrooms at the end of the parking lot – granted they are not flushing toilets they still get the job done. However, the town is not but ten minutes away so there is plenty of options of heading to a gas station or restaurant at Page instead.

Additionally as mentioned before, there is now a standing platform to overlook Horseshoe Bend. This platform can be pretty crowded – especially at sunset – but offers a great vantage point to take photos of Horseshoe Bend.

Surrounding area

Horseshoe Bend is just outside the city of Page, Arizona. The city is rather small but has plenty of gas stations and restaurants. So Page, Arizona is a great location to take a break following a visit to Horseshoe Bend.