For Spring Break, we headed south to Arizona for slightly warmer temperatures and some new adventures. We based ourselves in Flagstaff, AZ at the decent but cheap "Budget Inn", and spent 4 days exploring the sights of Northern Arizona.
Here's some of what we saw and did:
Just outside Flagstaff is the world's best-preserved meteorite impact site on Earth. It was a little pricey but worth it.
They had a full size mannequin in the bottom of the crater (dressed like an astronaut) and wow, that really helped with prospective on how incredibly enormous this meteor crater is! If only all enormous structures had a little astronaut to help with scale. :)
On our way out we saw this cool picture window of the San Francisco mountains (in the adjoining building). Looks like a painting. And that's the real space shuttle pod.
And here's Jac being silly about the 'imminent destruction' warning signs that were posted every mile leading up to the crater. :)
While the visit to Walnut Canyon was a bit of a bust, we did get this -- A LIFETIME FREE PASS TO ALL NATIONAL PARKS, MONUMENTS, FORESTRY LANDS, ETC. Jac got it for being permanently disabled. Nice!!!!!! Nice!!!!!! Nice!!!!!! We were super excited about this for days! That made the short trip to Walnut Canyon worth it. Oh yeah, and there was that ranger with the tiny head. That too.
Route 66
The famous Route 66 traverses Northern Arizona, but this section doesn't seem to have as many cool kitchy memorabilia as New Mexico did. But, it was fun to see these retro teepee hotels.
And while there we got our first glimpse of the massive amount of petrified wood in this area.
Petrified Forest National Park
The Painted Desert
Also part of the park is a section called 'the Painted Desert'-- a vast area of colorful, striated badlands that are both stark and beautiful at the same time. Here's what I thought was the best part of this area -- first up close:
Then from a distance. Look...there's a road inside to walk or ride a bike along. Looks so otherworldly!
Here's Jac checking out a different viewpoint from the car. It was cool, but it also got old fast...which was good because it was time to head "home" for a delicious Jac creation.
One day of our trip was spent exploring beautiful Sedona, which is exceptional due to the stunning redrock backdrop that surrounds the town.
After a little oogling at the scenery a bit, our first stop was the charming artsy 'village' of Tlaquepaque.
Tlaquepaque isn't just a nice place to visit. It's also a fun word to say: Tuh-law-kay-paw-kay. Just rolls off the tongue. :)
After Tlaquepaque, we drove around to experience a more of the beautiful redrocks.
Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones who thought to visit Sedona on that day. WOW---Sedona is crowded. Gotta say, it kind of detracted from the experience (and was sad to see, given that it wasn't this way 15 years ago when I lived in nearby Prescott). For example, we were going to hike the famous "Cathedral Rock" (a big redrock butte), but the trail parking lots were so packed that the whole area was closed!
So, instead we decided to browse galleries and get New Agey, since that's what Sedona is known for besides its red rocks -- expensive art and new age stuff. First we stopped at the Son Silver West Gallery, which was really more of a trinkety, touristy, kitschy place (as opposed to the fine arts galleries Sedona is known for). But we liked it. It was jam packed and so fun to peruse:
Next, we got 'alternative' at the Center for the New Age. This place was also jam packed and very fun to peruse:
We even ended up buying something here: a little sticker with a good message AND a maneki-neko -- a Chinese lucky cat (aka money cat) that we are going to put in the kitchen in a 'most auspicious location' for good feng shui.
We bought this maneki-neko across the street from Tlaquepaque. Those are some awesome sounding words. Love it!
Feeling like we had our fill of Sedona, we took in one last overlook, and then faced the hordes of people en route back to our Flagstaff home.
Who knew there was volcanic activity in Arizona? Now we do, after visiting Sunset Crater National Monument to check it out.
After the walk, we took the scenic drive to check out the many craters (but unfortunately only from below).
It's a small National Monument--not a ton to do there--but worth a stop for sure.
Right next to Sunset Crater are the ruins of Wupatki National Monument so we made a quick stop here to check them out (more ruins of early Native American cultures). It was getting to be a long day and we were tired so we didn't spent much time here, but it was a nice little addition to the day.
One of our favorite parts of the trip was seeing Montezuma's Castle -- an amazing 800 year old high-rise "apartment", nestled into a towering limestone cliff.
It was built over the course of several centuries, and it
is thought that the ancestors of the Hopi and Yavapai tribes are the
ones who built it and lived here. For an 800 year old mud structure, it is in amazing condition!
Also...although it wasn't the main attraction, we also really enjoyed checking out the surrounding nature, which was full of beautiful spring wildflowers...
and stately, interesting trees like this one:
There was also evidence of very recently flooding (which you can actually see in the above picture).
In all, it was one of the more memorable stops on the whole trip. So fascinating!
Historic Jerome
Next we visited the old copper mining town of Jerome, once known as "the wickedest town in the west." Its hard to believe upwards of 15,000 people lived in this tiny mining boomtown perched near the top of this fairly steep mountain face.
Driving the streets of Jerome is like driving back in time. It certainly has an authentic old west vibe! Although....I was certainly glad I wasn't the one driving on these narrow, STEEP streets!
Some parts of the town are now in ruin, but the town is still very much inhabited and open for business.
We didn't spend much time here but it was a fun diversion en route to our main destination:
Prescott
It had been 16 years since I'd set foot in Prescott, Arizona --Warren's hometown and where we lived together for some years. It was time!
First stop was to see the memorial that was erected at the Prescott Airport for the five men who were killed in the plane crash. I had only seen pictures of it before, and the experience was a lot more emotional than I expected.
Here's the courthouse in the central square:
And here's Warren and my former house. It was fun to see the improvements that the current owners made (since Warren and I certainly didn't do any ourselves. Too busy exploring elsewhere! :) )
After exploring downtown, it was time for lunch. We headed to the Granite Dells for a delicious Jac picnic:
I had planned for us to hike a bit of the beautiful Granite Dells, but it was incredibly windy, so we bagged it. Shame though...I wanted Jac to experience the beauty of the Granite Dells firsthand!
South Rim of the Grand Canyon
On our last full day in Arizona, we headed north from Flagstaff toward the south rim of the Grand Canyon. And....this is what we encountered:
FREEZING cold wind, hail, and ZERO visibility into the canyon. Needless to say, we did not stay long!
Glen Canyon Dam and Lake Powell
Our last stop on this fun Arizona adventure was Page, Arizona, where we explored Lake Powell and the Glenn Canyon Dam:
And hiked out to the beautiful Horseshoe Bend.
The Food!!!
Jac cooked up his masterpieces for all but one meal. On our first night in Flagstaff, we decided to eat out since we arrived a little late. We drove around a bit and stumbled upon a delicious Thai restaurant in the historic downtown. The food was SO good but the price was also SO high ($80!) One dining out experience is enough per trip...and we picked a good one!
Check out these creations:
In all, it was another fun trip under our belts and lodged in our memories. Life is GOOD!