The first stop of our journey was Santa Fe. It is a quaint and beautiful tourist town just south of the New Mexico border. We stayed at the Santa Fe Skies RV Park and hike the Dale Ball trail in the mountains that surround the town. Lunch at the Shed was a wonderful meal and experience. It's just too bad that a lot of the museums and shops were closed due to Covid. Santa Fe is definitely a place worth going back to especially since it is days drive from our house.
Located just outside Holbrook AZ, the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert National Park was one of the treasures of our trip. So much history and geology to be learned and experienced. If you are ever there, you need to check out the geohikes that they offer. We did the Blue Mesa and the Onyx Bridge hikes and they were amazing. Instead of following a trail, you navigate by landmarks. Truly an amazing and beautiful place. I want a piece of petrified wood!
After leaving Petrified Forest and Painted Desert, AW and I headed south to Tucson to see Uncle Dick and visit Saguaro National Park. I didn't realize but there are two sections to Saguaro...the west side where the Sonoran Desert Museum is located and the east side where nothing is located but there are many cool trails. The two sides are separated by about 40 miles and the city of Tucson. The sunsets and sunrises were fabulous!
Sedona is a small town and also the land of beautiful rock formations, Votexes and home of left over hippies! We hiked some wonderful trails including Red Rocks State Park, Cathedral Rock and Bell & Courthouse Rocks. We did a little shopping too but the stuff you buy downtown is a little our of my price range!
Our fifth stop on the Tour of Arizona was The Grand Canyon. We stayed in the Trailer Village RV Park which is centrally located near the Grand Canyon Village. We were there for about 3 full days which gave us time to explore the topside, do the Rim Trail and hike down into the Bright Angel Trail (but not all the way down). I have a segment in this video where I give you my perspective on hiking the Bright Angel Trail. The night before we left it snowed about 4-6 inches. This made towing the RV out of the park just that much more fun
Our last stop on the Tour of Arizona (2021) was at Dead Horse Point State Park in Utah. Here you sit on top of a mesa looking down at the Colorado River below you as it meanders it's way through the twisted rock formations of the Canyonlands area. With beautiful views of the La Sal Mountains, low cloud cover and a dusting of snow on the ground, it made for a very surreal adventure.