State: Arizona
Titan Missile Museum Green Valley, AZ After Thanksgiving we left my brother's house in Phoenix, AZ and headed toward New Mexico. The kids had so much fun seeing their cousins (and it was nice for us big folk to have other big folk to talk to and eat with and enjoy late nights binging on Netflix together)...anyway, we all had such a good time we decided to invite ourselves back to my brother's for Christmas. Usually my brother his family drive out to our place in Los Angeles for the holidays, so it's only fair we make the drive once in awhile, right? So between Thanksgiving and Christmas we tried not to drift too far from Arizona. Surprisingly for that entire month, we only traveled on the same path a couple times. One of our short overlaps was through Tucson. This time though we buzzed through town and stopped at a place we missed last month - the Titan Missile Silo and Musuem.
1 Comment
State: Arizona
Where we stayed: Lost Dutchman State Park So we've been pretty impressed with the Arizona state parks we've stayed at so far. Matt had heard good things about this one and we were not let down. First, check out this amazing sunset... I climbed up the ladder on the back of the rv and took the photo from the roof. I have to say that AZ has some pretty outstanding sunsets - between the sky colors and the wide views... wow. State: Arizona
Petrified Forest National Park We stayed at: Crystal Forest Museum and Gifts We trekked across New Mexico and back into Arizona to visit our next national park - Petrified Forest. I have to say that this was not as mindblowing a park as say Zion or the Grand Canyon. Though getting out of the car and walking the trails does put you up close to some pretty cool sites. The petrified wood (wood/organic matter that has absorbed minerals and has bascially turned to rock) was interesting and very colorful. More info on the full story of petrified wood. But my favorite part was hiking through the Blue Mesa Badlands - I've never seen purplish (is that a word?) hills like that! State: New Mexico and Arizona
On the road again... After almost a week stay in Alamogordo we decided to start heading back toward Phoenix to spend Christmas with my brother and his family. The weather wasn't looking too bad, so instead of taking the main interstate (I-10) back to AZ, we decided to take a more northern route and check Petrified Forest National Park off our list. Here's Matt sporting his 'stache and long hairdo. And yes, that's a little snow on the ground out the window. State: Arizona
Queen Mine Tour Where we stayed: Tombstone RV Park and Campground When Matt and I drove from California to North Carolina in his Toyota pickup truck (before the days of smart phones), the book Road Trip USA was our guide for things to see and do on the way. We bought the new version of the book and I still use it for lots of ideas. One of the stops we made when driving cross-country years ago and this time, was at a town in a small artsy town in southern Arizona called Bisbee. Queen Mine Tour Bisbee has a great mine tour. We took the first tour of the morning at 9am and thankfully only had to share the lobby the big school group that arrived after us. Our guide into the mine was a retired police detective, judge and former miner in this mine. Before you go into the mine, they outfit you with a yellow slicker (in case it rains? not sure why but it's fun and looks cool), a flashlight on a rope that tucks into a fashionable leather belt, and a protective hard hat. State: Arizona
Tombstone Where we stayed: Tombstone RV Park and Campground This was one of Kaylie's favorite sthops so far. She loved the old fashioned style of the town and all the details from the wood sidewalks to the stained glass at Big Nose Kate's Saloon where we had lunch. To prepare for this outing, we watched the movie Wyatt Earp. That gave the kids a little background on the famous shootout. The rangers and volunteers at Saguaro National Park take their job overseeing the junior ranger program very seriously. I read in one trip advisor review that the ranger was nice to spend an hour with her son going over his junior ranger booklet. An hour?! That is nice attention if you don't mind hanging out in the visitor center all afternoon (especially if it's 110 degrees outside and the ac is pumping inside). The weather was great and we only had a few hours to enjoy the park and we were trying to get down to Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum before they closed. We had to stress this to the ranger so that we could get out in under a half hour!
We cut it a little close and with only an hour left until closing time and pricey $20 adult tickets, we decided to save the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum for another day. Instead we opted to head back into the national park to do a beautiful hike along a wash and up the side of a mountain for some great sunset views. Thanks to the two random, drum-carrying, twenty-somethings hiking down the path for taking this picture of us. It only cost me a few gummi worms. :) We had planned to go to my brother's house near Phoenix the day before Thanksgiving, but it was super windy. So we took the MDX for more sightseeing (Sunset Crater and Wupatki) and ended up leaving Williams Thanksgiving morning. We were happy we got to spend the holiday with family!
State: Arizona
Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument It was fu-reezing and windy, but since we had driven an hour to get here, we all rallied to get out of the car and try a hike (yes, candy was involved at every turn). The ground here was so different - black volcanic rock that crunched under foot. |
aboutI'll be sharing our travel plans, some reviews, cooking ideas (because I know you are all jealous of my easy-bake oven), and ... oh who am I kidding?! I'll be lucky to get our photos posted! categories
All
archives
February 2016
|