AZ - March 2018 - Days 5-7

Chuckwagon Trail

March 11^th, 2018

Rain, rain, go away! Really is was only a bit misty out, but the cloud cover was quite dense. While we were waiting for the fog to clear we went and checked out the really cool arts area called Tlaquepaque. We also drove out to the Hillside art area to check out the Exposures International Gallery of Fine Art. There were some gorgeous pieces of art.

Devil's Bridge

Around 11 AM, the clouds were lifting so we headed out to do some hiking around Sedona.  Tripadvisior.com indicated that Devil’s Bridge was a cool place to visit. Reading the reviews someone had indicated that the Chuckwagon Trail was a great way to reach to Devils Bridge Trailhead.  The Devils Bridge Trailhead is down a fire road and not accessible with a standard vehicle. We parked at the Mescal Trailhead and ventured out on the Chuckwagon trail towards Devils Bridge. The hike was scenic with not a lot of people. Once we reached the Devils Bridge Trail the trail became much busier.  I was not brave enough to head onto the bridge (the line was a little long also). During our return hike, we decided to take the rest of the Chuckwagon Trail.  It was an okay trail, some nice views with a lot more ups and downs than the portion we had hiked previously.  We got off the trail just in time – the rain came back.

Sedona Rocks

We attempted to go to a BBQ place for dinner, but it closed at 5! We walked around town a little bit and decided what we wanted to go next. Since it was approaching sunset we decided to take a drive up to the Airport Road overlook. There was a $3 parking fee, which seemed reasonable. In general the view was very nice; however, the clouds came in eliminating the chance for a beautiful sunset.

View from Airport Road

March 12^th, 2018

Coyote Canyon

Originally, we had planned to take a hot air balloon ride, but the weather the previous two mornings put the brakes on that.  Instead, we decided to go on a Pink Jeep ride. There were a lot of different options to select from.  We decided to try the Coyote Canyon ride. Had we known, we probably would have selected a different route since this took us to the exact area that we had hiked the day before. The jeep ride was fun, but I would probably not do it again.

We did have some yummy homemade ice cream at the Black Cow Café in Sedona after the jeep ride. Mike had the prickly pear flavor.  I sampled it but it was too weird for me!

Sedona Rocks

After the jeep ride, we headed out to Bell Rock and Cathedral Rock. We were fortunate to find parking. We spent a few hours hiking around the area before heading back to Phoenix for the night.

We stopped and ate at Chili’s before heading to Holiday Inn Express Phoenix North – Scottsdale. The hotel appeared to be quite new – the room was in great condition and had lovely décor.

Bell Rock Area

March 13^th, 2018

We had intended to head to the Botanical Garden for a few hours before heading to the airport, but traffic was a bit heavy so we decided to just chill out at the hotel until we had to go to the airport (10am). The airport was not busy due to cancelled flights - the east coast was getting hammered with snow!  We had a smooth flight and drive home.  Until next time, happy travels!

AZ - March 2018 - Days 3-4

 March 9^th, 2018 (Friday)

What an exciting day! A while back, on Facebook, I had reconnected with a friend that I had made in middle school. We were able to coordinate a meet-up during our trip to AZ.  We met up for breakfast at a place called Kneaders Bakery & Cafe. It was super yummy and the company was awesome! I was so happy to meet up in person!

Tonto National Monument - Lower Cliff Dwelling

Tonto National Monument 

After our meet up, we headed to Tonto National Monument. Tonto National Monument is home to two Cliff Dwellings. The Lower Cliff Dwelling is a steep, paved one-mile hike. You must start the upward hike by 4pm.  The Upper Cliff Dwelling is only viewable if you take the guided tour, which requires a reservation and only allows 6 people per tour.  We did not visit the Upper Cliff Dwelling during our visit (tour takes 3 to 4 hours and is a 3 mile hike). The Cliff Dwellings are estimated to be about 700 years old. There is a video at the visitor center - shown outdoors near the visitor center exit to the Lower Cliff Dwelling. Visitors were very disrespectful with talking loudly and ignoring the fact that a video was being played. There is a $7 fee for those over 15 years old to walk up to the cliff dwelling (free if you have a NPS pass).

The Tonto National Forest surrounds the Tonto National Monument. The visitor center for the National Forest is very near the National Monument.  There are many hiking trails available in the National Forest. There is a really cool bridge and the dam right near the visitor center.

Tonto National Forest

Onward and upward we go – Sedona here we come!  We stopped to snoop around in the old mining town of Jerome before heading into Sedona. We had previously visited Jerome and Sedona, but both places are worth a second visit or more!

For the next three nights, we stayed at Sedona Summit – very nice place. After checking in, we headed into Sedona for some food.  We tried the Pisa Lisa Restaurant, which specializes in wood-fired pizza. The pizza was very good – no burned crust here.

March 10^th, 2018 (Saturday)

Grand Canyon National Park

We left Sedona early to get to the Grand Canyon National Park. The annual park pass got us in at no cost – if you do need to pay it is $30 per car. We parking in Lot 2, which I think might be the closest one to the visitor center. There was plenty of parking available when we arrived at 9am. Rain was in the forecast so we headed to the trails first thing.

Grand Canyon National Park

Starting at Mather Point, we headed west along the Rim Trail. We stopped to check out numerous views along the way, including the Yavapai Point Geology Museum. We reached the Grand Canyon Village area around 11 SM and checked out the buildings in the area including: the 1905 Hopi House (designed to resemble an ancient pueblo), Verkamp’s Visitor Center, Lookout Studio and Kolb Studio. We decided to have lunch at Bright Angel Lodge before continuing west on the trail. Lunch was decent in taste and price. We hopped on the bus at the Hermits Rest Route Transfer and rode until we reached Monument Creek Vista. Exiting the bus, we walked west on the Greenway Trail until we reached Pima Point, where we hopped back on the bus. I had seen a recommendation that this portion of the park was a lovely walk. It was a bit disappointing that there were not a lot of canyon views, the plants did provide nice diversity. We would have continued to walk to the end of the trail at the Hermits Rest bus stop but it looked like rain in the distance. The bus stops at Hermits Rest for 10-15 minutes, allowing time to jump off, take a few photos, check out the gift shop, used the bathroom, before hopping back on the bus. Hermit’s Rest was opened in 1914 and supposedly provides amazing sunset views.

Grand Canyon National Park

Once getting back to the bus transfer station, the line was long to get on the bus to the visitor center. Buses arrive at each bus stop every 10-15 minutes. We had to wait for the third bus before we were able to get on.  We debated about walking down the street to the next station, if we did not get on that third bus we were going to.  The buses are nothing fancy, but we were fortunate to see five Elk near Trailer Village. 

Back at the visitor center, we checked out the limited displays before watching the NPS video, which is about 25 minutes long and starts every 30 minutes. The video was just okay – for sure skip it if you do not have a lot of time. Exiting the video the rain had started.

Grand Canyon National Park - Watchtower

Leaving the visitor center area, we headed east (and stayed ahead of the rain) to the Tusayan Museum and Ruin. The museum was okay – it talked about the Indian Tribes from the area. The sky was a little clearer and we stopped at the Navajo Point lookout.  From the lookout, you could see the 70-foot-tall Desert View Watchtower, which was just a little further to the east.  The Watchtower is super neat! The interior and exterior are both impressive, as are the views from both inside and outside the tower.  The tower was designed in 1932 to resemble a prehistoric Puebloan kiva (a round room used for community meetings and religious rituals).

We were surprised that when we entered the park in the morning that there was not a Grand Canyon sign.  The sign is located at the east park entrance. Of course we stopped to snap a picture!

There was one hike that I had read about that was supposed to be great that we did not have time for was a hike to Showstone Point. The trail starts about 1.2 miles east of the Yaki Point Road, where you hike down a dirt road to reach the point.  Parking is available along the Desert View Drive roadside.  There was also a guided hike along Cedar Ridge that would have been nice to check out. The hike starts at 8am and is 3 miles long (2-4 hours).

AZ - March 2018 - Days 1-2

March 7^th, 2018 (Wednesday)

First trip of the year!! We had an evening Delta flight out of DTW to Phoenix, AZ! There was a short delay due to plane cleaning, otherwise smooth sailing. Hotels were a bit expensive, but we managed to find a place in Mesa, about 25 minutes from the airport, that was under $150 a night. The place was called Westgate Painted Mountain Golf Resort. We had a studio unit, which was in decent condition.

March 8^th, 2018 (Thursday)

We love the HOV lanes! Phoenix traffic was quite heavy on our way to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. By 9 AM, traffic let up, which was fine with us, since we were pretty much out of the city by that point. It was a bit of a drive to Organ Pipe Cactus, but well worth it.

Organ Pipe Cactus

Organ Pipe Cactus was named after the Organ Pipe Cactus that exist at the site.  Organ Pipe Cactus is a part of the Sonoran Desert and is home to over 4,000 species of plants and animals.  Organ Pipe Cactus is also known as the Green Desert. We had stopped at the IGA store in Ajo to get some lunch, since the park does not offer food. The IGA did not have a lot of options for an easy lunch, unless you wanted a lunchable (or something along tho  We probably should have stopped at a gas station where we probably could have picked up sandwiches for lunch.
se lines).

The weather was nice – mostly cloudy but in the low 80’s. Unfortunately, the visitor center did not have power. Luckily, when we first arrived the rangers had some materials outside of the center and could answer any questions. We checked in later in the afternoon and the power was still not on and the rangers and information were not available.

Arch Canyon Trail - Ajo Mountain

We opted to check out the Ajo Mountain scenic drive first, which the ranger had given us a pamphlet that described each numbered site along the way. The drive takes about two hours. There were many pull-offs, a few hiking, and picnic areas along the 21 mile loop. The drive was on a gravel road, which was in okay condition. There were not any restrictions as to what type of vehicle could be taken on the road. Besides stopping at some of the numbered stops, we also stopped at the Arch Canyon trailhead. The hike was advertised as 1.2 miles and lasting about an hour.  It was a relatively easy hike until you get to the sign that gives you a warning about the trail turning rocky. Apparently, the advertised 1.2-mile hike ends at this point. We continued past this point, since we did not know that it was the end of the hiking trail. The trail on the rocky portion was a bit more challenging with a lot of smooth rocks to scramble up. We were unsure if the rock scramble portion would actually lead us to a close up of the rock bridge so eventually we turned back. We did have some nice views from the portion that we did make it up to.

Desert View Trail

After leaving the Ajo Mountain scenic drive, we headed back to the visitor center to do a hike near there.  The Desert View Trail loops around the group camping area and provided lovely views and was an easy 1.2 mile hike.  This trail is advertised as great for sunrise and sunset.

We had adequate time for another hike, we drove over to the other loop road, Puerto Blanco, and parked at the Red Tanks Tinaja trailhead. Again, this loop road was gravel and in decent condition in the portion that we traversed. Our plan was to hike the 1.6 mile Red Tanks Tinaja trail. We set off for the hike and reached a cluster of signs, since did not think we had reached the end of the trail that we were set out on we kept on walking the direction that we thought we should go. The trail ended up taking us down an old fire road (maybe?)  - it was super boring with very few views. L

uckily. the hike was not to challenging – just lots of small pebbles that tended to end up in your shoes.

The entire Puerto Blanco loop is 41 miles and takes 3 to 4 hours.  Portions of the road are two way.

All in all we hiked over 5 miles at Organ Pipe Cactus, which would have meant that we could participated in the Hike for Health Challenge for hiking more than 5 miles had the visitor center opened up. Note – there is a $12 fee that you are supposed to pay at a station at the side of the road.

Driving back to the accommodations from the previous night, we stopped by a place called Booty’s Wings Burgers & Beer for dinner. It was tasty.