The Great Arizona Road Trip

Our road trips of ALL road trips (at least in the past five years) was a big success.    Over five days, we spent 15 hours in the car and traveled approximately 900 miles.  We went as far north as Flagstaff and as far south as Coronado National Monument.  We ate famous pie, "Salsa trail" Mexican food, and some other not so great food too.  We swam in pools, sled down snowy hills, explored caves and hiked through desert mountains.  The only thing we didn't do much of was sleep (unless you count me dozing off every time we started driving).

Here are the highlights of the trip:

First stop: Montezuma's Castle -  Curly and Lou particularly thought it was cool to see the ancient Native American Dwellings.  We saw more later in the day at Petrified Forest along with some very interesting petroglyphs. 

Petrified National Forest - An ancient forest that was covered in ash, rock, dirt and then as water seeped into the tree cellulose, over time it hardened into mineral.  Curly decided she wants to be some type of earth scientist after this day of exploring.

Hard to imagine this was once a lush forest

Happy Shadow Family

 

Colorful petrified wood

Can you spy Curly and Lou?

The girls had fun with their camera

Sunset over painted dessert

Eastern Arizona - We drove down the eastern side of Arizona stopping in Snowflake to see the temple and eat some famous pie, then continuing on to Show Low where we tried to drive to a mountain lookout and were foiled by mud and snow.  Instead we dug some shopping bags out and attempted sledding.  We continued through the Gila Valley.  It was a very windy day and unfortunately the dust was so thick that we couldn't see much of the mountain scenery.  We stopped in the Safford/Thatcher area to see some sites and have some yummy Mexican food for lunch.

Gila Valley Temple

President Spencer W. Kimball's home

Lou having fun taking selfies - I don't know where she learns these things!

We stopped in the very touristy "ghost town" of Tombstone.  Fisher and the girls went to a gun show inspired by the "Shootout at the OK corral."  We walked the old west streets and headed back to the hotel for a swim.

The cast of the shootout

OK Corral

We enjoyed the quaint, artsy feel of the old mining town Bisbee.  We learned a lot about the town history at it's Smithsonian sponsored museum and the enjoyed a walk up the main road. The town is built up the hillsides of a small valley and filled with art shops and restaurants. 

Main road through Bisbee

 From Bisbee we headed to Coronado National Monument.  This is the place that Coronado and his explorers came into the what is now the United States.  We hiked to a cave and then drove up the pass for an amazing view into Mexico on the South and Arizona to the North. 

South

North

Beautiful Day, Beautiful view

Our final stop was Kartchner Caverns near Tucson.  This is an amazing living cave that was discovered in the past 40 years but kept secret for a very long time.  The National Park Service invested a lot of research into how to protect the cave and keep it alive.  To protect the humid environment, you walk through a series of sealed vaults and then a misting tunnel.  In the cave you stick to a man made cement canal walkway that is hosed down each night to wash away human "toxins."  All the efforts are well worth it as the cave is amazing!  Unfortunately no photos allowed but there are some cool ones online.

Spud and Curly with the Giant Sloth

Happy Family!