Arizona, Fulltime RVing, National Monuments, National Parks

There Really IS an Arizona

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A number of years ago, we visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.  As we walked into the lobby, my country music-loving sweetheart heard the guest artist Jamie O’Neal performing her country hit There is no Arizona.  Diana was giddy, to say the least, to hear a country artist performing in the shrine to artists like Lennon, Dylan, the Rolling Stones and so on.  As we waited in line for tickets to the museum, the lyrics and melody filled the atrium:

There is no Arizona

No Painted Desert, no Sedona…

Well, after what we’ve seen over the course of this last week, we beg to differ, Jamie. 🙂

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From the moment we arrived in Springerville, Arizona for a one night stopover, we knew it was going to be a great week.  Looking back east from a fairly nice sunset revealed this surreal moon rise.

We continued on to Petrified Forest National Park where we spent a few nights.  We scored a nice campsite at the Crystal Forest Museum just south of the park that gave us 30 amp electric for only $10 a night.

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At first glance, the old cars with the flat tires in the parking lot gave us pause.  We found out they parked them there a long time ago to make the place look busy.  I guess its time to either update the cars or at least air up the tires.  🙂

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Petrified Forest was outstanding.  The southern end of the park was filled with logs that had been turned to stone after being buried for millions of years.

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This particular one was huge!  There is a photo in the visitor center with Albert Einstein and his wife standing next to it.

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Although the outside of the tree looks like bark, that is actually stone.

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Halfway through the park, we came to Blue Mesa.  Taking the trail, we hiked down into an area that appeared very much like the painted hills we saw in Oregon a few years ago.  Not quite blue, but very interesting to look at!

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At the north end of the park is the Painted Desert Inn.  This is a restored Civilian Conservation Corps era building that is very interesting to tour.

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Behind it is…you guessed it…the Painted Desert!  Guess Jamie O’Neal was wrong about that one!  Wow…it was absolutely beautiful.  It seemed like it went on forever.

From Petrified Forest, we moved on to Meteor Crater.

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This giant hole in the ground was caused by a 150 foot long meteorite that hit here 50,000 years ago.  It was estimated to have been travelling at 26,000 miles an hour.  Pretty impressive, to say the least.  Equally as impressive was the interactive visitor center.  This entire facility is privately owned, and kudos to the owners for offering a prime visitor experience.

While at the adjoining Meteor Crater RV Park, we drove back into Winslow to visit one of Rock and Roll’s other shrines…

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…the corner, from the Eagle’s song Take it Easy.

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Its my girl, my lord, by a flatbed Ford, taking a good long look at me!

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We also checked out the La Posada Hotel.  We had a fabulous lunch in the hotel’s Turquoise Room.

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The lobby was pretty, but the ‘death art’ on the walls was a bit much.  Turns out the hotel owner is the artist.

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I did my best to plunk out Hotel California….

From there, we moved west to Flagstaff for a few days.  The town got its name when some men stripped the branches and bark from a Ponderosa pine tree in 1876 and flew an American flag from it.

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We visited two parks in the area while we were there.  The first was Sunset Crater National Monument.  This cinder cone is part of a chain of volcanic features that dot the area. IMG_1086 (2)

This feature was called a squeeze up, which occurred when the molten rock was squeezed out of the earth like Play Dough.  As it cooled, it sagged under its own weight.

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We also visited Walnut Canyon National Monument.  This park features a trail, seen above, that descends into the canyon.

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Once down there, the path winds past several ancient cliff dwellings.  It was interesting to see the protection the overhanging rock offered.

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From the rim, there was a nice view of Humphrey’s Peak and it’s neighbors.  Humphrey’s is the tallest peak in Arizona.

On our final full day in Flagstaff, we headed south to meet fellow blogger Ingrid from Live Laugh RV. We have followed her blog since 2014.  She has a similar camera to mine, and she offered to drive up from Phoenix to meet us and give me a few camera tips.  We met in…

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…Sedona!  Again, we’ve proven Ms. O’Neal wrong.  🙂

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While Ingrid and I were shooting photos of the scenery, Diana was shooting photos of us.  🙂

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Here we were taking photos of the cairns near Budda Beach.

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I managed to focus on this fly sunning itself on top of one of the cairns.

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I learned a lot about my new camera, thanks to Ingrid.  Hopefully that translates to better photos in the future!  It sure was a pleasure to finally get to meet her in person.  🙂

And Sedona?  It was beyond words.  We were amazed at every bend in the road.  We are happy to report that there IS a Sedona, a Painted Desert and most importantly, an Arizona.  All are beautiful and a pleasure to explore.

Next up:  The Grand Canyon South Rim!  Until then, safe and happy travels to all!

37 thoughts on “There Really IS an Arizona”

  3. We may have crossed paths already and didn’t even know it. Petrified Forest…check, Sedona…check, Grand Canyon…Tomorrow. See you soon:o))

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  4. I loved the Petrified Forest and found it fascinating. So great to finally meet you two in person. It was a fun day and hopefully I helped with some of those camera settings. Happy trails 🙂

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  6. Great photos, bring back lots of memories for me.
    Sonia and I did the trip back in the spring of 2005.
    I have great photos of Sonia sitting on some those Petrified Logs.
    We also stayed a night at the La Posada Hotel and had dinner and breakfast in the Turquoise Room. Thanks for the memories. Safe travels and hope to see you guys sometime this year. 😎😘

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  7. We were just talking today about standing on a corner in Winslow Arizona! Sedona is beautiful! We are changing plans and re-routing through Page instead of Las Vegas. Decided on the more scenic route. So much to see in this area! Safe travels to you both.

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  8. Glad you are enjoying Arizona! Stay safe at the Grand Canyon. Went into Sedona today….beautiful! We have decided to head north thru Page and Lake Powell instead of Vegas. Decided to take the scenic route

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  9. Wow, we just visited most of these! Petrified Forest (Blue Mesa and Jasper Forest), Standin’ on a Corner, the Turquoise Room at La Posada, the Tina Mion gallery there (we liked the death art). We spent several days at the Grand Canyon, which is in my blog, and I’m going to add Petrified Forest shortly. Nice post!

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  12. These are all places on my bucket list. We passed through Sedona and Flagstaff on our trip to the Grand Canyon and back. But we didn’t spend time sightseeing. Maybe in 2021. Next year vacation money is going to fresh paint in the house. Maybe we can move the trip up if there’s any left over! 😜

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  14. Have fun you two. We left the South Rim a week ago and it was beautiful! We actually managed to see all the National Parks in Utah as well! We did 7 parks in 5 days. A bit of a blur but managed to see some of all of them. We did the Grand Circle Tour. Of course we were in the car so we were able to manage seeing all of them in a shorter period of time. It would have been a challenge to do all of them in the rig pulling the car in that short of amount of time. We were lucky the weather was stunning the entire time.
    We are in CA now, headed to Washington mid May. Be safe!

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    1. Those rays looked like the Arizona flag, Gaelyn! We got South Rim and Petrified Forest badges. Here in Moab, we will look at getting Canyonlands and Arches. We’ll be looping back down your way after here.

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  17. Great photos and descriptions. Arizona offers such amazing and unique places to explore. Believe it or not, Sue and I stayed in Winslow about 12 years ago as part of a climbing trip. Yep, climbing just outside of Winslow! We also explored the area, so saw the petrified forest, the crater, Walnut Canyon, Flagstaff. But you saw so much more! Amazing!!!
    Dave

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  18. I enjoyed reading that – and seeing the sights. Astonishing – nothing like that in the UK (but we have more castles than you do 🙂 ). For me, Flagstaff will always be one of the places name-checked on ‘Route 66’…

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