BK Olson, Travel Blogger

Category: Arizona

  • Route 66 – East of Flagstaff

    Route 66 – East of Flagstaff

    Today we left Sedona quite early and headed straight up towards Flagstaff again, only this time we caught I40E to see Route 66 – East of Flagstaff. The history, natural beauty and wigwams on this section of Route 66 had us smiling all day.

    Click on the first photo in each group and scroll to see the square photos at full size.
    To start at the beginning of this series, visit The Trip that Started it All 2014

    Walnut Canyon

    This was a great stop, with a really nice visitor center and museum.

    We thought about the Island Trail, which descends 185 feet into the canyon where you could see 25 cliff dwelling rooms. A strenuous almost mile round trip, this is one of the best ways to experience the park, but when we saw a group of young kids on a field trip huffing and puffing as they neared the top (240 steps back up), we opted to worship it from atop, read the park signs and enjoy yet another beautiful overlook. Across the canyon walls are remarkable formations and ancient cliff dwellings, where you can see the homes of ancient inhabitants. The Rim Trail offers an easier overview of the canyon.

    Meteor Crater

    Next stop was the most well-known, best-preserved meteorite crater on the planet. Meteor Crater is the breath-taking result of a collision between a piece of an asteroid traveling at 26,000 mph and Earth approximately 50,000 years ago. Nearly one mile across, over 2 miles around and more than 550 feet deep, this crater is something to see! There is indoor viewing and a wide screen movie theater in the Visitor Center where they offer a short movie and a guided tour to the rim. It’s very interesting how they determined it’s a meteor and not a volcano crater. It is an easy drive just south of I40. Since it’s privately owned, there is an admission fee and it’s not covered under your Arizona National Parks pass, but to us it was worth it. It’s out in the middle of nowhere and there’s a great view of the San Francisco Peaks.

    Winslow

    Winslow suffered quite a loss of commerce when U.S. Route 66 was bypassed by Interstate 40, but the popularity of the song “Take It Easy” by the Eagles, led to renewed attention for Winslow and a commercial upswing.

    We couldn’t go by Winslow, Arizona without Standin’ on the Corner now, could we? We were annoying a local who may have flipped us off for being such tourists. All we could say to him was “Dude, take it easy!” There wasn’t a whole lot else to do in this small town, except grab a great burger and hit the road for our next stop.

    Holbrook

    Holbrook is called the Gateway to the Petrified National Forest, but we mostly wanted to see the Wigwam Motel. Like other grandmas out there who have seen the movie “Cars” more than we’d like to admit, this was a great stop! There’s a really nice website that gives some history of the Wigwam Motel. Turns out it was restored and reopened in 1988 with 15 rooms.

    The Painted Desert

    El Desierto Pintado (the painted desert) is a natural canvas millions of years in the making. The Painted Desert was created from volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, floods and sunlight. It is simply stunning and mounds of colorful rock seem to bulge from the earth, which made for some breathtaking pictures. Standing on the edge of the vast landscape, a Spanish explorer is rumored to have named it because the hills looked like they were painted with the colors of the sunset.

    It’s quite a drive all the way out there to the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest, and our group was split as to wether it was worth the trip. I enjoyed it and if you are planning to see Canyon de Chelly, why not drive thru. Allow at least an hour to drive through, or two or three if you walk the trails and stop at all of the turnouts.

    The Petrified Forest

    Long ago, The Petrified Forest was covered with huge trees, but lava destroyed the forest and the remains were embedded into sediment of volcanic ash and water. Erosion set the logs free, revealing the petrified wood – made mostly of quartz.

    But there’s more to the Petrified Forest than just wood (or stone), with remnants of human history, including Puerco Pueblo, an extensive collection of prehistoric pottery fossils and even a protected section of historic Route 66.

    We drove straight back to Sedona and got home after dark. It was a really long day. I would recommend an overnight somewhere around Holbrook. Then you could catch Canyon de Chelly (which we heard from two relatives was awesome) and head back the next day. But there was not an extra day in our schedule to do that. So again, sometime soon…

    We slept really good that night and planned some sightseeing and shopping around the Sedona area for the next day. Then we were off for The Grand Canyon!

    Route 66 – East of Flagstaff is NOT to be Missed!

    Next Stop: The Grand Canyon

    Happy trails,
    Barb

  • Route 66 – West of Flagstaff

    Route 66 – West of Flagstaff

     

    Click on the first photo in each group and scroll to see the square photos at full size.
    To start at the beginning of this series, visit The Trip that Started it All 2014

    Lots of history, nostalgic signs, old cars, burger joints and burros take you back to a simpler time.

    Will Rogers Highway, the Mother Road or America’s Mainstreet – whatever you call it, Arizona is home to the longest original stretch of Route 66 and we decided to see as much of it as we could on this vacation. We left Sedona and headed north then west, with an overnight in Lake Havasu City. It was pretty cool to travel on the same road I may have as a child, even though most of it is interstate now. We got off the beaten path where we could and we had a great time visiting some of the old towns.

    Traveling on Route 66 – West of Flagstaff, we left Sedona quite early in the morning (for vacation) and headed straight up towards Flagstaff to catch I40W. We sagged south of the interstate a bit for our first stop in Williams, the Gateway to the Grand Canyon. Williams was exactly what I was expecting from a small town steeped with so much history – nostalgic signs, old cars and great burger joints. It was a great first stop on our Route 66 trek. About 40 miles past Williams, we took I40 Bus (exit 123) towards Seligman, another great town. Assuming that more fun towns would keep popping up, we kept going on 66 and took a stretch of the old route through Peach Springs.

    Unfortunately, there wasn’t much in that old town and unless you are a true Route 66 addict, I would skip that part of the trip. That road might be fun on a motorcycle, because there’s not much traffic, but our time would have been better spent in other ways on this leg of the trip. Don’t miss Seligman however, which is just a short drive off the interstate (and the inspiration for Radiator Springs in the movie “Cars”). We had a great lunch at the Route 66 Roadrunner, which offered greaseless fries and cute t-shirts for the grandkids. There were more fun gift shops, but a visit to Seligman is not complete without a stop at Angel’s Barber Shop. There is so much HISTORY of Route 66 at this stop, you should check this out! What a great stop!!

    Seligman is hopping the first part of May during the Annual Historic Route 66 Fun Run. “More than 800 vehicles are expected to make the 140-mile journey between Seligman and Topock/Golden Shores for a fun-packed weekend of food, entertainment, and the outstanding collection of show-stopping vehicles. Registration for the Annual Historic Route 66 Fun Run® is open to all street legal vehicles–buses, bikes, RV’s… anything with wheels that runs…” READ MORE

    We emerged from the original Mother Road near Kingman and briefly joined I40, only to get back on 66 (West Oatman Road). The road from Kingman to Oatman was a beautiful drive, but not for the faint of heart and definitely not for an inexperienced driver (or if you are in an RV or towing a camper) with switchbacks, dropoffs and narrow road. Oatman is a gold-mining town dating back to the late 1800’s, with wooden sidewalks and mostly original buildings. One thing that made this an enjoyable stop, were the burros that roamed the streets! They were obviously used to tourists and if you weren’t careful, would help themselves to your bag of food (available at most businesses). The town residents and store owners dress in western clothes and do their best to help create the olden days. Several times a day in front of the Oatman Hotel gunfighters perform western shootouts, which we unfortunately missed. Supposedly the Oatman Hotel is where Clark Gable and Carole Lombard honeymooned, or maybe not. So, if you read the Oatman Hotel link above, I’m not sure how much of the “haunted” is true either. We did enjoy some great ice cream there and a burro was trying to make his way in through the window to get some of it, since all the food we fed him was obviously not enough.

    We finally made it to Lake Havasu City, a community set on the shores of Lake Havasu, just across the Colorado from California. While making our reservations, we learned that college students love it there for spring break and deposits on hotel rooms skyrocket. Luckily we missed that and we also arrived before the blazing hot summer temps of 125° or more. Since it rarely gets below freezing, it’s very popular in the winter when the snowbirds return. We enjoyed a wonderful dinner (and a margarita, of course) and a walk around the base of the London Bridge, which was bought from the City of London in 1968, disassembled and then reassembled here. It made a beautiful backdrop for pictures and that seemed to be the place to be in the city.  In an effort to shorten up the day a bit, we had decided we would stay the night and make the four-hour drive back to Sedona the next morning.

    Our Travelodge offered a continental breakfast that included pancakes that rolled from a contraption, like pages from a copy machine. Don’t ya just love modern technology? After a short stop at the beach we took off for Sedona, taking a more scenic drive through Oak Creek Canyon, just north of Sedona. It was absolutely beautiful. Be sure to see it coming from both directions. We were pretty pooped, but not too pooped to shop a bit on our way back through Sedona (I’m sensing another pattern). Tomorrow will be another long day, so we relaxed and retired early.

    Route 66 – West of Flagstaff. Just plain fun!

    Next Stop: Route 66 – East of Flagstaff

    Happy trails,
    Barb

  • A Castle and a Ghost Town

    A Castle and a Ghost Town

    Click on the first photo in each group and scroll to see the square photos at full size.
    To start at the beginning of this series, visit The Trip that Started it All 2014

    Montezuma Castle National Monument

    Neither part of the Montezuma Castle National Monument’s name is correct, since the Sinaqua dwelling was abandoned before Montezuma was born and the dwellings are more like a “prehistoric high-rise apartment complex” than a castle, but what a great stop it was!

    This is a place with much history and natural beauty. We checked out the visitor’s center first. The 1/3-mile loop trail was easy to walk with benches and Kodak moments at every turn. We spent a lot of time here because it was so relaxing and the Arizona Sycamore trees and flowers were lovely. Our path meandered past a spring-fed creek, one of only a few in Arizona. We saw a lot of mud nests on the ledges and after googling what those might be, we found that during the spring and summer months, cliff swallows build their nests on the ledges above the Castle. No building was going on while we were there, but there was certainly evidence that there had been.

    We did not visit Montezuma Well, which was 11 miles away, but I read that a million gallons of water a day flows continuously into the Well. That constant supply of warm, fresh water provides a habitat like no other in the world, and has served as an oasis for wildlife and humans for thousands of years. Maybe next time.

    “Today we gaze through the windows of the past into one of the best preserved cliff dwellings in North America. This 20 room high-rise apartment, nestled into a towering limestone cliff, tells a story of ingenuity, survival and ultimately, prosperity in an unforgiving desert landscape. Come marvel at this enduring legacy of the Sinagua culture and reveal a people surprisingly similar to ourselves.”     – READ MORE

    Jerome

    Once known as the wickedest town in the west, Jerome is a nice little town with great shopping on quite an incline. Jerome had awesome views and wonderful historic buildings.

    Way up top the hill in the photo at the top is The Jerome Grand Hotel – one of the 10 most haunted places in America. It offers ghost tours and if you get your picture taken at the “Asylum”, a ghost just may join you for dinner. In keeping with the “haunted” theme, you will notice an abundance of goth-type merchandise in the stores and our waitresses when we stopped for lunch were a little scary as well.

    According to the sign below “Before the Bartlett Hotel, the Grandview Hotel, a wooden structure built in 1895 stood here as the first two-story building in Jerome. It had rooms for dances, dining and sleeping. In 1898 the structure was destroyed by fire. The Bartlett Hotel was then built of brick in 1901. It had five rooms for stores on the sub-level along with First Street. The interior was lavish with each room decorated in a different color. The office of The News, Jerome’s longest running newspaper, was in the Bartlett for 20 years. The building also housed a bank, drug store, offices and shops. The building became unstable with the slides in the 1930s and was abandoned in the 1940s. The mining company sold portions of it for salvage in the 1950s, removing the entire top floor.”

    We had delicious burgers on the deck overlooking the valley below at the Haunted Hamburger. The menu was varied and the Peach Fuzz margarita was delicious (of course it was!). It was a perfect day and it was nice to take a break from the walking and enjoy lunch (and a margarita). I don’t think the hamburger was haunted – but the rest of the town? You better find out for yourself!

    “Jerome was built on Cleopatra Hill above a vast deposit of copper. Prehistoric Native Americans were the first miners, seeking colored stones. The Spanish followed, seeking gold but finding copper. Anglos staked the first claims in the area in 1876, and United Verde mining operations began in 1883, followed by the Little Daisy claim. Jerome grew rapidly from tent city to prosperous company town as it followed the swing of the mine’s fortunes.”     – READ MORE

    No better way to spend the day!

    Next Stop: Route 66 – West of Flagstaff

    Happy trails,
    Barb

  • Tuzigoot, choo choo

    Tuzigoot, choo choo

    Sedona was our home base for a week of road trips. Awe-inspiring vistas, magnificent views and the bright red rock make Sedona a must-see on any trip to Arizona. As the sun and clouds change, so does the color of the rock, making for stunning pictures any time of the day. We put quite a few miles on our rental car and next time we come back we’ll stay closer to Sedona, to see more of what it has to offer. The sights to see and the trails to explore are plentiful – Bell Rock, Cathedral Rock, Devil’s Bridge and the Chapel of the Holy Cross, just to name a few. Of course restaurants and shopping are abundant and the temperatures were very pleasant in May. If you’re a newbie to roundabouts, Sedona has quite a few easy ones to get your feet wet and the red rocks are absolutely fabulous. Have I mentioned those before?

    Day 2 started with a trip to the grocery store to stock up on essentials, then two great stops that were pretty close to Sedona to make this a wonderful (relatively short) day.

    Click on the first photo in each group and scroll to see the square photos at full size.
    To start at the beginning of this series, visit The Trip that Started it All 2014

    Tuzigoot National Monument

    Tuzigoot National Monument is the largest and best-preserved of the many Sinagua pueblo ruins in the Verde Valley and was a wonderful start to our trip. It was just east of Clarkdale and so interesting. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the ruins in the Arizona sun while a slight breeze kept us cool. Lots of great pictures of the ruins and the surrounding area and you could see forever. I also got the first western region stamp in our National Parks Passport!

    “Crowning a desert hilltop is an ancient pueblo. A child scans the desert landscape for the arrival of traders. What riches will they bring? What stories will they tell? From the rooftop of the Tuzigoot pueblo it is easy to imagine such a moment. The pueblo shows us this ancient village built by the Sinagua people. They were farmers and artists with trade connections that spanned hundreds of miles.”     – READ MORE

    Verde Canyon Railroad

    The Verde Canyon Railroad is a heritage railroad running between Clarkdale and Perkinsville. The passenger excursion line operates on 20 miles of tracks of the Arizona Central Railroad, with its depot, headquarters and a railway museum in Clarkdale, about 25 miles southwest of Sedona.

    We opted for first class, since it included some snacks, more comfortable seats and access to an open car for better views. Although they say these are snacks and not lunch, there was plenty to keep you filled up for the four-hour trip. The only thing we needed was – you guessed it – a margarita, sold on board (I’m sensing a pattern?). All of the crew was knowledgeable about the history of the railroad and eager to tell their stories.

    “The first excursion train of the Verde Canyon Railroad rolled out of the Clarkdale depot on November 23, 1990. It carried neither freight nor ore, only people. They were not seeking a better way of life, but the beauty of a wild river-carved canyon where eagles nest among high cliffs and wind makes music in the cottonwoods.” ~ READ MORE

    Of course we did a little shopping on the way in and out of Sedona, but you’ll just learn to expect that!

    Next stop: A Castle and a Ghost Town

    Happy trails,
    Barb

  • Day 1: MKE to PHX to Sedona

    Day 1: MKE to PHX to Sedona

    We flew into Phoenix, but started our vacation in Sedona for seven nights, then to the Grand Canyon for two, and back in Phoenix for five, close to our flight back home. We landed in Phoenix just before noon. Our friends’ flight arrived about a half hour after ours, just as we were finished loading our stuff into the rental car. Hugs all around and we’re off on our Arizona adventure!!

    Click on the first photo in each group and scroll to see the square photos at full size.

    It’s time for lunch!

    Since we were up early that morning two time zones away, we thought we’d check out Barrio Café, a place we had seen on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” several months ago. They gave it a great review and it was conveniently located, only nine minutes from the airport. What a great experience all around! The food was spectacular and the waiter didn’t have to apply much pressure for us to try a Lowrider Margarita (we were starting our vacation after all). Since they were sold out of the entree that Laurie and I wanted, he gave us another margarita to share! Luckily Jim (our driver) abstained, since they had a nice kick! I totally forget what we had for lunch, although I remember it was delicious! Woo hoo!

    Take the Scenic Route

    Sky Harbor is a pretty simple airport to get around in. Driving into the Phoenix traffic is another story. Since driving to Sedona was at least a two-hour trip (all the way through the Phoenix traffic and then up the interstate a ways), we opted for a scenic route up Hwy 87 through Payson, Pine, Camp Verde and then into Sedona. Not sure it was totally worth it, since we encountered a burning truck that stopped up traffic for HOURS. We were worn out from the early morning and all of a sudden very sleepy (hmm, margaritas?). Because of that delay, we didn’t even stop as we passed the small towns we had hoped to explore on the way through. We just wanted to get checked in, unpacked and relax in our timeshare.

    We booked The Ridge On Sedona Golf Resort, a beautiful Diamond Resorts International® condo thru RCI®. With two bedrooms, a living room and a full kitchen, we were able to save money by having several meals at “home”. The pool was great, with wonderful views of Sedona’s red rocks. It was very close to shopping, restaurants and shopping. Did I mention shopping? Since rarely do timeshares have two master units, we let Laurie and John have the 1BR side and we took the studio. In Phoenix we switched.

    Pack your Entire Closet and Enjoy!

    PS: One disadvantage of visiting the entire state of Arizona (with its variety of elevations) in the spring, is having to pack your whole closet because you’re not sure what the weather might bring. Had our visit been more area-specific, it may have been easier to know what to bring. But you’ll get to know me as we go along – we like to see it all, because you just never know when you’ll be back this way again.

    Welcome to Arizona!

    Next stop:  Tuzigoot, choo choo

    Happy trails,
    Barb