In between doctor’s visits and other family obligations while we are in southern California, we try to spend as much time in the Southwest this time of year as possible. For the last few years, we have made it a tradition to hit a few of our favorite spots and also try to see some new ones. We once again left the bustling highways of Los Angeles and headed for the dusty desert roads. This time, we started at Mojave National Preserve.
On the road again. It’s mid-October, we are smack dab in the middle of the US, with plans to trick-or-treat in Los Angeles. So, you think we travel fast now? Haha. Saying goodbye to Kansas and speeding thru Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona to get to California.
We made a mad dash for Page, Arizona after we left Wupatki National Monument because we knew that we would want to catch Horseshoe Bend at dusk. The last time we were there, we were running late as well and ended up catching it at just the right light. Admittedly, this is a place that is hard to get a good photo of. Almost every moment of the day will cast shadows in some part of the canyon and getting enough light to show it at dusk is always a challenge.
When we left Phoenix, we knew that we wanted to make our way eventually to Page, Arizona. We were just there a couple of months ago on our way to California from Albuquerque but since Josh and Jessa had never been, we didn’t mind one bit going back again. Plus, we wanted to hit up all of those National Monuments that were closed when we drove through last time.
Leaving Tombstone meant that we were once again looking for a place to stay for a few days. I have to visit the office in Santa Barbara in a few days so we decided that eventually heading over the Phoenix was the way to go since they have direct flights. But we were not so eager to go to a big city yet. We first made a few stops along the eastern part of the state.
After a short stay in Gilbert Ray, we headed out of Tucson and began making our way further south. Our friends Brian and Leigh had gone to a ‘secret boondocking spot’ just outside of Tombstone and we swore to secrecy that we would not tell where it is if they told us. So don’t ask.
Tucson is one of the first places we took the Airstream when we bought it back in 2008. Even before that, our first longish trip with our previous T@B camper was also here in the winter of 2007 when Ava was barely a year old. We love this place in the winter and have been coming back here almost every year since.
After we left Anza Borrego, we spent a couple of days in Santa Barbara for work and headed back out to the southwest again. This time, we will be doing a pretty big loop through Arizona. First stop, Yuma.
From Page, Arizona there are basically 2 routes out. One is to head south on Highway 89 back down to Flagstaff. We’ve been through Flagstaff several times and it is not that exciting so we chose the other route to head north west through southern Utah. As far as I am concerned, anything involving southern Utah cannot go wrong.
After we left Holbrook, we headed over towards Flagstaff, Arizona to stock up on some supplies and do some housekeeping. One of the things we noticed while living on the road is that we do not spend nearly as much money at Target as we do otherwise. Maybe Target needs to allow RV overnight parking and they will make a lot more money from us.
As we left the Santa Fe and Albuquerque area, we were determined to do some exploring. After all, we have driven across I-40 half a dozen times in the last couple of years and we needed to see something new.
The news of the government shutdown became official this morning as we woke up in the parking lot of Cliff Castle Casino in Camp Verde, AZ. The whole reason why we stayed here last night is because of Montezuma Castle National Monument down the road.
