Trip report - Arizona, April 2025

In mid-April, I hastily threw together a weeklong family trip to Arizona. This had nothing to do with gambling, and in fact I did not gamble at all the entire time, aside from a few sportsbets placed online.

It was all driving, starting from the LA area.


Leg 1: LA area to Laughlin

Drove late at night. Despite the trek being about 330 miles, I tacked on a little detour so we could do the "coming down the mountain into Laughlin" drive, which is kinda cool at night, and looks like you're landing an airplane. I rented a Nissan Pathfinder because my SUV is old with 124,000 miles and I don't trust it.

I didn't take a picture of this, though I should have. Ben thought it was cool, even though he was very tired. We stayed at Harrah's Laughlin.

At checkin, we got a really new girl at the front desk who had no clue what she was doing, and then she fucked up my reservation somehow and it had to be reconstructed. Then the computer crashed because it was 3am or whatever, and the system goes down for maintenance. Had to sit there like an asshole for like 20 minutes until finally it came back up and they checked us in, all while the more senior employee was training the new one, which made it even slower.

I asked if I could have something for the trouble, like a reduction on my bill (though I was only paying $55), and they looked at me like I was from another planet. I asked if they could give me a food credit, and the (more senior) woman said, "Oh, we don't do that. We have no way to do that." I just dropped it and went up to the room, as everyone was tired.

Room was a lot more rundown than I remembered Harrah's being. Kinda depressing, to be honest. But it got the job done, as it was just a stopover because driving straight to Sedona was too far. I thought I took some pics here, but I guess I didn't. All we did was briefly walk out and look at the river.



Leg 2: Laughlin to Sedona through Oatman

I tried to surprise Ben by telling him we were going to a "weird place in the middle of nowhere", and he asked me, "Are we going to Oatman?" I was shocked by this, as even I hadn't heard of Oatman until recently. Ben told me that he had seen it on a YouTube video. Of course.

Oatman is a small, tourist trap "old west" town, complete with a (fairly boring) staged gunbattle in the street, which actually holds up traffic for like 25 minutes at a time. However, there's one cool thing about Oatman, which isn't touristy or contrived at all:

There are wild donkeys roaming around the entire area, and they're very friendly. These donkeys are NOT part of the ownership in Oatman, and just live in the wild in the general area. They've learned that people near Oatman like to feed them, so that's where a lot of them hang out. Others hang out near the road, both a few miles in and a few miles out of town.

Here's the first one we encountered:





In Oatman, they sell food for the donkeys, which are hard green chunks which resemble condensed hay. However, the donkeys hate this stuff, and aren't interested in it. What did this guy above like? Pringles. He loved my Pringles, hence his willingness to pose for the above picture.

This was actually taken about a mile before Oatman.

After the stop there, we moved on and made the long drive to Sedona, through Flagstaff.

Would you expect Arizona to look like this in mid-April?



Well, it did. This was at about 7,000 feet elevation, near Flagstaff. I got off the highway and just randomly drove, until I encountered a fairly good dirt road and just kept driving until I found a nice snowplay area. After that, I kept driving on the dirt road, which I realized loops around back to the highway, and took the above picture on the way.

Leg 3: Sedona

Once we got to Sedona, we stayed in a hotel there on the main drag. Great location, mediocre hotel. Not at all worth the price they charge, but I got a Jew deal on it so I felt better.

On the first day in Sedona, we drove north up route 89A. We had gone south on this route the night before, but it was dark, so this would be the first time we'd see the scenery. It was mostly underwhelming. You go up a mountain, and you'd expect the views to be excellent, but you actually see better stuff right in town. The mountains mostly get in the way of the good views. The much-heralded stops along 89A were also a disappointment. There is a view area called "Oak Creek Vista" which is managed by an Indian tribe, and is so ordinary that you wonder what you're exactly supposed to be seeing. It's high up, sure, but nothing below is particularly interesting.

"Slide Rock State Park" is another tourist trap. Not sure if it's run by Indians, but it closes by 5pm, and is basically a place where you can swim in the water among the rocks there. Would be nice if you could be there with limited people, but it's always jam-packed if the weather is warm, and it reminded me of a public pool. It also costs money to enter. I skipped it.

So what did we end up doing with the rest of the day?

After being otherwise dissatisfied with the the 89A drive, I googled any sight people liked, and found something called "Chieftain's Rock". Parking was a bit sketchy. I had to squeeze into a shoulder along the highway, and park the car at an angle, to where I had to worry if it would tip over. Fortunately, it didn't.

After searching for the entrance to the trail, I found it. Started off steep right away, but would it really continue that way?

The answer was YES. I accidentally found one of the more challenging trails in Sedona, and I hadn't hiked in several months. Plus I'm 53 years old and was near 250 pounds at the time. Oops!

Regardless, we all pushed forward and kept climbing. It was very scenic, and unlike the rest of Sedona, COMPLETELY EMPTY.

Here's a pic I took while walking up:




It turned out this was the Sterling Pass Trail, a 4.1-mile hike up a very steep, rocky, and somewhat slippery (though dry) trail! Had I read the reviews beforehand, there's no fucking way I would have taken it. Not only did people warn that it was "very hard" and not to go unless you had hiking equipment (I didn't), but there were reports of "numerous injuries" on the trail over the years. I could see why!

Anyway, I survived. Despite the difficulty, I enjoyed the hike upwards. Loved the scenery. I had a hard time locating what was "Chieftain's Rock", one of the listed highlights of the trail. Finally I figured it out:

My picture:



The Cheiftan, as shown on the internet:





I really, really, really dreaded going down. I knew it was steep, slippery, and narrow. My knees were already hurting from the hike up. I'm also 6'2" and 53 years old, both of which make steep downhill hiking more challenging. I took it slowly. By the end, my knees were in such pain that they were trembling, and I figured I fucked up the rest of the trip by overdoing it on this hike. Nope! Somehow they completely recovered overnight, and I woke up with almost no trace of the prior day's pain.

Despite the difficulty and the knee pain, I still very much enjoyed this hike, though it's one I wouldn't repeat until I'm lighter and in better shape. I remarked at the end that I was probably the heaviest person to have completed this hike in quite some time, which is probably true. The only other people we saw the entire time were two mid-30s gay guys, who were short, thin, and in good shape. They were definitely locals, as I heard them talking about various jobs they had in town. Sedona has a fairly high percentage gay population, for whatever reason.



At night, we found out the bad news that Sedona shuts down early. We finished this hike about 10 minutes after it was fully dark. By the time we got back to the hotel and showered, it was well after 8. The restaurants are mostly open "until 9", but we found that almost every one of them actually shut down around 8:30. We ended up having to drive to the other side of town and eat at a mediocre Mexican place -- one of the very few places open in Sedona after 9.

Seriously, it appears to be a complete ghost town after 9pm. I didn't even see any bars open. I guess they count on everyone to go to bed early so they can wake up and do activities in the morning.

Weather was very good. No rain, not hot, not cold. April in Sedona is a very nice time, weather-wise. Due to the elevation, it's cold in the winter, but yet it's hot in the summer because it's not high enough to stay cool.

We had another full day in Sedona.

This one had to be less strenuous because Ben was worn out from the previous day's tough hike, and I didn't want to aggravate my knees into hurting again.

We went south to another State Park which closes at 5. Why do they do this in Sedona, when the sun sets much later?? (At least the Sterling Pass hike above has no closing time, as it's off the beaten path and not managed by anyone or anything!)

This was Red Rock State Park, which had some mild trails. These were moderately interesting, yet nothing we hadn't already seen by driving around the area. Sedona has beautiful red rock scenery wherever you look, from right in town, so you don't have to go off the beaten path to see things. Anyway, it was a good choice for that day, given our desire to take it easy. We took a drive on "Red Rock Loop Drive" after, which was scenic -- more than the State Park itself.

The next day, we woke up and went south, but didn't leave the general Sedona area quite yet....


Leg 4: Mongollon Rim Drive

Mongollon Rim Drive is a little-known destination in the Sedona area to the southeast. It is sometimes compared to the Grand Canyon, as you are doing a (sometimes dangerous) drive on a dirt road winding along the top of a canyon, with sheer drops of thousands of feet.

It mainly was for this drive that I rented the Pathfinder.

The pictures don't do it justice, as it doesn't look like you're as high up as you really are. But here is one anyway:



In case you think I'm exaggerating about the road being dangerous, here's one section of it, which accommodates 2 way traffic. Notice the lack of guardrails -- or anything blocking you from tipping over the side.




As a bonus, we found a horny toad at one of the stops we made, which I had never seen before. They typically camouflage very well, and are hard to spot.





The road was 45 miles long, and was dirt most of the way. By the end, I was really tired of driving on dirt roads, and wanted to see pavement. We also tried to go off the main road, which was fun until we encountered a huge puddle of water which seemed deep enough to get us stuck. Given the lack of cell service, I opted to turn around and go back.

Mongollon Rim Drive begins on highway 87, a little bit northeast of Strawberry, AZ (where there are no strawberries), and ends on highway 260 a little bit west of Forest Lakes. You have to drive a good deal back on the 260 (which is fast) to return to the area where you started.



Earlier that day, we visited Montezuma's Castle National Monument, a quick stop where you see a small town that ancient natives built into the mountain. The below pic is not mine, but everyone's pics look the same, so who cares...

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/6...20MONUMENT.png


We continued driving south and stayed overnight in Globe, Arizona, where there isn't anything interesting, but it was a good stopping point.





I'll complete the rest of the trip report later. Hope you're enjoying it so far. The end of the trip involved Tucson and Phoenix areas.

Great pictures.

Harrahs is absolutely a dump, they haven’t reinvested in many years. Surprised you couldn’t get a comp with even a little play history at their other properties.

Not sure if you stopped in Prescott, very interesting old town with Whiskey Row. Obviously a lot of bars but also a few historical things to see for a family. Also home of Colt BBQ, which is a throwback to our old friend Chrissy.

You should post the route you took on a map. Readers would appreciate the journey better.

It’s a little inside baseball otherwise.

Bonus jealous-of-Arizona gasoline pic:

In California, regular unleaded is close to $5/gallon

For Sanlmar... the map so far (starting from Laughlin):




I'm going to continue southeast, close to the New Mexico border, before turning and going back to Tucson and Phoenix.

what so you guys gonna make me be the first one to say it ok fine,

hey dangiel respectfully respectfully mind you can you keep your non denominational possibly jew beak out of the great state of az tell ur giant son ur going to utah or

something we cant have you inhaling all the good peoples air

Best,

Gay sex

Time to continue.

Leg 5: Globe to Chiricahua National Monument

After reading about everyone raving about Chiricahua National Monument, I decided we had to go there. The problem? It's in the middle of nowhere. It is not close to anything, nor is it likely you'll pass it on the way to anything. It's 120 miles east of Tucson, close to the New Mexico border.

Its scenery has some similarity to Bryce Canyon in Utah.

The below is not my picture, and in fact is from the NPS website, but it's generally what you'll see around the park:

https://www.nps.gov/common/uploads/g...y=90&mode=crop


Chiricahua has 4.9 stars on Google Reviews, and everyone on Reddit seems to think it's the best thing to see in Arizona. I disagree. It is interesting, but not anything close to a must-see, and arguably not worth the out-of-the-way drive. I should mention that gas in Arizona is cheap, and I was driving a rental car, so driving a lot of extra miles wasn't a big deal, aside from taking some extra time. Some of that drive was scenic, some was boring.

Before I get to my experience in Chiricahua, I should mention something about Globe. I expected a tiny, hick town. Globe was bigger than that. The population is about 7,000, but it looks larger when you drive through it.

Laughably, the Denny's (the only one we ate at the entire trip) was owned by some major cheapskate. If you order the "sampler" at Denny's, you can have 8 items of any kind you like -- mozzarella sticks, onion rings, or chicken strips. The Jew play here is to get all chicken strips, as they are the most expensive normally (and also taste the best). At every single Denny's in the country, you can do this, and I have for decades....

... until Globe, Arizona. I was told that I can't do it, and in fact they freaked out and said that a waitress got fired the night before for allowing someone else to do it! They were in fact suspicious that I had something to do with the guy the night before who did it and "got away with it". Can you believe this? I got a big lecture about how the chicken strips are expensive, and they lose money when I do this. Are you fucking kidding me? Anyway, I backed down and just ordered the normal chicken strips appetizer. Initially my plan was to get the sampler with 8 strips, share it with Ben, and also buy a fries for us to share. The servers there were all trashy and bitchy. Honestly it's one of the worst Denny's I've visited, and that's a low bar!


But back to Chiricahua. It's 160 miles from Globe. By the time we got into the monument, it was like 5pm. Thankfully this wasn't Sedona where every fucking thing closes at 5. Chiricahua is actually open 24 hours a day, and in fact they encourage you to come at night for stargazing, since it's certified as an "official dark sky" area.



There is one main road within the park, which leads to a peak where you can do a short walk around the area (including some pretty interesting rock formations), and a decent sized parking lot where you can hang out if you want to view the stars at night.

On the way up, I randomly pulled off to a parking lot labeled "Sugarloaf", which has the Sugarloaf Trail up Sugarloaf Mountain. The trail is 2 miles round trip, but gains almost 500 feet elevation in the one mile you hike up, making the average grade about 10%, and a lot steeper in some places. It was a workout, though easy compared to the tough Sterling Pass Trail in Sedona. This takes you to an elevation of 7310 -- the actual peak in the park, as the "peak" at the end of the drive is only slightly higher than the Sugarloaf trailhead!

Pretty nice views up top:





Out in the distance you can see New Mexico, which is about 30 miles away.




There was a weird structure built at the peak, which is an old fire lookout tower. It wasn't in good condition, and there were paint cans and construction equipment sitting inside. Maybe they're restoring it? It's locked. I told Benjamin at first that I booked that cabin and was frustrated to see it was locked and unfinished.

https://www.americansouthwest.net/ar...kout-tower.jpg




We decided to stay until nightfall and look at the stars. The park was absolutely abandoned. We didn't see another soul, aside from two women on the hike up Sugarloaf. We were lying on the ground and looking up, and saw a few meteors because it was the night of a meteor shower. Oddly, despite being certified and "official dark sky" location, we saw some glowing out in the distance on the horizon, which we couldn't understand. It's not close to anything, so I don't know what we were seeing. It wasn't quite as dark as advertised.

We then went down the mountain, and had another 120 miles to Tucson. I will talk about Tucson in the next post, and the surprisingly good hotel I found there.

You shouldve done the drive from Sedona up to Jerome. Now its a little scary at times with the switchbacks but its really an amazing view up there. and Yes folks it snows in Arizona quite alot in some places once your up in the northern 1/3 of the state. Snowbowl a little north of Flagstaff gets as much snow as Buffalo NY, but the jackpot is Jacobs Lake area which avgs over 250" a year. The northern Snowfall helps refill the ground water storage down here in the valley every spring however it has a habit of flooding out some roads as its running down into the valley often on the east side of the valley amongst the Salt River Indian land.

Leg 6: Tucson

I had never been to Tucson before. I've been to just about every part of the states in the Pacific and Mountain time zones, but Tucson has always eluded me. It was time to finally visit Tucson.

I should stop and mention the fact that I had promised Benjamin a trip to Hawaii, and then some things happened and I wasn't able to provide a trip to Hawaii. Maybe I lost the trip money at Commerce. Anything's possible.

This was the substitute trip, and obviously replacing Hawaii with Arizona can be a huge downgrade. Ben asked if there would be any swimming on this trip. I realized that all of the above stops and activities did not involve swimming, except for perhaps a brief dip in a hotel pool. I decided to search for the best pool scene in Tucson, if such a thing even existed. Google kept returning one place -- the JW Marriott Tucson at Starr Pass.

This is a weird, sprawling resort up a hill in Tucson. It bears the "JW Marriott" name because it's supposed to be a signature Marriott property, but I feared that it might be a relic of the '80s, still living off its old glory. Hotels age very quickly. If not renovated, a 15-year-old hotel can look old and beaten up. Can you imagine what happens after 40 years? It can turn a onetime luxury destination into a dilapidated dump, and I've seen many examples of this. Many luxury hotels of my childhood are now rundown, and are simply surviving via their name and onetime reputation.

Even more concerning, the JW Marriott had mixed reviews. Some people liked it, but some had complaints. But it looked pretty good on the website, and everyone raved about the pool area, which contained a waterslide, lazy river, and two regular pools.

The place was going for around $400/night, but I was able to find a way to Jew myself into $220 or so, before tax. I also acquired Marriott Gold status via a match with another program, specifically for this visit, hoping to get an upgrade.

After our night at Chiricahua, the 2-hour or so drive to Tucson, and our late night sit down meal (fortunately I found a decent chain bar-and-grill still open), we didn't pull into the resort until after 1am.

I went inside and saw an extremely impressive lobby. All of the hotels before this one were very ordinary. Now I felt like I was truly at a luxury property, and it was elegant yet not overly ornate, definitely not rundown at all.

Checkin had some fail. They had failed to hold the room location I was promised, due to some communication error. They scrambled to find me something, and offered me a "pool view" room which I declined. They were surprised to hear me decline it, telling me that "everyone considers it an upgrade". I told them that pool views aren't a big deal to me, and in fact it would likely be noisy in the morning while we'd be sleeping. I asked for a view of a "quiet" area.

:baddecision

They gave me a "4th floor" room, facing "the mountains". That sounded good, until I got up there. This was no 4th floor. In fact, had I jumped off the balcony, I could have done so without even getting hurt -- at least in my younger days. This was actually the SECOND floor, as the lobby was considered "floor 3", due to the property being built against the hill. Even worse, we were directly overlooking the valet area where all the pretentious assholes drive up in their Mercedes Bendzes (shout out to desertrunner), and laugh among themselves as the bellman loads their bags. Not only was this an unappealing view, but it looked like it would be quite loud.

I went back down to reject the room. I expected them to be snotty or nasty that I was being so difficult about this, but instead they were surprisingly polite and cheerful. However, for whatever reason, they either weren't understanding or pretending not to understand my point that the 4th floor is really the 2nd floor. Finally, I was offered a room in "building 6". I was told that, yes, it had the "pool view" I didn't want, but that the only pool nearby was a small pool only opened to top tier Marriott members, and usually is empty. The building was also a long walk away from the lobby -- and the complete opposite direction of the room they just assigned me! Crap!! I wasn't looking forward to moving the stuff, nor did I want to wait for any bellman to do it, and I had a feeling the new room might be full of fail. I asked if I could take a look at it before accepting it, and they said yes. They gave me my keys...

Do you think it was a failroom?

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.
.
.
.

No, it was not! It was a great room. This was a HUGE upgrade over the first one. I understood what they meant about everyone wanting it, and I felt foolish for previously rejecting it. First off, while also being on the 4th floor, this was an actual 4th floor, as the back of the building wasn't against the hill. Second, indeed there was just one smallish pool below me, and almost nobody used it. The main pool area was far enough not to be audible. Third, it had a surprisingly nice view at night of both the resort itself and the Tucson city lights...




I took the above picture from our balcony.

The room itself was also very nice. It was not a suite, but was large for a regular room. The bathroom was very nice, almost resembling a suite bathroom. Even the in-room refrigerator was a high end model, with a transparent door.

I ran back to the front desk, told them I was happy with this new room, and grabbed our stuff from the old room. While the walk to the new room was indeed far, I did find some advantages to its location. It was the closest building to the parking lot, which was otherwise very far away from every other building. It had a Starbucks on the first floor, and no other building had such a thing. And we had that view.

The resort itself screamed "1980s luxury". The elevators were even plated in fake gold. It didn't look modern, but it had a high-end elegance to it which was neither gaudy (aside from the elevators) nor worn down. You felt like you were transported back to 1986, in what was seen as the hotel for rich people. It felt especially good to be in a place like this for $220 per night -- only a little bit more than I'd be paying for the Hampton Inn.

The pool scene was indeed very nice. We started in the lazy river (which also had the waterslide), then eventually moved over to the main pool area. When we first arrived, we noticed all of the umbrella-loungers were taken, but there were some umbrellas sitting in the corner which weren't being used. I asked if we could move two of the umbrellas, and I was told that an "accident" involving a guest moving them happened 3 weeks prior, and now this was forbidden. Instead, I was offered a "daybed" for free, which otherwise costs money.

In case you're wondering what a daybed is, it looks something like this (I got this picture from the internet, and it's not of the Marriott's daybeds, but it's similar, except it has a non-transparent ceiling):

https://img.waimaoniu.net/2089/2089-...1518321830.jpg


This was very nice to have, especially with the high temperatures in the low 90s.

This was the first hot day we encountered. We arrived in Laughlin during an unusual cold spell in the west, and after that, we went to elevation in Sedona and Chiricahua, so we had not been anywhere hot yet.

I opened up the Jew wallet a bit and ordered some food to the daybed (I almost never do this), which was a little expensive but not outrageous.

We had a very nice day there by the pool, and we set out to see the one natural sight in Tucson -- the saguaro cacti.

In case you haven't heard of them, the saguaros are the cacti which are especially tall. Tucson is full of them, and in fact they have two national parks dedicated to them. I'll post the cacti in the next message.

I do want to say that I loved the JW Marriott. The staff was very nice and accommodating, while not coming off as phony or snooty. The place was older but well kept. You could even take a little cart over to the golf area, and drive balls in their range for free. I never did this, but that was a cool little extra they offered. The only knock against the place is that it's got an incredibly confusing layout, and you need to do a lot of walking within it to get anywhere.

Saguaro National Parks

There are two Saguaro National Parks -- one called "east" and one called "west".

Both are in the Tucson area. We did one in the early evening, and one during the next day.

East:







This is what they look like internally:






West:






Look at these weird non-saguaro cacti, also in the park, which are full of thorns. One of them got me on a hike, but fortunately I was able to pick the thorns out and feel okay after a few hours.







After this, we made the drive to Phoenix, mostly just to stay overnight and then drive home.

Here's a bonus picture of a dead saguaro cactus branch. It was on the ground, and Ben took it home as a souvenir.

Leg 7: Tucson to Phoenix


It was about another 120 miles from Tucson to Phoenix.

This drive is not scenic. It's just highway driving. I booked a place in the northwest area of Phoenix just in case we did some fishing there, but we ended up not having time, plus it was too hot.

We did eat downtown right by Chase Field. People were there for the game, but we didn't attend, as it didn't involve the Dodgers. Had the Dodgers been in town, I would have made time for it.

Before leaving, I wanted to go by the famed "Mel's Diner" -- the exterior of the actual diner which was used for the '70s sitcom "Alice". I was a big fan of the show as a kid, so I really wanted to see this, and somehow I overlooked it every other time I had been to Phoenix in the past (which was actually fairly numerous).

The inside of the diner is nothing like what was depicted on the TV show, nor was the show ever based on that.

According to our own Harry Hollywood:

--

This external shot of the sign at Mel's Diner is probably memorable to you if you watched the show...

https://www.tigerstrypes.com/wp-cont...07/14ozcup.jpg


Was this sign really made just for the show's theme song?

Actually, it wasn't. This is a real sign producers found at a roadside Phoenix establishment called "Chris' Diner", and they liked it so much that they asked the owner if they could use it for the show. The owner did them one better. He changed the name to Mel's Diner, and allowed the show to alter his sign to their liking.

---


Here is the sign today. Notice they still have the coffee cup, but it now just says "Mel's" on it, rather than "14 oz cup", probably because their cups now aren't 14 ounces!

Leg 8: Phoenix to Joshua Tree National Park

With little to do the final day other than see downtown Phoenix & Chase Field, and stop at Mel's Diner, we decided to throw something in on the drive home.

Joshua Tree National Park is in the Palm Springs area, and is a decent stop if you're in the neighborhood. It was getting dark by the time we went there, and it's a large park, so we didn't have time to do a lot of stopping or take a lot of pictures.

There is a peak within the park with a pretty cool view of the Palm Springs area, and they provide free telescopes to look down there. You can actually see it clearly enough through the telescopes to see individual cars and traffic lights.

I'm going to do something right now that I've never done before. I'm going to post a picture of Benjamin! You won't be able to see much of him, as he was bundled up because it was COLD up there. Not only is the altitude fairly high, but a cold front was moving in, which was going to drop rain on us very shortly. It was about 40 degrees with a howling wind, which made it feel freezing. We did bring heavy jackets and hats, but only had regular pants on. It was hard to believe it had just been in the mid-90s earlier in the day, back in Phoenix. In case you're wondering, Ben is not overweight at all. The clothes are just bulky. He's about average weight for a boy his age and height.




From there, we drove home, at times a bit of a rough drive because of the extremely high winds and moderate rain coming down.

I hope you enjoyed this trip report. I might be able to dig up a few more pictures later from another device. Second half map will come in the next post. Entire trip length was 8 days:

- 1 night Laughlin
- 3 nights Sedona
- 1 night Globe
- 2 nights Tucson
- 1 night Phoenix

Put a lot of mileage on the Pathfinder, but it's not mine, so who the fuck cares.

Here's the map of the second half I just posted.

I cut it off once we were in Banning and headed to LA. Secret location, and all that.


The part labeled "Keys View" is where Benjamin was, and the very east portion labeled "Massai" was the place we viewed the stars in Chiricahua. You can see how close we got to New Mexico.

I threw this trip together across 2 nights, about a week before we left.

Was a bit challenging to put together an interesting Arizona itinerary, plus book all the hotels (and find what was available), in that short of a timespan. At least there were no flights involved.

Trip was mostly friendly on the Jew wallet, as I was able to get big discounts in the two expensive places (the Sedona hotel, and the JW Marriott in Tucson). Still set me back a few grand when it was all said and done, with the 8 nights of hotels, the car rental, the gas, and the meals.

Enjoyed it. I've now seen pretty much everything in Arizona. Despite getting relatively close to the Grand Canyon when in Flagstaff, we never went there, despite this otherwise being a good time to visit, weather-wise. Just didn't want to deal with the crowds, and I've seen it a million times. Ben also saw it 4 years ago, anyway.

Feel free to ask me any questions if you're interested in visiting any of these places.

Turned out I missed a viewpoint near Sedona which was featured in "National Lampoon's Vacation", which I would have visited and re-created, had I known about it. I found out just weeks after I was there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ftpjesus

You shouldve done the drive from Sedona up to Jerome. Now its a little scary at times with the switchbacks but its really an amazing view up there. and Yes folks it snows in Arizona quite alot in some places once your up in the northern 1/3 of the state. Snowbowl a little north of Flagstaff gets as much snow as Buffalo NY, but the jackpot is Jacobs Lake area which avgs over 250" a year. The northern Snowfall helps refill the ground water storage down here in the valley every spring however it has a habit of flooding out some roads as its running down into the valley often on the east side of the valley amongst the Salt River Indian land.

---

I considered Jerome, but it didn't fit our drive. We came in through Kingman (having been in Laughlin), and Jerome was out of the way and in the wrong direction of the rest of our trip.

I guess that's the one area of the state where I still haven't been.

Nice thread, but that vacation for me is just way too much work. It's why l like cruises, you hop on the boat and don't have to figure out anything. Your food, transportation, entertainment, room, its all decided once you walk on the boat.

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Originally Posted by tgull

Nice thread, but that vacation for me is just way too much work. It's why l like cruises, you hop on the boat and don't have to figure out anything. Your food, transportation, entertainment, room, its all decided once you walk on the boat.

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This one wasn't a lot of work. I got it all planned in 2 nights.

Cripple Creek, Colorado has the donkey's too. Descendents of the donkeys that worked the mines over 100 years ago. They're protected. Have the run of the place.

The best (only) time to shoot the shit with the kid was in the car. But that wasn’t 2025. Did you have a no headphone rule?

In fairness to the kid some arrangement regarding country music must have been struck.

The cactus and water slide are great but it’s about the forced joint confinement in a vehicle. That’s Americana

My clearest memories of family vacations are of being in the back of the station (covered) wagon. This trip will likely be top in Ben’s imprinting.

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Originally Posted by Sanlmar

The best (only) time to shoot the shit with the kid was in the car. But that wasn’t 2025. Did you have a no headphone rule?

In fairness to the kid some arrangement regarding country music must have been struck.

The cactus and water slide are great but it’s about the forced joint confinement in a vehicle. That’s Americana

My clearest memories of family vacations are of being in the back of the station (covered) wagon. This trip will likely be top in Ben’s imprinting.

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He didn't have to go. If he wanted to, he could have stayed home. He wanted to be there.

Regarding the car, it was a mixed bag with the headphones. If it was a "boring" part of the drive, I let him wear the headphones and tune us out. If it was scenic, he would have to take them out and put down the phone.

I tried to mix in general family/sightseeing activities with a few things aimed at him. The snowplay field in Flagstaff and the selection of the hotel with the waterslide and lazy river was for him. The rest would have been done the same way, regardless of his presence.

Sometimes he will complain if the hike seems too long or difficult, but I tell him, "I'm 53 years old and over 240 pounds. If I can do this, so can you."

To be fair, he actually enjoys/appreciates nice scenery more than I did at his age.