Arizona and the Wild, Wild West: A Road Trip to Mars

Towards the end of 2018, I decided I was done waiting for people to travel with and decided I’d set out on some solo adventures. My goal for 2019 is to take one trip a month (at a very minimum) just to attempt to satisfy the desire to travel that has been burning deep in my heart. I’ve spent the past year racking up points with credit cards and bonuses and it’s time to start putting them to use.

*That little crevasse was actually 1000 feet down!*

I decided to try to use my Southwest points first (fairly arbitrary decision) and ended up being drawn to Arizona and the great southwest. Through Instagram (classic), I’d seen several places that looked like Bucket List type destinations, incredible natural wonders, and places that looked straight out of Mars so I thought that’d be a fun way to start a year of travel. When I had booked my trip, my dad saw a couple free days in his schedule and decided to join! So we booked our flights and started planning…

I flew in a day before my dad was going to arrive so I had booked an Airbnb in advance so I could crash for a night before meeting up with him. So obviously I chose to stay at the Space Hut Time Machine. The backyard of the property was stuffed with old planes, a spray painted bus, and a hut made out of recycled materials, just big enough for my luggage and me. After settling in, I made my way to the Welcome Diner just down the street for a late and much needed dinner after a day of travel. I had read several reviews on restaurants in the area and the Welcome Diner was always at the top of the list. And it did not disappoint! I grabbed a seat at the bar top, ordered the special of the night (some sort of fried buffalo chicken, wrapped in bacon, with melted blue cheese, some sort of aioli, and other stuff I can’t pronounce or remember), and just soaked in the atmosphere. It’s definitely a 10/10 would recommend type of place.

SEDONA, AZ

Since I had a full day to myself before picking up my dad back in Phoenix, I decided to drive up to Sedona for sunrise. Airport Loop seemed to be the recommend place to go for a sunrise, so I woke up at 4:30, showered outside in the dark, and hit the road. With some iced Mickey D’s coffee in hand (if you know, you know…), I arrived about 10 minutes before sunrise and made the short trek up the path to get a view of Sedona and the sun coming over the mountains.

It was an incredible view with the sun rising in the east, and the rays illuminating the mountains to the west. Even the below freezing temps couldn’t squelch the beauty of the brisk, peaceful morning.

Mid-afternoon I met up with Brant (my grandma’s, oldest brother’s grandson… so my second cousin maybe?) in Sedona at a Burger King. We spent the next couple hours driving around Sedona trying to find a couple sweet views from great lookouts and catching up on 24+ years of cousinhood that we’d missed out on before heading to Devil’s Bridge, the first major stop on my Arizona road trip list.

It’s just about a mile hike from the parking area – (well, a mile if you have a high clearance vehicle which I did, otherwise it’s about 2 miles) – and at 6,000 ft. of elevation you definitely feel more winded than you normally would. There were only a handful of people at the top when we finally made it, which made for some great photos! With so many natural wonders being in areas where you need to pay money to see them, it was definitely a bonus to enjoy this view for free.

*Little candid shot at Devil’s Bridge. What a view!*

PAGE, AZ

After picking up my dad the night before, we headed out early in the morning, again with some Mickey D’s in hand. We arrived in Page, AZ early afternoon after making the 4-hour drive north from Phoenix, which was one of the more incredible drives I’ve ever taken. So much of the land is barren, red, and undulating with mounds, hills, and mountains. Every few minutes it seemed like one of us would say, “Wow, this could be Mars…”. Having grown up in the Midwest, just about anything that’s not a flat cornfield leaves me breathless. Arizona is just so vast and remote; it truly is the Wild West.

The first thing we did was make the five-mile drive outside of town to see Horseshoe Bend. If you’ve been on Instagram at all in the last couple years, there’s a good chance you’ve seen pictures of this place. BUT, what you can’t gather from a picture or a well taken wide-angle lens shot, is just the absolutely magnitude of the thing. The bend is downright MASSIVE. From pictures, how deep do you think it is? 100 feet? 200 feet tops? Try over 1,000 feet to the bottom.

*Words simply don’t do this place justice.*

Once again, this place is free to visit which is why there has been such an uptick in visitors the last few years. Being white Americans, we were easily the minority on the day we went as it was packed with Orientals. Horseshoe Bend is one of those places that makes you stand in awe and realize how powerful nature is. When you realize just how long it took to make the canyon and form the depth of the bend, you will be blown away. It seems to have a pull that drags visitors closer and closer to the edge of the cliff for a better view, picture, or selfie. But be careful though. Multiple people over the last couple years have fallen to their death while attempting to take selfies near the edge. There is only a short portion of the cliff that has a railing so please, please, please be careful!

The next morning, we headed just out of town again to meet up with Dixie Ellis, a tour company that provides guided tours of Antelope Canyon! We got there a little early and were invited to go with an earlier group which worked perfectly. Our guide, Brandon, was a Navajo and did a fantastic job explaining the history of the canyon, how it was formed, and even shared details about some of the Navajo history of the area.

I debated for a while prior to the trip on which part of the canyon to book a tour for. I had heard that the upper portion of the canyon was “way” better than the lower portion, but that the lower portion was much less crowded and significantly cheaper. I decided to go with the lower portion (primarily for the reduced crowds), and I’m SO glad I did! The canyon was stunning! No part about it was a let down and I would go to the Lower Canyon in a heartbeat again!

Antelope Canyon is one of those natural wonders where around every turn it looks the same, yet it looks completely different. The winding sandstone, the smooth, wavy surface, and giant walls create some of the most brilliant colors and shadows you can imagine. That’s what 200 million years (for my long earth theorists) of water, pressure, and wind will do.

MONUMENT VALLEY, AZ/UT

After driving a few hours to the east, through vast terrain that again seemed more appropriate on Mars, we pulled into the remote Navajo town of Monument Valley, AZ. There are two main hotels here and we stayed at Goulding’s Lodge. It’s built almost right into the side of a sandstone mountain on the Arizona side of the town. Service and WiFi are pretty poor all the way out there so just be prepared, but with the views that this area provides, there’s really no need for it.

The one place I really wanted to see was the place where Forrest Gump stops running. Super specific, right? I figured it’d be pretty obvious – long road, monuments in the background, million-dollar view, ya know? But it wasn’t. I even asked the ladies at the front desk of our hotel for the best, most iconic view and they directed us to a $20, 17-mile off-roading loop through the monuments – which was incredible in and of itself, but it wasn’t what I was looking for.

After leaving the loop, we figured there was only one place the iconic view could be; there’s only four directions to go, and we had driven down three of them already. So we made a right turn and headed towards Utah.

Twelve miles later. We found it. A long stretch of road leading straight towards Monument Valley! It was beautiful with the sunset and pictures don’t do it justice. It was getting cold and we were hungry so we headed back to the hotel for a quick bite and decided to head back to the spot once the sun had set to see if we could figure out how to get some night time shots of the sky (total amateur photographer here).

If you’ve ever seen Lion King, do you remember when Pumba, Simba, and Timon are lying in the grass and philosophically discussing the “big bluish black thing”? Remember how many stars there were? Now imagine that times 1000. I’ve never seen so many stars with the naked eye. It was stunning. Brilliant. Spectacular. All of the words.

We had so much fun trying to take pictures and smoking a cigar and just laughing at how truly awe-some this all was. It was a night with my Pops that I’ll never forget.