In order to miss L.A. traffic, we left San Diego just before dawn. Unlike in Canada, we were less worried about running into any early rising, road-hopping wildlife. After driving north for two and a half hours we rolled in to the Californian desert city of Palm Springs. We say 'rolled in', because along the way, we passed a lot of fellow, authentic tumbleweeds rolling around in the windy fields. A couple of them even bounced across the road ahead of us as we drove by!
While in Palm Springs, we had brunch at Cheeky's, which was just superb. This area is a bit of a retirement haven for folks, due its lovely weather – and this is perhaps why the average age of customers was a tad on the older side.
Our decision to travel via Palm Springs, took us a bit off-course, which meant that we would need to do a lot of driving to make it to Phoenix by nightfall. So, after brunch we continued east, through Palm Desert heading towards Arizona - home of canyons, cactus and the real-life roadrunner birds.
Colin was really surprised when he saw his first Saguaro cactus while looking out the car window, as he had only ever seen them before on spaghetti westerns and in cartoons. As we drove along there were many of these cactus 'creatures', standing tall with their long arms waving a welcome towards us. We stopped to meet our first spiky ‘friend’ in person, beside a gas station and they are ginormous.
Because of traffic and a few wrong turns, it had become dark by the time we arrived at the university town of Phoenix - we were both very tired as we stumbled into our hotel room. The most remarkable thing about the place we stayed at, was the 50's music that they piped throughout the courtyard and could be heard from all the rooms, late into the night. That, and waking up very early to the sound of birds chirping. The incessant bird noises came from the aviary on the property which is a useful hotel 'feature' to help wake your guests up early. Apart from this quick stop, we did not spend a lot of time in Phoenix, instead we headed directly on to Tucson the next morning.
The quick drive was enjoyable and had us passing by cotton fields which were mostly harvested at this time of the year. We visited the Saguaro National Park, where we did some scenic drives and found ourselves completely surrounded by giant cacti. We hiked up Signal Hill and saw some petroglyphs, which are thousand-year-old rock-drawings (ancient graffiti?) made by the Hohokam Peoples.
One interesting attraction in Tucson is their aircraft boneyard where the ‘bodies’ of over 4,400 retired aircraft are neatly lined up and organized over a 2,600-acre site. Many of these aircraft are in pieces, as parts have been taken off of them to use on other working aircraft. After breakfast, we drove around the perimeter of this amazing location and stopped to view the old planes, many of which were left over from World War II. Next we went over to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which was scenic, fantastic and informative. The following day we made our way back north to Sedona, with its beautiful red rock formations. With an altitude of over 4,000 feet above sea level, we also saw snow peaked mountains in the distance – these red hills and snow peaked mountains looked as if they were painted onto the horizon, like cardboard cutouts stolen from a Hollywood movie set, or perhaps something from an adventure to Mars. Quite a difference from the cacti-riddled desert we had left behind that morning! Along the way, we stopped to do a short hike to Montezuma's Castle National Monument, which is a preserved dwelling built in the side of a mountain by the Sinagua people around 1100 AD.
As we arrived in Sedona the amazing shadows and colours brought on by the late-afternoon setting sun made the rocks and mountains come to life. It was definitely the 'magic hour' from a photographer’s point of view, and we wish we had spent more time taking pictures while we had the chance! Instead, we checked into our hotel and went for dinner at a nearby restaurant called Relics which has been around these parts for the last 70 years.
In the morning we attempted to take a few photographs of the images of the mountains we had seen last night, but somehow with the bright sun blazing above us, there seemed to be no magic in the air.
We had considered and then decided, regrettably not to head out to see Monument Valley, despite recommendations on how amazing it looked (sorry Steve and Michelle!) - it was just too far away for us for this trip. Instead, our last photo-op in Arizona, before travelling to New Mexico was along the old route-66 highway. Melissa is a bit of a fan of the band The Eagles and of course she had to stand on the corner of Winslow, Arizona – such a fine sight to see!
Next up: Totally Awesome Texas
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