Arizona

We spent just over two weeks parked in Flagstaff and exploring the surrounding areas. I found a steal of deal on a rental car and while picking it up they upgraded the little Kia to a Jeep Wrangler. Little did they know Meghan’s first love was a Jeep and she desperately wanted one in her early years of driving. Neither the rental agency or I could’ve predicted that in a matter of hours my wife would become an off-road rock crawling fiend, more to come on that later.

Our first two days were spent hanging out with Hans and Theo, we enjoyed taking the dogs for a walk through the national Forest that boarded our RV spot and letting them romp around in the few patches of snow that were left. We also played some highly competitive corn-hole, ping pong, and fusball, and ended the day in the hot tub. Day two we explored a little of downtown Flagstaff, and then headed to Hans’ hotel pool noodles in hand for a swim to beat the heat. On first toe dip it was discovered despite a shocking resemblance, this was no pool. It was a large cold plunge, unheated with night temps in the teens and twenties I fear a polar bear would have also had to bench their pool noodle and retreat to the lounge chairs. We ended the day with a movie night, and the following day Hans continued on his trek toward Telluride.

After a day of general RV chores, we headed south to Phoenix to retrieve our friend Sonya from the airport! The drive there from Flagstaff is incredible, you go from coniferous forests of ponderosa pines with incredible volcanic peaks, to the high desert volcanic plateaus near Sedona with amazing red rock Canyons, and then drop into the Sonoran desert with massive saguaro cacti as far as the eye can see before hitting the city of Phoenix. It’s around 7,000 feet of elevation change and the most drastic transition between biomes I’ve experienced.

The following day we drove through downtown Flagstaff and hiked Old Caves Crater trail, which offered panoramic views of Flagstaff and the surrounding mountain peaks. At the summit of the trail there were a few small craters and caves from old volcanic activity. The hike back down there were a few distant gun shots, Kida deemed the scene not safe and despite many coaxing attempts refused to continue toward the gunshots, thus resulting in her being carried until we reached level ground. I can confirm at 8,000 feet carrying a 40 pound dog down the trail was much closer to killing me then the distant gunshots. Meghan and Sonya manned the grill when we got back and whipped up a phenomenal steak dinner while I prepped the base and frosting for a fruit pizza for dessert. The fruit placement became a group art activity taking around two hours to meticulously place each piece and decide the design.

The following day we had to pivot plans due to forest road closures and ended up spending the day exploring Sedona. We packed a picnic lunch, chairs and went in search of a specific “Jeep trail” that was reported to have incredible views of Sedona. After a wee bit of trial and error we found the trail, Meghan giddy as can be enjoyed crawling along the rough road which ended with a small hike up a hill and stunning views of the surrounding red rock. We ate our picnic lunch here and headed to our next hiking spot when the party was crashed by a jeep tour group. The next hike was short and sweet, and lead to some incredible red rock features.

The Grand Canyon was our next exploration the following day. Sonya, Meghan, and I arrived just after noon, hiked a small portion of the bright angel trail, ate our packed lunch, and wandered through various gift shops and galleries before meeting up with Hans and Theo again and walking a portion of the south rim trail. We stayed for sunset which was absolutely incredible. The sheer vastness of the Grand Canyon is astonishing and almost disorienting to walk next to, the landscape and views drastically change every few feet. Prior to arriving here I had spoken with a retired park ranger who told me the average visitor spends approximately 18 minutes at the Grand Canyon, we shattered that statistic and concluded the average person is severely missing out.

Our last day with Sonya we woke up early and set out to explore a lava cave that was just a few miles from the RV site. The cave itself was about a mile long and incredibly cool to explore, what looked like loose chunks of rock was actually a solid fused floor caused by parts of the ceiling falling as lava was still flowing and the rocks floated on the flowing lava toward the entrance of the cave. The cave temp is year round cooler than the outside temp and created really neat ice stalagmites and stalactites. After we finished exploring we started our trek down to Phoenix to drop Sonya at the airport. We had an incredible visit and are so so grateful we got to spend that time together! Thanks for being our first house guest!

After dropping Sonya we drove to Mesa and enjoyed seeing the area Meghan’s Grandpa lived in for a few years, and enjoyed hiking amongst some huge cacti!

We spent Meghan’s Birthday in the area, Hans joined us for it and surprised Meghan with balloons, banners, presents, and cake! He also did some research into restaurants in Sedona and drove us down for a birthday dinner. We got lucky and we were able to snag 3 last second reservations at Elote Cafe (it typically books a month out!) and had without a doubt the best Mexican food I’ve ever tasted. We snagged the last glimpses of the sunset before heading back to Flagstaff and having a movie night. Hans departed for LA the following morning. I can’t state enough how memorable and fun it has been to be able to spend so much time with family and friends.

The following days were spent packing up completing chores, doing a grocery restock, and of course Meghan mixed in multiple jeep outings, some more terrifying than others. At one point myself and Kida opted to walk a mile up and back down a mountain rather than being in the car, I’ll leave the details for Meghan to explain but the descent of that very same trail, in fact resulted in Meghan swearing off heights and steep trails for good.

Crater Cave Hike: