Day 1: Phoenix to Dead Horse Ranch State Park

In the beginning of May we headed to Arizona for our annual spring road trip. (We did a spring road trip last year, so now it’s a tradition, right?) I was super excited because I had never been there and had been wanting to go there for a long time. We flew into Phoenix and headed north. Like last year, we didn’t have much of a plan. We stopped at REI and bought a map and a National Parks pass and I cracked open my guide book while my husband drove.

We headed to the small town of Cottonwood where I found Dead Horse State Park on the map. We found great camping there with gorgeous views. They even had showers AND a dish washing station. It was a little chilly and dark clouds threatened as we set up and got our bearings. We were in the Verde Valley and could see the “J” indicating the mining town of Jerome up in the mountains above us. Virga hung in the air toward Jerome and the smell of ozone overwhelmed us. We made a quick dinner and prepped for stormy weather in the tent. We bundled up and put Evie in her winter jam jams and sleep sack. It was not exactly the desert weather we were expecting!

Rain showers came and went all night but it was mostly dry when we woke up. We made breakfast and I took the dishes to wash at the station. An older man was already there, just getting started. I made myself cozy nearby and waited. It was a beautiful morning and it felt so good to just sit and watch a little yellow bird twitter around in a tree. The man finished with his dishes and I realized that I barely heard him use any water. Ah yes, of course, we were in a desert. Water is a valued resource here and not to be wasted. This was a good reminder of the importance of clean and fresh water and one that stuck with me.

Day 2: Tuzigoot to Desert View & Everything in between

We started the day at the nearby Tuzigoot Ruins. This ancient 110-room pueblo was built by the Sinagua people who lived there between 1000 and 1400. The stone structure sits atop a small hill with a view of the river valley below. We were surprised by how green it was along the Verde River, but should have guessed. We decided it was a nice place to make a home, beside the river and up high to see everything around. But it was exposed, and must get incredibly hot.

On this day, however, it was not hot. As we walked along the short path it began to rain and as each drop hit the ground it seemed to release every smell the surface had ever encountered. It smelled of coyote urine and dried grass. Ghosts of all the fauna that visited and all the flora that lived and died since the last rain were released all at once. The rain then picked up and converged into hail. We moved more quickly and covered up Evie. The marble-sized hail stung my exposed toes (I insisted on wearing my Chacos despite the weather) and we took shelter in the visitor center. We and the park rangers on duty watched the hail out the window. The rangers were stunned and told us we were so lucky to be there in the rain. I squinted my eyes and told them we were from Seattle. They laughed and told us it hadn’t rained a drop since October, seven months ago.

It hailed and rained a bit longer while we ran to the car and snaked up to Jerome, an old ghost town perched on a 30 degree slope at 5200 feet. The town looks much like it did when it was a booming copper mining town with its wooden storefronts and rough exterior. It once boasted a population of over 10,000 people before the depression of the 1930’s. A hardy group of 50-100 stuck it out after the mine closed in the 1950’s. It regained popularity in the last 30 years and is now touted as a tourist destination and art community. We wandered around the old mine while Evie had her morning snacks.

Our next destination was Montezuma Castle. The impressive cliff dwellings were also built by the Sinagua people. It is one of the best preserved dwellings because of the protective alcove it was built in. It’s name is misleading. It didn’t have anything to do with Montezuma and was not a castle. It was more of an apartment complex with many rooms that were accessed by ladders and stood high above Beaver Creek which frequently flooded in monsoon season. When it was designated a National Monument by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, visitors could climb up and tour the dwellings. Safety became an issue, though, and the ladders were removed to also help preserve the space.

We then headed north again on the highway toward Flagstaff. As we climbed up in elevation it began to snow. It snowed and snowed until we got into town where the sunshine melted it away. We found a nice little restaurant with delicious tacos and I discovered the local Wild Tonic kombucha tea. We also discovered the most adorable Brightside Books next door. I could have stayed there all day perusing the books and chatting with the friendly staff, but alas, we were hoping to make it to the Grand Canyon that day, so we had to keep on our way.

We had time for another adventure, though, so we stopped at Sunset Crater Volcano for a short hike to stretch our legs. The black and red cinder cone is the dormant remnant of the volcano that last erupted around the year 1085. The landscape seems little changed since then. Pumice covers the mountain and lava pillows on the ground below it. The lava beds are extensive and reminiscent of those in Hawaii. It is amazing how little has grown here in the last 1000 years. Another reminder of how harsh the desert climate can be.

The ancient Sinagua people that lived nearby were forced to flee their settlements during the eruption. The lava flows extended to six miles in some places and the area was covered in ash. We passed by a hornito, Spanish for “little oven” on the trail. It was a perfectly circular area, flattened in the middle and ringed by lava rocks. It was a spatter cone formed by lava forced up through a chamber and accumulated on the edges. It was huge and I wondered what it would be like to see it’s formation. The eruption affected the people of the area profoundly. The Navajo people believe this cinder cone and others around the San Francisco Peaks are guardians and protectors. They still come here to give the mountain honor through offerings.

After our otherworldly visit to Sunset Crater, we seemed to enter yet another world as we continued north. The landscape changed abruptly and become quite flat and rusty red. The highway continued in what seemed like a perfectly straight line with nothing around except for an occasional group of cattle. When we turned west we began to climb again into dirt mountains with no trees, only brush. We climbed slowly until we saw a crack in the ground.

If we weren’t on the road just slightly above the Little Colorado River Gorge, we may have never known it was there. We found a pull off and looked down into the canyon below. We could barely see the bottom and it gave me little butterflies in my stomach. The Little Colorado River is the largest of the tributaries of the bigger Colorado, you know, the grand one. We were getting closer.

We drove up and up. We were surrounded by a sea of funny juniper trees. They are not very tall compared to the giants in the northwest and it just felt like we were on top of something. It is hard to describe this feeling. I kept scooching up in my seat like I might be able to see something in the distance. It was dinner time when we finally reached the Desert View campground just inside the boundary of the National Park. We pitched the tent and made some food in the last of the day’s light and warmed ourselves with prickly pear tea I picked up at the Montezuma Castle gift shop. I also got some deep red sugar-coated prickly pear jelly candy which we had for desert. It was delicious.

The temperature dropped quickly with the sunset and we braced ourselves and Evie for a cold night in the tent. I couldn’t get to sleep right away, not just because of the cold and the tea and the candy, but because of the excitement. Here we were, just the shortest distance away from the edge of the Grand Canyon, but we hadn’t even the tiniest glimpse of it yet. I couldn’t wait for my first ever Grand views in the morning. I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve.