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| Sedona cliffs at sunset |
This is the third 'Winter 26' post - the first two can be found here: Winter 26: Arizona and Winter 26: Channel and Catalina Islands.
After leaving the chaos of the Phoenix metroplex (can you tell we really don't like ginormous cities?), we headed north on I-17 about two hours before getting off the interstate. After passing through Cottonwood, we headed north, and that's when you start to see the amazing red rocks of Sedona. We had just one afternoon planned in Sedona, so we walked along the main road and enjoyed lunch with the most fantastic view of the Schnebly Hill Formation. I had read that the best place to see a sunset in Sedona was at the airport, just west of downtown, up on a mesa. Indeed it was fantastic, including a local band, Red Dirt Rain, to set the mood, and about a thousand of our closest friends. Despite the crowd, a truly wonderful experience.
Grand Canyon National Park
The next morning, we made our way south and east out of the Grand Canyon, passing through Flagstaff, where we enjoyed a wonderful lunch, then made our way east to Winslow. It is crazy that with all the travel we've done we had never been here before and indeed, there is a flat bed Ford there on the corner. We stopped for a quick break before we headed to Holbrook for the night.
'Petrified Forest National Park was up next on our winter itinerary. This was our 40th National Park, and we learned a lot about how these 'trees' were formed over time. While there are petrified trees all over the globe, this area contains one of the largest and most colorful concentrations of petrified wood in the world. There are over 6000 prehistoric petroglyphs created by Ancestral Puebloan people 650 to 2,000 years ago, carved into boulders and cliff faces.
Our next destination was Capital Reef National Park, which we missed during our last trip to Utah. I can remember driving past the sign for the exit and regretting not working it into the trip. Just east of Holbrook, we headed north, and spent the night in Chinle, which is in Navajo Nation, and no, you cannot get wine with dinner.
The next day we took a route slightly west through Kayenta, then north on 163 to pass by Monument Valley, another place we haven't worked into our travels. We didn't take the road through all the monuments as we had a long driving day, but we did stop for a selfie at the 'Forrest Gump' point. Everyone asks how we knew where it was. The first clue was all the other people stopping for their selfies and prententing to run like Forrest, and in addition there are actually signs all over and a wider shoulder for stopping. It's hard to miss.
Our route then took us across the San Juan River near Mexican Hat (that's the name of the town), then west near Blanding, UT. There are numerous warnings 'no services for the next 120 miles', and I can see if it was in the middle of summer how you would not want to break down on this stretch. We probably saw five other cars on that stretch. About an hour into this drive we entered the Glen Canyon Recreational Area, which covers 1.2 million acres in Utah and Arizona. This particular region of the area is often cited as one of the most picturesque regions in the park, it sits at the confluence of the Colorado and Dirty Devil Rivers. If you've got a few hours on your hands, this dashcam video shows the entire drive, starting in Bluff. The intro is pretty cool, and you can just skip ahead to about the middle for the more interesting parts. We landed in Hanksville, UT, and enjoyed dinner at one of two restaurants in town.
The next morning we headed into the park, starting with a 45 minute drive to the Visitor Center on the west side of the park. After taking in the view from Panorama Point, we stopped in at the Visitor Center where we showed our pass (kind of on-your-honor situation), and made our plans for the day to hike the Cohab Canyon Trail to the overlook, stop in at the petroglyphs, then hike the Hickman Bridge Trail. It's honestly a huge park and we just saw a sliver of it. Once again we enjoyed gorgeous weather!
Leaving Capital Reef, we had about a six hour drive to my brother's place in Dillon, CO. Passing through Glenwood Canyon and past Vail, it was obvious that this was a difficult year for the ski areas, with less than half the normal annual snowfall. When we arrived in Dillon, the yards were brown, with barely any snow on ground. Well that changed one day later when it snowed, and snowed and snowed - almost a foot in a day. Once it stopped, it made for a nice walk with my brother and Humphrey (the dog). We attended a Moonlight dinner event at A-Basin's mid-mountain lodge, taking the lift up at dusk, and then back down (pretty freaky) after dinner.
After a few days' visiting, we headed out east on I-70 through Denver, then cut up north to I-80, and spent the night in Chamberlain, SD, the same place we spent the night in our small RV on our first long road trip. Life has a funny way of bringing you full circle.
What's next for our winter travels? We're not sure, but we think we want to change it up. There's so much to see and every time we adventure out, our travel wish list gets longer!
Have you ever wintered in the south and 'meandered' back home? Leave your comments below! Enjoyed this post? Never miss out on future posts by following us.
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