In September and October 2018, I went on a 10-day mother-daughter trip to the western United States. The idea for the trip started because neither of us had been to the Grand Canyon. I searched for attractions that were nearby and drivable, which were added to the itinerary. I did this so many times that we ended up flying out of Colorado Springs!

Roundtrip flights
2018 Price: $492 per person

Enterprise Rental Car
2018 Price: $760 for 10 days

If you plan to visit multiple national parks, I suggest you invest in an America the Beautiful Pass. It paid for itself within the first few days.

Sedona

We flew into Phoenix and rented a car to get around for the trip. Our first stop along the way was Sedona and the Coconino National Forest visitor center. From the overlook here, we learned the name of the main rock formations: Castle Rock, Bell Rock, and Courthouse Butte. These were named Red Butte, Red Rock Sticking Up, and Eagle’s Mountain respectively.

Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte

Next, we moved to the nearby Bell Rock Courthouse Butte Loop. While we did not hike the entire trail, we did get out to explore and photograph the red rocks of Sedona.

Courthouse Butte and trail
Bell Rock
Cactus and red dust
Red Rocks in Sedona

If you drive just outside the city, you can visit Midgley Bridge. There is a trailhead with views of the bridge and the surrounding red-rock landscape. The parking lot is very small so try to go during non-peak hours. There are also a few picnic tables to savor a snack.

Under Midgley Bridge
Midgley Bridge
Oak Creek Canyon from the bridge
Oak Creek Canyon

We continued on our drive to Flagstaff while enjoying the scenery we passed.

Ramada by Wyndham Flagstaff East
2018 Price: $202 for two nights

Northern Pines Restaurant was right near our hotel in Flagstaff and we ate there both days. The service and food were very good.

Wupatki National Monument

Our second day started with a trip to Wupatki National Monument. This was a great way to start the morning and there were few others around.

Those who built Wupatki and other nearby pueblos were ancestors of the Hopi, Zuni, and other Puebloan peoples. According to the National Park Service, most of the monument’s sites are Kayenta Ancestral Puebloan while others are Cohonina and Sinagua.

Wupatki National Monument

There are seven pueblos in the national monument: Lomaki and two Box Canyon Pueblos, Citadel and Nalakihu Pueblos, Wupatki Pueblo, and Wukoki Pueblo. Wupatki and Wukoki are the most popular, and the most impressive in my opinion.

Wupatki Pueblo has over 100 rooms, a kiva (community room), and a Hohokam-style ballcourt. Its name means “long cut house” in the Hopi language.

Wupatki Pueblo

Wukoki Pueblo is unique due to its three-story tower. Meaning “big house” in the Hopi language, Wukoki was the original name for Wupatki Pueblo before it was assigned to its current structure. Its six or seven rooms could have housed up to three families.

I loved the keyhole opening in the plaza area as it gave a peak of the sky through the colorful sandstone walls.

Wukoki Pueblo
Close up of Wukoki Pueblo

People gathered here during the 1100s, about 100 years after the eruption of Sunset Crater Volcano. Then, around 1250, they moved on.

If you like learning about historical sites, the pueblos are easy to get around and you can drive between them. Walking in the footsteps of ancient peoples and learning about their everyday life is a moving experience.

Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument

A short drive from Wupatki, Sunset Crater Volcano is the youngest, least-eroded cinder cone in the San Francisco Volcanic Field. Around 1085, a series of eruptions brought the dormant volcanic field back to life. Today the ground is covered by lava flows and volcanic cinder deposits from the most recent volcanic eruption.

Sunset Crater Volcano lava flows

Meteor Crater

While we had not heard of Meteor Crater before planning the trip, we loved it! Meteor Crater is a meteorite impact site from a collision approximately 50,000 years ago. 

Meteor Crater
2018 Price: $18 per person

It is almost one mile across and more than 550 feet deep. A cutout of a person stands at the bottom of the crater to offer a sense of scale and it is incredible. There are three lookout points and a guided rim tour that we saw others take.

Meteor Crater from the rim

Painted Desert

Our final goal for the day was the Painted Desert. I used my GPS to get there and made the mistake of just searching ‘painted desert.’ It dropped us in the middle of the Painted Desert, at a random spot on the road, rather than any kind of parking lot, trail, or lookout.

Thankfully we did see the beautiful countryside around us as we drove. I wish we’d had the ideal vista to view it in all its glory. In 2023, I was able to travel back to Arizona and see fantastic views of the Painted Desert from overlooks at Petrified Forest National Park.

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Arizona, United States

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