The Rest of Arizona: Calcified Conifers, Cactus and Casseroles
After a rapid travel pace, we zoned out in sunny Arizona. With no regrets.
November 15 - 30, 2025
Petrified Forest National Park, Verde Valley, Sedona, Tucson, & Phoenix-area, AZ
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it.” Psalm 24:1
Walnut Canyon National Monument
Puebloan dwellings built into the cliffs at Walnut Canyon
We left the Grand Canyon and headed east towards the painted desert and Petrified Forest NP. On the highway, we saw a sign for Walnut Canyon National Monument and decided to make it our lunch stop. One of the nice parts about this trip is that we generally have some level of flexibility to make unplanned stops throughout our travel days. We did a short hike (one-mile loop) at Walnut Canyon and were able to see a small portion of the 80+ Ancestral Puebloan cliff dwellings that the monument protects.
Rooms built by the Sinagua people between AD ~1125-1250
Route 66
One of our GuideAlong tours included a driving tour of the famed Route 66. We couldn’t resist this classic photo stop at the corner in Winslow, Arizona, flat bed Ford and all.
Get your kicks…
Petrified Forest National Park
The next day we visited Petrified Forest National Forest, which thankfully had just reopened after the government shutdown. It was wild to walk around 200-225 million year-old petrified wood that was a full tropical forest when this region of Arizona was located near the equator as part of the supercontinent Pangaea!
Petrified “Forest” is a bit of a misnomer in terms of what most people picture hearing about the park. Since there are no standing forests, a more accurate, though less enticing, name would be Petrified Logs National Park.
Either way, the amount and scope of petrified wood here is truly incredible.
We also visited Newspaper Rock, a massive sandstone block covered in over 650 petroglyphs. These "newspaper" stories were carved into the dark "desert varnish" on the rock's surface by ancestral Puebloan people between 650 and 2,000 years ago.
Verde Valley & Sedona
Moving up our Grand Canyon visit by a few days opened up time for us to see the Sedona area. We camped at a beautiful new RV park about 30 minutes south of Sedona in the Verde Valley with a wonderful heated pool and hot tub.
In between rain storms (the same rain we avoided by moving our Grand Canyon dates) we visited several dubiously named national monuments that protect the impressive Puebloan dwellings from 800-1,000 years ago. These semi-nomadic tribes would build an intricate community on the hillsides and cliffs, enjoy the area’s resources for a few hundred years, then move on to start over somewhere else when the time was right.
Montezuma’s Castle National Monument — the site is neither a castle nor was it built by the Aztec emperor Montezuma…
Tuzigoot National Monument — The name comes from the Tonto Apache phrase for “crooked water” pronounced TOO-dee-geez. The archaeologists leading the project mis-recorded the name as "Tuzigoot" and it stuck…
We did a driving tour through Sedona, sneaking in a few hikes before showers resumed. The rocks seemed extra red after the rain!
Cathedral Spires
Tucson & Saguaro National Park
Full send on the Tucson MTB trails!
We continued southeast to Tucson and spent a week at a welcomed slower pace after a jam-packed tour of the four corners region. We visited both the east and west units of Saguaro NP, did a few mountain bike rides, ate some delicious Mexican food from a truck, and spent most nights in the campground hot tub. This was the first place in a long time that Sadie and Nate both found friends their age to hang out with.
Phoenix-Area Friendsgiving
We spent a wonderful Thanksgiving in the Phoenix area with a high school friend, Jenny and her family, Brett, Paisley, and Brooklyn. They treated us to many delicious meals, a fun place to relax, and their laundry room. Our long-time friends Luke & Amy who were in town from Georgia visiting family were able to join us one evening.
Watching the sun set from Jenny & Brent’s backyard
Mini high school reunion with Amy & Luke and Jenny & Brent
Another friend, Liam, who is studying at Arizona State University took us on a tour of campus and a short hike in Tempe. We had a great time catching up with him and seeing the area from the top of the hill. (For those of you who know the story about Mia from our Guam days, Liam is Mia’s older brother).
We are aware this is a lot for one post. We left Arizona refreshed… and with a lasting reverence for desert sunsets.
Roberts on the Road
For those just finding us, hello! Inspired by the Year of Jubilee in Leviticus 25, our family is on a yearlong RV road trip in 2025-2026 to celebrate my husband’s retirement after 20 years in Naval Special Warfare, as well as our 24 years together during the ups and downs of it all.
With our 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son in tow, this trip to explore America’s national parks and beautiful places is intended to help our family reflect and reset as civilian life begins.
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For background info on who we are and where we’re traveling, we’d love for you to read the intro post. The full list of road trip blog posts can be found here. Thanks for stopping by!
