Arizona Road Trip – Winter Break 2022

Introduction

Unfortunately, it is January 2022 and Covid-19 is still here. With the rapid spread of the Omicron variant and all the testing requirements and restrictions, we decided to stay in America for this winter vacation. We chose Arizona because of the warm(er) weather and our quest to visit America’s National Parks. We found cheap tickets (under $200) from NY to PHX. We left NY on a Wednesday evening and took a Saturday night red eye back home, 10 days later.

Phoenix
Petrified Forest National Park
Grand Canyon
Sedona
Tucson

What did we eat?!

After a trip to Yellowstone & Grand Teton, Sam and I realized that we could still keep kosher even in remote locations and without access to a refrigerator! Luckily, Arizona had a lot of kosher food options. Here’s how we managed!

Breakfast – If breakfast was included in the hotel stay, then we happily ate whatever kosher food was offered at breakfast – cereal, fruit, waffles, etc. If not, we ate cereal and/or breakfast snacks in our room while getting ready to head out for the day.

Lunch – We are very active during the day – our days are filled with multiple stops and activities. We don’t feel it necessary to stop at a restaurant for lunch. We find it much easier to prepare our own lunch and snacks in the morning and fit in the lunch meal when it makes the most sense. Sometimes this means eating in the car; other times it means lunch with a view! We generally bring sandwiches for lunch. This trip, we were lucky to be near Walmart and Trader Joe’s, which made it easy to find bread and fillings. Our sandwiches included – tuna fish, string cheese (brought from Brooklyn), egg salad (using already boiled eggs from Walmart), and Nutella. 

{ Side note – we actually prepared a Walmart order for pickup in Arizona so that we would have everything we needed without taking up space in our luggage. This also saved us time walking through the store. I highly recommend this. Save your shopping list as a reference for future trips!}

For dinner, we either ate in the hotel room or went to a restaurant if there was something kosher or vegan nearby. In Scottsdale/Phoenix, we ate at Cafe Chenar, a delicious Uzbek restaurant. Other times, we ate in the room, either using the electric kettle or the microwave. Some options – frozen Amy’s meals from Walmart, prepared salad kits, instant noodle soups, couscous, mashed potatoes, microwavable rice and lentils, etc. For Shabbat, I brought some mazza from home and some freezer packed deli for lunch. For the second Shabbat, we picked up some schnitzel from Kitchen 18 and brought it with us to Tucson.

Day 1: Phoenix

We landed in Phoenix, Arizona around midnight Wednesday, got our luggage and made our way to the rental car. Since we would be driving all over Arizona, it was important for us to have a car with enough space and Android Auto to help navigate us. We stayed in a casita at the Westin Kierland Resort & Spa.

Desert Botanical Gardens

This was our second time in Phoenix, so we didn’t spend time visiting ghost towns and old mining / cowboy towns. On the first day, we headed to the Desert Botanical Gardens. I was hesitant to come here because we had visited 3 years ago and were going to be visiting so many outdoor parks where we would see many of the plants. But, they were having a Chihuly exhibit, which looked beautiful and came highly recommended. So, this was our first stop. We spent about 2.5-3 hours here. We walked around and saw many different types of cacti and other desert plants. The sculptures were beautiful and blended in so well with the plants. The kids (ages 6, 4, and 1.5) had a blast at the Cactus Kids Club, where they had the opportunity for hands-on activities, such as digging, playing instruments, and playing with other toys. We ended the stay by eating our lunch. 

Casa Grande Ruins

To Sam, this trip was an opportunity to get as many of the 423 NPS site “stamps” as possible. Since we had extra time, Sam took this as an opportunity to visit the Casa Grande Ruins, about 1 hour out of Phoenix. There we saw the ruins of a native tribe from over 1000 years ago.

Papago Park – Hole in the Rock Hike

After Casa Grande, we returned back to Phoenix to do a short hike in Papago Park. (We timed it this way in an attempt to have the drives coincide with Shelly’s nap time, but alas the girl has FOMO and didn’t want to miss a thing!) This short 0.3 mile out and back trail was the perfect hike to start our trip. The boys loved climbing to the top and it was easy enough for me to carry Shelly along the trail. Once we reached the top, the views were incredible and there was even more climbing to do! Instead of going down the same way we came up, Allen was adventurous and realized that we could continuing walking in a loop to get to the end of the trail.

We then stopped for ice cream and a quick playtime at McCormick Stillman Park before heading to Cafe Chenar for dinner.

Day 2: Phoenix

Musical Instrument Museum

Anytime we travel, I do a lot of research about where we will be visiting. This means combing through Google, Facebook travel groups, and anything else we can get our hands out. The Musical Instrument Museum came highly recommended! It did not disappoint! The museum is generally organized by continent and then subdivided into countries. Each country has its own feature wall with video clips of music / dance from that country, instruments with explanations, and any other significant musical artifacts related to the country. This museum was really unique. Each visitor was given a headset and when you walked past a certain exhibit, the music of that country would automatically begin to play. It was a great way to experience culture from around the world. The museum also had an exhibit on the first floor with highlights from different historical events and bands, such as the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and Maroon 5. Finally, the museum had a hands-on room, where visitors were able to try out different instruments from around the world. The kids – and adults! – really enjoyed it!

McDowell Sonoran Preserve

After the museum, we headed to the McDowell-Sonoran Preserve to do one short hike before heading back to the hotel pool. We chose to hike the Marcus Landslide Trail to Mushroom Rock Scenic Point. It was about 0.8 miles roundtrip and relatively flat until the scenic point. This made it the perfect hike for Shelly to do and had a decent amount of optional climbing for Allen and Joseph at the end. We then relaxed by the pool before Shabbat.

Day 3: Shabbat

We chose to spend the first Shabbat in Scottsdale. Since we were landing pretty late at night Wednesday night, I didn’t want to have to drive for 2 hours to Tucson. The Westin Kierland Resort & Spa was the perfect place to spend Shabbat, despite the cloudy weather. There were activity courts for the kids with a climbing wall, basketball court, and life size chess. There are multiple pools, a lazy river, and a water slide. The hotel also ran program throughout the afternoon including Bingo, Hoola Hoop contests, bagpipe performances, and more.

We brought some mazza with us for the meals and also had salad, instant noodle soups, couscous and beef jerky. For lunch we had deli too. In our Walmart order we bought small bottles of grape juice for kiddush and havdalah. We had late check out and the hotel held our luggage until after Shabbat. As soon as Shabbat was over, we headed out and made our way to Flagstaff, where we would spend the next 3 nights.

Day 4: Petrified Forest National Park

Walnut Canyon National Monument

Petrified Forest is about a 2 hour drive east from Flagstaff, Arizona. Remember – Sam is on a quest to hit as many National Park Sites as possible! So, on the way, we stopped at Walnut Canyon National Monument. There, we observed ancient cliff dwellings built into the canyon. The entire trail is 240 steps and about 1 mile long. It was early in the morning, very cold, and not so easy with Shelly, so we only walked down about 40 steps and then headed back out. The monument had beautiful scenery and if you looked closely, you could see the dwellings.

Petrified Forest Visitor’s Center

Petrified Forest NP is one of the few national parks with hours. In the winter, the park is opened from 8-5; all vehicles must be exiting the park by 5 PM. At the visitor’s center, you collect the travel guides, park newspaper, and Junior Ranger booklets. We have a National Parks annual pass, which we bought for $85, that allows us to enter any park for the entire year. The kids have become expert Junior Rangers and collect books and pins from al the national park stops. The main road in the park is 28 miles. The park had 12 recommended stops; we stopped at most of them, which I’ll detail here.

Painted Desert Overlooks

This is at the start of the drive through Petrified Forest. In the beginning of the park, the rocks have reddish-greenish hues. We chose to skip these hikes and just stop at the viewpoints for some pictures.

We then continued the drive, making brief stops at the Route 66 Alignment, Newspaper Rock petroglyphs and the Teepees, gorgeous zebra striped mountains.

Blue Mesa Trail

Our next stop was the Blue Mesa Trail, a paved 1 mile hike. Here, the hues turned to bluish-white, as opposed to the reddish-greens from the Painted Desert. (People also recommended the Blue Forest Hike, but it was 3 miles long and seemed impractical with kids.) We brought the stroller with us and the trail was relatively easy to walk, except for a small very steep path at the beginning. The views were breathtaking! Pictures don’t do it justice! The trail was also sprinkled with some petrified logs. The park is named for these petrified wood logs, essentially fossilized trees. This was my favorite hike of the day, perhaps even the trip!

We then made a quick stop at Agate Bridge to see a 110 ft long log of petrified wood.

Crystal Forest

We then continued our drive to Crystal Forest, a 0.8 mile paved trail, where we could see the petrified wood up close. These were absolutely gorgeous! We were able to take the stroller with us here as well.

We ended the day at the Rainbow Forest Museum, where the kids got sworn in as Junior Rangers. We started the Giant Logs Trail, but much to Sam’s disappointment, the kids were all tired out and ready to start the 2 hour drive back to Flagstaff.

Day 5: Grand Canyon National Park, South Rim

Introduction

We continued our adventures the next day at the Grand Canyon South Rim.
(Sam and I previously visited the North Rim in August 2019.) On the drive there, we made 2 stops. The first was at Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument and the second was Wutpaki National Monument, another native dwelling site. We did short trails with the stroller at both sites.

Desert View Watchtower

As we reached the Grand Canyon, we drove along Desert View Drive and stopped at Desert View Watchtower. Here, we had a picnic lunch and stopped by some stores before getting impressive views of the Grand Canyon!

Grand Canyon Village

Of course, there are many hikes within the Grand Canyon. However, since we were hiking with the kids, we chose to walk along the rim, which was a paved trail with views of the canyon. We went to the Grand Canyon Village and began at Mather Point. We then walked about 1 mile towards Yavapai Point and took the shuttle back to the village. The viewpoints were absolutely impressive!

Hermit Road

We ended the day driving Hermit Road, a 7 mile drive along the Grand Canyon rim and were treated with beautiful views!

Day 6: Sedona, Arizona

Tuzigoot National Monument

On the way to Sedona from Flagstaff, we stopped at Tuzigoot National Monument, another native dwelling. It was a brief stop; we got a stamp and we walked around the site.

Sedona, Arizona

This was our 2nd time in Sedona and we were able to hike more now that the kids were a little older. Our first stop was at Bell Rock Trail. It was a relatively flat trail and we were able to bring the stroller about halfway through the hike. We then continued towards the red rocks and the kids had a great time climbing up.

We then made a brief stop at the Cathedral Rock Trail, since we wanted to see the views, but were tired from the Bell Rock Trail. We spent some time walking around the downtown area and found an ice cream shop. We ended our time in Sedona at the Airport Scenic Lookout, which is a beautiful viewpoint of Sedona. (Note: there is a small entrance fee, but it was worth the view!) We then made our way to Tucson, stopping in Scottsdale for dinner at Kitchen 18.

Day 7: Tucson: Saguaro National Park, West

The highlight of Tucson are the giant saguaro cacti! They are enormous!! Allen was learning about the desert in school and had learned a lot about the saguaro cactus. This trip really brought his learning to life. We started at the visitors center where we got the park map, Junior Ranger activity books, and souvenirs. Our next stop was the Desert Discovery Trail, a 0.3 mile flat, paved trail, with various plants and trees. Watch out for the cacti – they are quite sharp and the pricks are difficult to remove!! Unfortunately, we learned this the hard way when Shelly got pushed into a cactus and had pricks stuck in her scalp, ear, and face.

Our next stop was Valley View Trail, which is a part of the Bajada Loop Scenic Drive. This was a bit more ambitious being a 0.8 mile trail and rocky/sandy. Shelly was able to walk the entire way there and the boys were champs! At the end of the trail, we found a great climbing spot, which gave us a magnificent view of hundreds of saguaros. Shelly was exhausted by the end and she rested on me the entire hike back.

Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum

Near the west side of the park is the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum, a combination of a zoo, aquarium, garden and trail. The highlight of the visit was petting and feeding stingrays!

Day 8: Saguaro Park East

We started the day at the Children’s Museum Tucson. The mornings were a bit cold, so we thought it was best to be indoors until the afternoon. The museum was very interactive with a craft room, a supermarket/restaurant, science experiments and many other exhibits. All 3 kids had a blast! Afterwards, we headed to the east side of Saguaro National Park, where we saw more giant cacti. Cactus Forest Drive is an 8 mile drive through the park with many trails and photo stops. We stopped at Mica View Trail and combined it with a loop of Cactus Forest Trail. It was about a 2 mile walk, which we didn’t know going in to it! Allen, Joseph, and Shelly were real troopers! They certainly earned their junior ranger badges!

Day 9: Zoo and Pool

On our last day, we had really done most of the available activities for our family in Tucson. We did try to go to Sabino Canyon, but the shuttles were already booked for the day. We did a quick stop at the small Reid Park Zoo before spending the rest of the day by the hotel pool. We also spent Shabbat by the pool and made our way to the airport as soon as Shabbat was over to head back to New York. There was a big snow storm in NY that day; luckily our flight was the first one out and the red eye was a success!