Northern Arizona. Mostly off grid.

Some of Petrified Forest NP’s scenery. Go for a hike and find petrified wood and pottery shards.

First stop after rolling out of NM (we’ll be back) was to head to Petrified Forest NP. It’s a bit of a crazy place - parts of the park are littered with remnants of fossilized/ petrified trees. Big trees and tall trees and all of them turned to stone and colored in the hues of the minerals that were present. You can also catch a view of the Painted Desert-all in all a crazy geologic area with lots of places to explore. It’s also a bit of an unusual NP as there is no campground within the park (you can backcountry camp). The “approved solution” is to boondock in the parking lot of one of the two gift/rock shops just outside the southern entrance.

There be cows. Udderly nothing to see here...moooove along.

We spent the day before Christmas Eve at Petrified NP. We did not want to be on the road on Christmas, so we looked around for where to make our next jump on Christmas Eve. We knew we wanted to be near a town to try to get Chinese food and see a movie on Christmas Day (it become a tradition with us for the past decade). So we soon found ourselves “taking it easy” while standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona, such a fine sight to see (if any of that rings a bell then you are old - and possibly an Eagles fan; not the football team!). We camped near Winslow at Homolavi State Park and essentially had the place to ourselves. We got in a cross-desert trail run among some cows and explored some of the history preserved in the Park - Pueblo Ruins and a Mormon Cemetery. Unfortunately, despite our calling ahead to verify that the restaurant would be open...we were locked out of Chinese food and had to stoop to a Christmas goose dinner before catching the latest Star Wars.

“...it’s a girl my lord in a flat bed Ford slowing down to take a look at me.”

We didn’t realize it at the time, but Homolavi would be our last electrical connection until we made it back to Vegas to pick up Kady (about 12 days later!). After leaving Homolovi and Winslow, we spent several days boondocking in the Coconino and Prescott National Forests. Fun, free, and hooray for our solar panels!

You could see the Grand Canyon, about 50 miles away,  from Humphrey’s Peak. — You could see the Grand Canyon, about 50 miles away, from Humphrey’s Peak.

We camped outside of Flagstaff in the Coconino National Forest and were able to explore Sunset Crater Volcanic and Waputki National Monuments. Crazy terrain and human history - very different monuments but fascinating places to see and visit. We were also able to hike up to Humphreys Peak (tallest in AZ at over 12,600’) via the Inner Basin and a beautiful stand of aspens. We also seized the opportunity to have lunch with Dean’s brother Chuck and his wife Karen as they passed through on their way home to Kansas after a holiday visit to California.

We raced the sun to get off the mountain. Pictures don’t do this aspen stand justice.

Leaving Flagstaff we continued south and found another dispersed campsite outside of Sedona. Sedona is a gorgeous place with tons of spectacular red rock and almost Utah-like formations. We hiked several fun trails, busted out the mountain bikes, tagged another couple of monuments (Montezuma Castle and Well), and found several trail runs to explore. Had another great lemon pizza (it’s a new favorite!) at Pisa Lisa - sooo good. Three Noms (our highest restaurant rating)!

While out doing a little wine tasting (did you know Arizona had wineries? news to us, too!), we talked to a couple who had visited Prescott and enjoyed it. This reinforced a conversation we had a few days previously atop Humphrey’s Peak in which a professor at Prescott College recommended we visit, so we decided to head over. After finding a campsite nestled into some of the granite rocks, we explored the area on foot and mountain bike. Prescott is a fun town with a much different vibe than Sedona (which seemed to cater to the wealthy residents and tourists).

We left Prescott bound for Las Vegas (for our third visit!). We had arranged a special rendezvous with Kady to spend a WOFO with YOFOAdventures! We’ll save the details for the next blog post by guest author Kady.

Prescott has several hundred miles of mountain biking trails.