January 21 - February 7, 2024 -- Tucson/Lazydays KOA Resort to Thousand Trails Verde Valley
Written By: Wendy Ptolemy
Photos By: Scott Ptolemy
We spent a wonderful 3 weeks exploring Arizona, and one thing that we knew we needed to purchase as our time in Arizona came to a close was...take a guess...rain boots! Who would have thought that Arizona would make me want to purchase my kids' their first pair of rain boots? Keep in mind, we came from Washington State. (Although Washington is stereotypically rainy, we are from central Washington. It is considered a desert and hardly ever rains...but I digress.) So yes, our time in Arizona was rainy, with downpours that left puddles and rivers through the campgrounds. Puddles are to toddlers like retirees are to Arizona, the temptation is so great that you just can’t help but jump right in.
But enough about the rainy weather. In between the rain storms, we were able to experience the beauty of Arizona. Like we said in our previous post, we made a last minute change to our travel plans and followed our new road friends down to Tucson for 5 days. We arrived in a downpour, and unfortunately our friends' RV slides didn't work (meaning their spacious RV was now a skinny hallway). Oh the joys of RV life. They were able to get a temporary fix for the evening, and while we snoozed in dry and cozy RV. In between the unseasonable Tucson rainstorms, we were able to do two amazing hikes at Saguaro National Park. We were blown away by the unique landscape that the saguaro cacti made on the hillside. We hiked with our friends, and once again the kids were in the their true element, running along the trail, stopping to inspect a bug crossing the trail or a piece of a cactus that was eaten by something. Then they would each find a new stick and take off running again. Saguaro National Park is unique in that there are two sides to the park with the city of Tucson in between. We spent one morning exploring the West side of the park. We did the Valley View Trail, which was a short .6 miles each way to a gorgeous view of the valley below covered in saguaro cacti. We went on to have lunch at Signal Hill and took a short walk from our picnic table to see the petroglyphs on the top of the hill.
A few days later, we spent the day swapping work and childcare duties, but by late afternoon we were all needing to get out of the campground. We all agreed that a quick trip to the national park would do the trick to ward off cabin fever. We headed out to the east side of the park to do a 1 mile loop on the Freeman Homestead Trail. This trail had great little signs that had activities for the kiddos to do along the way. They enjoyed hunting for animal clues and identifying the different plants based on the pictures. We ended the hike just as the sun was setting with a breathtaking view of the valley below and the sky streaked with bright pinks and oranges. We finished off the adventure with a quick parking lot sunset picnic before it quickly turned pitch dark. It was the last day with our friends, and we ended our Arizona journey together with a fire and cheap champagne after all the kids were asleep. One of my absolute favorite things about traveling is that we are able to hang out with other adults after kiddos bedtime. We were able to have deep adult conversations without kid interruptions, without needing a babysitting, and with just minimal planning outside of turning on our propane fire pit and setting up the chairs between our RVs. We all talked late into the night and made plans for when we would meet up again on the road. Travel spreadsheets were shared, laughs were had, and we all marveled over the fact that if we had meet in “regular life,” we never would have been able to get to know each other so quickly and spend so much time together. We knew that we would all miss each other greatly, but we also knew that we would definitely be seeing them again down the road.
After we said our good byes the next morning, we headed back north to Cottonwood, near Sedona. We stopped on the way for lunch with my mom’s best friend from med school who I hadn’t seen in years. Another one of our favorite parts about the travel lifestyle is that we are able to see and connect with so many more people across the country who we haven’t seen for years. We settled into our new spot at the Thousand Trails Verde Valley campground that evening, and then all crashed having starved ourselves of good sleeps for 2+ weeks in exchange for lots of fun. The next morning we woke up and for the first time in weeks didn't have any plans. It felt like for first time since we’d left Wenatchee that we were actually on our own now without any other itineraries or people to help shape our days. We were excited about the freedom, but also found it a bit overwhelming.
After we caught up on life (laundry, RV and bike repairs, meal prepping/planning, grocery shopping, etc…), Scott cashed in on his birthday present and went to Sedona for a night and then went on a guided fly fishing trip the next day. He was able to see the beauty of Sedona before the rest of us and had a memorable dinner at a small pizza place in town where he met several others celebrating birthdays as well at the bar. He caught one fish the next day and had to work for it, but the reward of the fish in the hand with the stunning red rocks behind him was well worth the fight.
We were all able to venture into Sedona one evening after work for another sunset hike. We hiked the Secret Slickrock Trail. After a half mile, windy walk through the shrubs and cacti, the trail opened up to a wide flat red rock with steep cliffs and an amazing view of Cathedral Rock. The sun was setting, the view was spectacular, and the ambiance was…well…being ruined by two screaming toddlers that kept getting way too close to the edge of the cliff for anyone, including the dozen other people that came for a relaxing sunset, to be able to actually relax. So with 20 minutes until sunset, we grabbed our rambunctious kiddos and headed back down the trail to let the others have a peaceful evening. We had a private parking lot picnic dinner that also boosted pretty spectacular sunset views, and best of all no cliffs and no scowling retirees.
Midweek and with rain in the forecast, we decided the time was right to avoid the crowds and took our next adventure into Sedonda to hike the Airport Mesa Loop Trail. The hike skirted along the edge of a cliff, so the kids stayed safe and secure in backpacks. As the storm clouds stacked higher in the sky, we feared that we would be soaked soon if we didn’t keep up the pace. We stopped for a quick lunch as the darkest clouds were right overhead ready to unleash their fury, so we threw on our raincoats and prepared for the worst. After about 15 raindrops, the clouds passed and the sun started to peak out from the clouds casting heavenly looking beams pointing downward towards Cathedral Rock. We breathed a sign of the relief that the storm apparently missed us and marveled at the even greater beauty of the rock reds against the sun streaked sky.
With so many hikes to choose from in Sedona, it was difficult to decide what do with our limited time there. Even after we asked a park ranger, locals, and friends and family that had been there, we still couldn't decide which hike to do. We left one morning with the intention of doing either Eagle’s Nest in Red Rock State Park or Doe Mountain, just outside of town. We stopped on the way for a delicious breakfast at Layla’s Cafe and explored downtown Sedona. The setting of Downtown Sedona was one of the most beautiful downtowns I’ve ever seen with the red rock backdrop, but the actual town itself seemed overly touristy with exclusively gem shops, t-shirt stores, and mediocre food. Scott and I agreed that Sedona should have been a national park. (We looked it up and actually all the land around Sedona was already bought and developed before national parks even came into existence). After we purchased our fill of pirate’s gems at pirate Parker’s request, we headed out towards Doe Mountain trail, but on the way we passed another trail called Fay Canyon and made a last minute decision to hike that trail instead. It ended up being a perfect decision. Doe Mountain would have been a short, but steep trail to the top of a large mesa with steep cliffs all around. It would have had great views, but we’d already done the flat mountain top with steep cliffs, and it wasn’t exactly relaxing for our rambunctious family. Fay Canyon, on the other hand, was a 1 mile each way hike through a canyon with soaring red rock cliff walls rising up on either side of us. It was flat with zero cliffs and plenty of small rocks for the kids to climb on along the way. We even made a short side excursion up to an arch that was buried behind some of the rocks. Parker happily hiked all 2.5 miles while I made up elaborate pirate stories about Captain Red Rock. Hiking is truly his best element. He is able to get all his energy out in a productive way and sword fight or stab all the trees that we pass along the way. If Parker could do a 2-4 mile hike everyday, he would be at his best, so we vowed then and there to hike with him as much as we possibly could.
Our Verde Valley pizza party ended up being our most unique party so far that showed us the wide possibilities of ways to connect with people. We sent out a message in the campground's group facebook chat to invite anyone and everyone to a pizza party one afternoon. We had several excited responses, so Scott and I started on our dough preparations. After Bash, we had 22 pies left to make for Arizona, so we planned to have Scott make 16 pizzas, and I would make 6 mini pies. We had one family that we had met back at the Halloween Hullabaloo show up, and we thoroughly fed them and their teenage friends with pizza until they were stuffed. We caught up on where'd been for the past few months and swapped upcoming route plans, and then they headed out. We still have several pizzas left to make and no one else came. We were feeling defeated and disappointed, when our neighbors who had 6 kids emerged from their RV with panicked looking faces. I ran over to see if I could help, and they said they were all sick and they needed to take one of their kids to the ER. Scott quickly made a few pizzas that we gave them to their other kids to eat in the car on the way to the ER. Another family that we had met at Bash was staying at the campground, but they were all sick with COVID. Scott fired up another couple of pizzas, and I delivered pizza and pie to them for dinner since they hadn't been able to leave their RV for days. As we were debating what to do with the last 6 dough balls, we had a message come through on the chat from a women who had been staying in the campground and had a medical emergency. Her family had been with her at the hospital for several days, and her husband and kids were just coming back to the campground that evening. She asked if there was any extra pizza. "Yes!" we said, and we made another couple pizzas that were hot and fresh for them right when they arrived. Ok, only 3 dough balls to go. Just as we were ready to call it a night, a message came through from another family that was just coming in that night as well who had been babysitting the kids of the women in the hospital. It was late, and they didn't have many groceries left, so they asked if they could have a pizza. There went our last 3 pizzas and pie. It was definitely a different type of pizza party, but we felt fulfilled knowing that we helped several families that were in need this evening. We made some new connections, and we even found out that one of the families would be going to the same next two campgrounds as us, so we would have a chance to get to know them more.
Our time in Sedona came to a close shortly after that. It ended with more torrential downpours, but luckily this time, the kids had their first pair of rain boots so they were able to run, jump, and splash around in all the puddles. Our neighbors for the last few days were a lovely family from Quebec. They had kids that were around the same age as our kids and bins of novel toys that were extremely exciting to our kids. The four of them all played together so nicely, sharing dump trucks, racing bikes around our loop, and roasting marshmallows together. It was parental bliss with our kids happily occupied until the kids had a disagreement and they had a nonsensical shouting argument since our kids only spoke English and their kids only spoke French. The kids would then look at each other like the other was crazy and storm off for a few minutes until they were ready to play something else. Our very nice Canadian neighbors even helped us catch our huge Clam Tent when it blew away in a major windstorm in the middle of the night. After the winds and rains subsided for a short a while, but before another storm could brew, we packed up and left Arizona for sunny, at least hopefully sunny, southern California.