It was summer, my nephew was staying with us, and I had a lot of free time to kill. What better way to fill some time than with a road trip across the southwest. My best friend Roman, my cousin Nathan, and my nephew Nico planned to spend a few weeks exploring the great state of Arizona. Setting off from Ontario, California, Roman, Nico, and I were off to pick up Nathan outside of Casa Grande, AZ. Casa Grande is a massive adobe house built in the mid to late 1400s.
The ruins were some of the first national sites to be protected by the federal government. Nathan called and we were told to meet him at a local Burger King where his friend would drop him off. We departed the museum and found Nathan, for some reason, standing outside of the restaurant in the 110-degree heat. He shoehorned himself into the back seat of my Ford Focus ZX3 Kona edition and we set off with several stops. Heading up Interstate 10, we made our way to Phoenix and stopped for lunch, Phoenix is one of those cities like Las Vegas, you just wonder why people choose to live there. From Phoenix, we decided to take the back road into Prescott, where my Grandparents lived. Up Highway 60, then on to the 89, through the towns of Wickenburg, C0ngress, and Yarnell. As you climb into the mountains, the landscape changes from harsh desert to pine trees and lakes. My great-grandparents had lived in Prescott for over 30 years and were still independent; it was a great treat to stop in and see them at their place.
We decided that we needed to spend some time unwinding and a few days in Sedona AZ was just the ticket. I had not been to Sedona in years and discovered that it had become quite popular with the hippie crowd, not real hippies but the wannabe hippies that still drive Land Rovers. But it is a nice place, we had Mexican food, found a hotel and decided to explore the town. It was on a short trip that we found Slide Rock State Park, a collection of natural water slides and pools that makes beating the summer heat a blast.
We liked Sedona so much that we stayed for a few days and went to the swimming holes. It was a blast, and I really recommend spending at least a day in the water.
But being a History Nerd, I forced the group to see some more historical landmarks before we headed back to California, including Montezuma's Castle and Tuzigoot National Monument. Both built in the 1300s, they were interesting glimpses into early Native Americans.
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