Arizona Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

Each summer in Arizona we go through a short storm season.  Just as the temperatures become unbearably hot, a little moisture starts to come in and we get our summer "Monsoon!"  From the right vantage point, you can watch a wall of dust, some over 2,000 feet tall (A 200-Story building!) engulf the Valley at speeds up to 35 miles per hour.  If we are lucky, a thunderstorm will roll in right behind it, dropping the temperature (sometimes 20 degrees) and bringing us our muc...

My flight itinerary: TUC - LAS - MCI - TUS, on Southwest Airlines. I traveled on Southwest Airlines to Kansas City, Missouri with a three-hour lay over at McCarran International airport in Las Vegas. With just three hours of a layover, I dared not go out of the airport, not with all the traffic. So I spent time eating, drinking coffee and the best part • people watching. The start of my journey was of course frustrating and annoying because I lost my camera through the security screening ga...

After being at the lake for the better part of the day yesterday, I figured I would go check out the sights! Seeing my town as a touist as something new to me. Holding a camera and trying to take the best photo, blocking out the townies who know me who just kept pointing and/or laughing at me.... you losers! Only if you knew how many friends I have on my cult travel site called Travbuddy! Someday they will be sorry... (I thought in my head...lol)The first thing that came to my head was the fa...

Day 6: We drove from LA to Grand Canyon early that day and arrived at the South Rim in the evening. We stayed on a campground about 2-3 miles from the rim in the woods. Once we left the car, we were surrounded by deer, which is very gentle there, because it´s used to humans. It got dark pretty soon (between 9 and 10 pm), so we had little time to drink the beers we had left from our stay in Hollywood. However, we slept pretty early, which wasn´t too bad, since we got up at 4:30am the followi...

With TB Chay (www.travbuddy.com/wandering_gentleman) As usual, I got up and turned my computer on, but did not check any messages. I went to the Kitchen made coffee and sat down to watch the news. At about 10:00 am, I decided to go shopping in preparation for my trip to Africa, normally I would have check my messages, sent a few comments to TBs and a few welcomes. For some reason I did not. Meanwhile, there was a message in my inbox with the title "Will be in Tucson". 12:00 noon I'm done wi...

This being my first blog I am starting out with a short three day trip that Ann and I plus two neighbors(ED AND SHIRLEY) did last summer.  I think a number of people will find it interesting or at least hope so. I love telling people about this hike since  Supai(the closest town to the waterfalls)  is so isolated on an Indian reservation in northern Az that   the only way to get there is a 8-9 mile hike-horseback or helicopter.  They still get their da...

THIS IS LOCATED ON THE WEST RIM OF THE GRAND CANYON. THE SACRED LAND OF THE HUALAPAI INDIANS.The Grand Canyon Skywalk is a tourist attraction along the Colorado River on the edge of the Grand Canyon (Grand Canyon West) in the U.S. state of Arizona.Commissioned by the Hualapai Indian tribe, it was unveiled March 20, 2007, and opened to the general public on March 28, 2007. It is accessed via the Grand Canyon West terminal or 120 miles (190 km) drive from Las Vegas (which includes an unpaved an...

I could write more here... about my NIGHTMARE stop in Mexico City, and how I honestly had a few hours of believing I may never be allowed back to my native soil... but really I'm just going to honor the fact that I don't want to.  Alluding to it there is enough - it happened, but in no way changed the trip, and I don't want to write a major entry about it at the end. INSTEAD: I'd just like to say how very much my thoughts on the plane tended to gear towards everyone I had been spending...

This trip actually started as a school field trip.  My class spent 4-5 days traveling all around Arizona hitting up Phoenix, Scottsdale, Sedona, Grand Canyon and other stops in between.  Our sight seeing started at Frank Lloyd Wright's Taliesin West.  While not a national park site, it was still pretty interesting.  The best part was probably sitting inside Frank's living room in his specially-designed chair - thank God for air conditioning in Arizona! ...

Thursday-  Tyler and I decided to get up just after 5 am in hopes of catching the sunrise over the Canyon.  Dawn, never a morning person, decided to sleep in. "I'll look at the video later", she mumbled as she rolled over in her sleeping bag. Her loss!  There was a chill in the morning air as we zipped up our tents and hopped in the truck.  We headed over to the same overlook where we watched the lightning show the night before, thankful the sunrise hadn't started yet.&nbs...

Many of you in the US already know about the 3oz container rule imposed for airport security. I never thought much about this ever since I flew during those moments of crisis in London, where all you were allowed to carry was a clear plastic baggie containing your ID/Passport and car-keys. I'm used to travelling with very little anyways. But for years, carrying a small travel version of my favourite hairstyling product or shampoo was always a pain... Until I ventured into Wal-Mart the other d...

Decided that I had better take a look at Historic Flagstaff, since I've been here 4 days and have not gone there yet. First stop this morning was to Flagstaff Mall to see if a camera store there might be able to fix my telephoto lens. Unfortunately, they do not have anybody on staff to handle this. They did give me information of a Nikon repair center in Phoenix, so I may have to head South if I want to be able to use it on the rest of my trip.While at the mall, I walked passed a Taiwanese co...

   The admission price is only $7.50 per person and any guided tours that you want to go on are included in that price. The Arboretum was founded in the 1920's. It is Arizona's oldest botanical garden and it sits on 323 acres. They have a self guided tour which is a walk of about 1.5 miles. Some of it is hilly but none of it is difficult. They say to allow 2 hours but I think that three is more reasonable.  Everything is well maintained and if you see plants that you like many ...

stayed at Hospitality suites resort in Scottsdale for three days saw Scottdale, Phoenix, Apache trail

The entire trail is 40 miles but the paved part is about 17 miles. It is a steep climb with lots of switchbacks. If this kind of driving scares you then I am not recommending it. But if you have some time to spare and want to see some beautiful scenery then this is for you. The trail goes through Theodore Roosevelt Lake, a ghost town and the Lost Dutchman state park. The scenery is so much better than these pictures show.  The road was so narrow and twisty that we just could not take pic...