May 29 – 31, 2016: After Petrified Forest National Park we headed north in Arizona to Canyon de Chelly National Monument. The canyons within the monument have been home to people for nearly 5,000 years and, even today, some Navajo people call this home; many families still live, farm, and raise livestock within the canyons.
May 27 – 29, 2016: Petrified Forest National Park, like the rest of our planet, has been shaped by erosion.
May 25 – 27, 2016: We departed Sedona for Flagstaff, Arizona and drove over some very beautiful and mountainous terrain.
May 22 – 25, 2016: Our first day in the Verde Valley area of Arizona kicked off with a drive up a mountain to the quaint town of Jerome.
May 17 – 20, 2016: Saguaro National Park was formed to protect the giant saguaro cacti. Saguaro cacti are thought to be symbol of the southwest although saguaro cacti are actually only found in the Sonoran desert of Arizona, the Mexican state of Sonora, and Whipple Mountains and Imperial County areas of California.
May 15 – 17, 2016: Our next destination after White Sands National Monument was Chiricahua National Monument in Arizona.
May 14 – 15, 2016: We arrived in Alamogordo, New Mexico in the late afternoon and decided to see if we could catch the sunset in White Sands National Monument.
May 12 – 13, 2016: We crossed into New Mexico and arrived at Carlsbad Caverns National Park (also an UNESCO World Heritage Site) in the early afternoon.
May 11 – 12, 2016: After marveling at Prada Marfa, we drove on to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The entire upper portion of the park, Dog Canyon, was closed due to fires but we were still able to camp in the lower, Pine Springs, area.The campsite was really just a parking lot – no hookups,