Roadtrip #4A: Sedona, AZ and back

[Kinless]

Happy Spring 2009 to all you road trippers...

My family and I are taking a "mini" road trip to our neighboring state of Arizona for a free week-long stay at a resort near the town of Sedona, courtesy of a grueling 4-hour timeshare presentation I endured on the last road trip.

We'll use this as our base camp during the week to visit places in the near vicinity. We've been to Arizona twice already and visited most National Parks, so we're kind of making sure we pick up all the "leftover" destinations that we've skipped over. For instance, we'll be taking a few days to visit the southeast corner of the state that we missed last time. A plethora of National Monuments are also on the list.

Once again, Google Maps has given me the opportunity to show our route and all planned destinations of our 10-day excursion. You'll probably have to zoom in since some things are crowded together.

Our itinerary: (which of course is always subject to change)

Day 1 - Drive to (and tour) Tombstone, AZ
Day 2 - More Tombstone, Bisbee (Mine Tour), and Chiricahua National Monument
Day 3 - Drive through Phoenix, Sun City West, arrive at Sedona
Day 4 - Chill day - Tour the town of Sedona if it's not too crowded
Day 5 - Visit Jerome, AZ
Day 6 - Trio of National Monuments, including Sunset Crater Volcano
Day 7 - Visit Flagstaff, downtown area, etc.
Day 8 - Visit Tuzigoot NM and take the Verde Canyon Railroad
Day 9 - Chill day - Leftover ideas will go here if any
Day 10 - Drive through Williams, AZ and Barstow, CA to get home

I may do spotty reports this time around (meaning not every day), although in the end I will report on everything I've seen. This will also be the first road trip that I get to put my Canon EOS 50D SLR camera and 5 different lens to the test. And what better place to do it than Arizona? :)

And of course, if you have any ideas that I haven't listed here, please feel free to share. I'm always open to spontaneity.

Our trek starts at 4:00am PDT on Wednesday, May 13, 2009. Stay tuned for the usual fun-filled field reports...