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Published: March 24th 2007
Tucson
Caves at the Sonoran Desert Museum Began my first proper trip over in the U.S by hiring a car and hitting the road. Have been keen to do a U.S road trip for a long time and Arizona is the perfect place for it. Lots of long, quiet roads. Changeing scenery on a regular basis. Christian rock everywhere you go - what more could a guy ask for. Pumped out 5000km in 2.5 weeks and loved every bit of it. There is still plenty that i would like to see in Arizona but it'll probably have to wait until next time.
Got off to a great start when the hire company gave me a V6 Pontiac for the same price as a small economy car. Headed over to Tucson for a couple of nights. The scenery over in this part of the state is dominated by the cactus plants of the Sonoran desert - they're everywhere and they're enormous.
My first stop in Tucson was the Sonoran desert museum, which is actually more like a zoo. It is well laid out and gives you a good idea of the plants and animals in the desert.
The next day i took a trip over
Tucson
Big cactus to Tombstone - 'the town that can't be killled' or something like that. The town has kept the main street quite close to how it would've looked back in the day. People wander the streets dressed up as characters from the wild west - Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday etc. Every couple of hours there is a re-enactment of the Gunfight at the O.K Corral. It's all pretty touristy and over the top but not a bad way to pass away a couple of hours. There's a video of the shootout in the top left corner of the blog.
From Tombstone i cruised over to an old mining town called Bisbee, where i had lunch and a bit of a look around before heading back to Tucson. Went out that night and made a few friends who invited me back to a party which kicked on to the small hours.
The next morning, feeeling a bit under the weather i left Tucson and headed for Biospshere 2. This is a fully enclosed facility that had its heyday a few years back when 8 (non-coupled) people were locked inside for 2 years, studying stuff. If anyone happens to be in
Canyon du Chelly
How good are those chicken legs the area at some stage in the future - don't bother. Put the foot down and keep driving.
There were only two highlights for the day. The first was when the oldest guy in the group (mid 70's) asked the question on everyone's mind - "...so if they weren't couples, what did they do for two years...if you know what i mean". The second was when some dopey biker dude asked if this was where they filmed that Pauly Shore movie. The eurotrash guide was pretty unimpressed.
From there i drove to Canyon de Chelly which is a smaller version of the Grand Canyon, but still bloody impresssive. You can check it out from 6 or 7 lookouts as well as hike to the bottom for a different perspective. After a few hours i headed to Monument Valley which is the location of many a scene from cowboy movies. Was there at around sunset, which is definitely the best time of the day in Arizona. The colours in the desert are beautiful.
I then crossed the border in to Mormon country - Utah. The plan was to spend 3 nights at Park City where Sandy, a mate
Monument Valley
Coming on to sunset of mine from uni was working at one of the ski resorts. I'll fill you in on the rest of the trip in the next update.
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danielle allen
non-member comment
rocking out
Hi crooksy, Great to see you are having a fab road trip! We are in Sydney for a post grape harvest holiday and staying in camperdown...the old stomping ground is the same as ever only the HQ is now rarely open and is mainly a hard rock plus goths???? joint! A big Hi from the Allen clan. Dan