Arizona: National Parks Trip #2

Spring Break 2025 we took our second National Parks Trip out to Arizona 

    When Bruce and I started discussing our approach, we planned to take multiple three to four week trips to visit as many US National Parks as we could over a one-year period. This plan evolved, and we decided to begin with two shorter nine to ten day trips to see how it went and learn how to plan, tweak, and make things work well before we embarked upon longer treks. Then, we would attempt to see ALL the rest of the sixty-three Parks over a fifteen month period with a series of longer (up to seven weeks), more ambitious trips that will hopefully all fall into place. Our planning has been extensive, as National Park campsites can be difficult to book, and we are trying to be efficient while also seeing each park at the right time of year. 

    

    This second trip was pretty laid back. We have some family members who invited us to camp near them just outside of Phoenix for MLB Spring Training and watch some baseball games. We decided we could drive to Petrified Forest National Park on the way, and take a day trip down to Tuscon to visit Saguaro National Park during our stay. 

    We left Friday March 7th early in the afternoon and drove to a free campsite just across the New Mexico border. It only had five sites with hookups, and was first come first serve. We arrived late as the last site was being taken, but were able to share the hookups because the other group only needed electricity, and we only needed the water hookup (perks of having a solar panel).

    Saturday we left early and drove to our planned stop at Lyman Lake State Park in Arizona. We learned on the way that the park no longer had potable water, and we didn't want to run potentially contaminated water through our fresh water tank and pipes. After checking out multiple travel stops, we finally found a gas station that had a hose, and management allowed us to fill our tank! We made it to our destination and spent the night without complication.

    Sunday morning we broke camp and took off for Petrified Forest National Park and the Painted Desert! We didn't even get inside the visitors center before the kids started oohing and ahhhing over the pretty rocks! After exploring the Rainbow Forest Museum (visitors center) we took the Rainbow Forest Loop behind the museum to view the Giant Logs. The kids took a million pictures on one of our digital cameras!

Petrified Wood outside the Rainbow Forest Museum

    We didn't have time to stop at every location through the park, but we did walk the Crystal Forest Trail. Our littlest went around feeling the logs to determine textures for one of her Jr. Ranger activities, and it was adorable to watch her come up with different words to describe what she felt! Child #3 was largely focused on finding wildlife for a different activity, and it was a relief when someone finally spotted a butterfly, so we could all check the "insect" box and move on! 

Taking pictures on the Crystal Forest Trail

Posing in front of a petrified log

More pretty rock!

Posing in front of a REALLY big log!

    Our next stop was Newspaper Rock to look down at the petroglyphs. This picture looks like a pile of big rocks, but if you look closely, you'll see the petroglyphs!

Newspaper Rock

    We then continued North through the park to stop at Pintado Point and take some photographs of the Painted Desert. The surrounding terrain was stunningly beautiful! It is rather awe-inspiring to see the coloful layers of sediment laid down during Noah's flood wrapping around the horizon! 

Panoramic View from Pintado Point

Painted Desert

    After stopping at the Painted Desert Visitor Center for Jr. Ranger badges, we continued on to our campsite for the week at White Tank Mountain Regional Park. The next three days were pretty relaxed, as we spent time with family and watched the Texas Rangers play some spring training games. Ellie even caught herself a baseball! She slipped underneath everyone who was fighting for it and snatched it up! 

Ellie with her ball!

    We also had a chance to see a small rattlesnake one of the rangers was relocating, because it was sunning itself on one of the roads in the campground. It was coiled up in a bucket, but I didn't get a picture.

    Thursday, we left camp very early to drive to Tuscon to visit Saguaro National Park. We started at the West Unit, and walked the nature trail near the visitor center after stopping for information, and of course, Jr. Ranger booklets. We learned about desert flora in the Sonoran Desert, which is similar to what we saw in Big Bend, with some new plants, and not near as much agave. We found an animal burrow of some sort, and Cassie spotted a well-camouflaged lizard as it scurried across the path in front of her! From there, we drove the scenic loop, which was very bumpy. We stopped for a very windy lunch at one of the trail heads, and at one point on the drive, I caught sight of a Saguaro in bloom! It was on the drivers side, so I stood up from my doorway (with the vehicle stopped of course) and took a picture over the roof. 

    The Ocotillo were in bloom as well! They looked less like barbed wire (as we saw them in Big Bend), and more like fuzzy green stalks with red paintbrushes at the tips.

Ocotillo

Barrel Cactus

Here is the blooming Saguaro I was so excited to find!

    At the East District, the girls completed their Jr. Ranger books, and we took the other scenic loop. Weather was blowing in from the distance, but we were able to drive around and look at cactus, while hopelessly trying to spot a gila monster. As our kids predicted, we were not successful... We decided to walk a one mile loop trail to look at the Freeman Homestead, where I was expecting to see old buildings of some sort for a mini history lesson. When we arrived and discovered it was just a plot of sand where you can sort of see where the corner posts to a small approximately 10 x 10 ft building used to be, I laughed at the anti-climactic situation! It was a pretty cool little hike notwithstanding, and despite the wind, it was calmer in the valley past the "homestead." We heard all sorts of creaking noises as the cacti was moved by the wind. It is very different from the familiar rustling of wind in trees.

Beautiful old Saguaro with an Ocotillo blossom in the foreground

    We drove back toward Phoenix through a nasty sandstorm that was heading east, but made it back safely to camp and rest. We enjoyed another baseball game the following day, along with some fireworks afterwards (the Rangers won every game we watched that week, and my kids can probably still quote all the scores). The next day we broke camp and drove a long two days back home.

    Next up, I'll share our current adventures in South Dakota at Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, Jewel Cave National Monument, Badlands National Park, and Mount Rushmore!