Vacation Planning: South West

[yesthattom]

We’re thinking of going to the south west for a vacation this summer (July or August, maybe 1 week). What’s your top 3 things we should see or do while we’re out there?

Comments

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

Visit the ruins at Chaco Canyon in New Mexico. And you can camp there. 'Cause I know how much you love camping.

[lillilah]

If you like rocks, it is great to rent a car in Phoenix and drive up through Monument Valley, the Needles, the Arches and Moab. Of course, that drive takes about a week and will be hot as hell in August. My mom and I did it in October and it was lovely. We even managed to squeeze the Grand Canyon in, although I think that Monument Valley is more interesting. If you go, pay for a Native American guide to take you inside the reservation. You get to climb up into the arches. It was the best part of the trip. (If you are really interested, you can see my journal - http://bychoice.livejournal.com/250809.html. If you look under the tag "trip" after that you should find other entries.)

If you are less into rocks, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum outside of Tucson (http://www.desertmuseum.org/) is really cool (think humane zoo), except that it will be August and hot as hell (but slightly cooler than Phoenix). Towards the end of August, the monsoon season starts (at least down in Tucson), so there will be lots of blooms on the cactus and fantastic lightning storms.

Glen and I took a vacation in northern New Mexico, which was quite neat. Santa Fe was over-crowded and over priced, but we took a drive up along through really northern New Mexico along the Colorado border, which was beautiful (but in the middle of nowhere). Most of New Mexico seems quite beautiful, but I can't recommend too much to do there (although if you end up wanting to go there, I can ask my dad for some pointers as he lives half time in NM and half time outside of Tucson).

[mrfantasy.livejournal.com]

I'll second the vote for the Sonora Desert Museum. It's really nice. But yeah, August in Tucson would be bad.

smbslt would probably recommend Bisbee to you.

If you go to Utah, Park City's beautiful in the summer and not so hot. Although it's probably not in most people's geographic definition of the Southwest.

In general, I'd stay above 5000 feet as much as possible since it will be cooler.

[lillilah]

I guess that's true. Above 5000 feet, you would probably be better off. Much of the rock tour I suggested is up high. I burned fairly badly even in October, so take care if you go.

NAM

[gulfie.livejournal.com]

http://www.atomicmuseum.com/

The national atomic museum... It's a small one, maybe an hour or two, but you'll get to see what all the fuss is about.

[tactisle.livejournal.com]

Okay, this might be a bit cliche, but seriously: the Hoover Dam is not only a hella impressive feat of engineering, but perhaps the most monumental single project to come out of the New Deal. The tour was very informative.

And then there's the Meteor Crater... Only place on the continent where you can look at the ground and realize that you are, in fact, hurtling through outer space.

Make sure you eat something made with the local green chiles. They don't sell 'em out here, and ain't no other peppers quite like them.

[lillilah]

Don't they just use Anaheim chilies (and occasionally Pablano)? They are everywhere here. However, I have a packet of seeds for Relleno chilies, which appear to be very hard to come by. As I won't be using all of them (and who knows if they'll even grow here), I'd be happy to give you some. (Seeds of Change sells them, but they look like they sell out very early.)

[tactisle.livejournal.com]

Hunh. All I know is that we stopped into a restaurant in Prescott where their giant-plate-o-nachos special was covered in these incredibly yummy light-green diced and stewed chiles, that had a bit less "kick" than jalapenos but still bore a lovely slow burn heat to them.

And a year or so later, I was watching a TV program about unique and historical burger joints across the nation, and one of the stops was a place in New Mexico where they do a burger smothered in stewed "New Mexico green chiles" that the proprietress said were native to the area. They looked just like the ones I remembered.

They didn't taste like Anaheims. More like cubanelles turned to 11.

[lillilah]

Interesting. Relleno chilies are supposed to be very consistently mild, so I don't know. I suppose I can ask my dad. When I lived in Tucson, I remember buying chilies with my aunt, but I think we just bought "green chilies". I dunno.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

purplerabbit, fairie_boy and I liked the meteor crater, too!

[shirleym.livejournal.com]

I have to disagree with bychoice about the Grand Canyon--I found it overwhelming and fascinating.

I also recommend Joshua Tree, if you're further west. And +1 to everything tactisle said, which is cheating I know.

[mhalligan.livejournal.com]

Go to the ruins in the 4 corners. There's a tour company there who will rent you this great device where you sit in a seat that has a fan on the back, and a parachute. They guide you to fly into the ruins and spend a day looking around.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Tucson is a very nice city, but gets humid in the summer (unlike the rest of the region).

Aside from that, just follow the Colorado River and wherever you are, the scenery will be breathtaking.

[lillilah]

Tucson can't get that humid compared to Phoenix, which is at the end of the Colorado River project and has lots of surface water. When I lived in Tucson, if the humidity got to 20%, it rained.

[missionista.livejournal.com]

Grand Canyon.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Seconded. It may be cliche, but it's a cliche worth being awed at. And didn't they just put in that glass platform...?

[etler.livejournal.com]

I was recently in the Page area. Gorgeous. We went over by the Vermillion Cliffs area and hiked up into Paria Canyon. If you're into hiking and exploring there's dozens of random slot canyons to hike up into. I don't know what the weather is like during that time of year up there but make sure there's no possibility of rain. Don't want to die in a flash flood.

We also took the Antelope Canyon tour which is pretty sweet. You have to have a Navajo guide but if you look experienced and want to just wander around taking pictures they'll let you stray from the group. Just get back to the bus when they want you to. If you haven't heard of Antelope Canyon look into it. It's insane.

The Grand Canyon is quite grand. Though I've only been to the North Rim which I think you can only hit from Utah. If you're looking at Utah, Zion and Bryce Canyons are awesome. You can easily spend a week exploring those.

The whole Southwest is just spectacular really.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Montezuma's Castle, if you happen to be travelling between Phoenix and Flagstaff...

[whitebird.livejournal.com]

The Grand Canyon is nice, but if you want to go a bit further afield, and to see something almost alien in landscape, try Bryce Canyon instead. Doesn't have quite the scale of the Grand Canyon, but visually it pretty much can't be beat.

[smbslt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'll put in a plug for Bisbee, especially if you end up in Tucson, which is less than 2 hours away. There are several art galleries and antique stores in Old Bisbee and there is the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum and the mine tour, which could feel great if it is a hot day - the mine tunnel is always in the 50s. Chiricahua National Monument isn't far from Bisbee and would be a good outdoor day trip.

The Grand Canyon is amazing - I've only been to the North Rim, but it gets fewer vistors and it's cooler than the south rim.

Without a fence

[pvt-idaho.livejournal.com]

Go see the border before they put a fence with razorwire on it.

Other choices may include: Taos, New Mexico. Very scenic little town.
Area 51
Waco - maybe save it for another trip