Arizona Trip 2021

I'd been wanting to make my visit to Saguaro National Park a weekend getaway with my Bestie for awhile. It's off on its own a bit, so creating a weekend stay instead of trying to fit more parks in via a road trip just made more sense.

We decided to save a bundle of time traveling and fly. This was my first flight in a LONG time thanks to COVD, but we masked up and made our way through the airport. First obstacle of this trip was discovered in the TSA security line... my ID had expired months previously...

I had no idea that IDs in my state were only good for about 5 years. I honestly thought the TSA agent misread my ID or was messing with me, but nope. Sure enough, it was expired. This was a big obstacle because it meant I couldn't be the one to rent the car or drive it for this trip.

Anyway, we landed safely, Bestie was able to get the car situation taken care of on her end, and I was the co-pilot. (We learned quickly on this trip that we work better the other way around... I'm not as great with the navigation...)

Immediately, we stocked up on sunscreen, water, and other essentials at Target, and as we left the store, it started storming. A wee bit unexpected for us as we were in desert territory.

After a bit of a drive, we made it to the AirBnB safely, although it was tricky given the storm, and darkness.

Day 1:

Saguaro National Park

Beautiful. I had never seen cactus like that. It all felt oddly like being underwater too with the way the plants looked.

*There are more photos and more specifically about the park here in its own post

The Desert Museum

This stop completely made this trip worth it, in my opinion. It was like a combination of a zoo and a museum, but the people working there, and sharing information were extremely friendly, knowledgable, and entertaining. If it hadn't been so hot/sunny, and we had eaten more, I would have spent much longer there.

A majority of it was outdoors, so we felt safe and distanced for a majority of this visit.

Two of my favorite areas of the museum:

(cactus garden & ray swimming area)

And a beautiful sunset to close out the day at our AirBnB:

Day 2:

Tombstone

We started our day early in Tombstone, walked around the historic town a bit, but arrived too early to do any of the tours, which was fine- plenty to see as is.

I had apple cobbler for the first time at one of the restaurants on the main street, and my mouth still waters thinking about it. Absolutely amazing.

Ruby, (Ghost Town)

Ok, so this is where the trip went a wee bit sideways.

The main road to visit Ruby was closed, so we took an alternate route, which I would NOT recommend. Lots of dirt roads in mountainy terrain, riding alongside the edge of the country border, minimal cell service, and we didn't see a lot of other cars...

A stressful route indeed.

By the time we actually got to Ruby, we were both pretty stressed out, and didn't see anyone in the "town", and weren't about to get out of the car and wander. (We later found out that you're supposed to call ahead and let the caretaker know you're coming, and basically book in advance...)

Lots of lessons learned this day.

Day 3:

Day 3 we just relaxed in the pool all day, and it was amazing. We weren't looking to be too close to crowds, etc. given the current pandemic, but a chill pool day was perfect.

If you're even remotely considering booking a weekend trip with your best friend, do it. It was a great trip, despite the adrenaline rushes. After experiencing that heat though, I'm not sure how you could live in that region without a pool. :)