Located on the outskirts of Phoenix, Arizona, Scottsdale is a resort and retirement community that is a relaxing place to visit. In some ways, it reminds us of Hilton Head, South Carolina, only it doesn’t have the beaches. What it does have is a lot of excellent golf courses, upscale resorts, and restaurants galore. Summertime is actually their off-season due to the intense heat and the possibilities of a haboob, which is dust storm that can blanket the entire area with a wall of sand.
Old Town ScottsdaleSouthwestern ArtworkBeautiful FlowersOldest Standing Church in Scottsdale
The downtown area of Scottsdale has a historic old town that will transport you back into the days of cowboys and give you a glimpse into the old west or southwest. There are plenty of souvenir stores selling Indian jewelry, pottery, and other trinkets to take home with you. There is also a large art district where you can go an art walk and enjoy all of the different galleries with traditional southwestern art as well as contemporary and traditional art. Not to worry, there is also a boutique shopping district, should you desire to do some shopping for non-tourist related items.
StorefrontsOld Western TouchesWhimsical TouchesInteresting Statues
The other thing that you can find are plenty of restaurants and bars. If you are daring, you can stop in at one of the several saloons that are downtown and even listen to some good old western music. Needless to say, we had to give more than one of the saloons a try, if for nothing else to get out of the 108 degree Fahrenheit temperatures. Cold beers and margaritas were definitely needed in order to beat the heat.
Old Fashioned SaloonHistoric Building and Friendly LoungeCountry Western MusicUnique Interior of Patties
Walking around the downtown Scottsdale area provides wonderful scenery, interesting artwork, and at this time of year, plenty of beautiful flowering plants. Whether you come to the area to play a few rounds of golf, sit by the pool and relax, or enjoy the abundant food options that are available, you won’t be disappointed. We would probably recommend that you come during the fall when the temperatures are more hospitable, but if you can stand the heat, there are plenty of deals for those who venture to come here during the summer.
True Cowboy BarMore FlowersDowntown ArtworkFun and GamesOld Town Sign
Most people who grew up in the United States have memories of strapping themselves into the backseat of the car and taking a road trip to someplace for vacation. Unlike Europe, there aren’t convenient transportation options, so the only affordable way to get anywhere is to drive. We certainly took our kids on many different road trips, whether to Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Carlsbad Caverns, or Disneyland. We used to tease the kids that it was survival of the fittest, whoever survived the trip in the back of the car would get to enjoy the vacation, that we would leave with three and arrive with two. We used all sorts of tricks to keep them entertained on the long drives, like the license plate game, count the number of different animals that they could see, or handheld games (this was before the world of smart phones, DVD players, and true gaming systems). If we had the time, we would stop at some of the odd places that you find along the way, the aligator farms, bug museums, and other tourist traps that are just there to take your money, but provide a diversion on a long drive.
Driving South on I-25New Mexico Rock FormationArizona Mountains
With that in mind, we decided to drive to Scottsdale, Arizona, this weekend to spend a week discovering what the city has to offer. Oddly enough, we have not been to Arizona, other than to drive through a portion of it, so we were looking forward to seeing something different. Unfortunately, it was a twelve hour drive without stops and we decided to power through and make it with limited breaks for food and bio-breaks. So, hop in the car with us and join us for a road trip from Colorado to Arizona through the American Southwest.
View from the CarDriving Through New MexicoArizona Border
We drove south through southern Colorado, which was very scenic as most drives down along the front range are. There are parts of Colorado that are not particularly interesting to see, but driving down I-25 towards the New Mexico border is actually a fairly pretty drive, but there are few towns along the way. Once you reach Trinidad, you are almost out of Colorado and you are leaving the majority of the mountains behind you. At this point we have been on the road for about two hours and it is an hour to our first driver change.
Heading to Southern ColoradoBear Crossing – Only in ColoradoLast of the Colorado Mountains
Once you enter New Mexico, you head down to lower elevations and the scenery becomes more stark in general. The drive takes you all the way from the northern border of New Mexico to the southern border, so you will get to see a wide variety of the natural beauty that the state has to offer. Instead of the large mountains of Colorado, there are colorful plateaus along side desert scenery. Instead of passenger trains, you will see freight trains carrying cargo, coal, and livestock across the country. Once you reach the southern border, you enter Arizona and we are now only four hours to our destination having driven an exhausting eight hours since getting on the road.
First View of New MexicoJust Desert and HighwayFreight Train
The drive through Arizona is fairly boring as you leave New Mexico and there isn’t anything but prairie desert land until you get near Flagstaff. From there you have some mountains once again, although nothing like those that you find in Colorado and Utah. As we near the Phoenix area, the sky turns dark with a combination of smoke and clouds. There is a wildfire burning in the area and we spend part of the drive covered in smoke. Then the famous Saguaro cactus made their appearance, which are so big that it is hard to explain what they actually look like in-person versus just seeing photos of them. Finally, we reach Scottsdale after twelve and a half hours and we were definitely tired of sitting in the car. It certainly didn’t take us long to fall asleep once we reached our room.
Arizona DesertMountains, Clouds, and SmokeSaguaro Cactus
Road trips might be a badge of honor, something to brag about having survived, but they can also be times for families to bond. Given our time in Europe, we prefer the ease of travel there and wish that we had the same conveniences here, but it is what it is. Since we don’t, in order to truly see this wonderful country, road trips will continue to be a necessity, whether you view them as a blessing or a curse.
