We took a 5-night trip to the Verde Valley near Sedona, AZ. We weren’t sure this planned trip was going to happen as Tracey had been sick for the last 10 days with a respiratory “thing” (Covid-19 and Flu A/B negative), but she decided to push on regardless. We have both been to this area of Arizona before but have not spent any considerable time exploring. We liberated Tofu from the storage unit and spent 48 hours getting the van ready to go. We really❤ vanlife and this van has permitted us to go to so many amazing places we probably would not otherwise go to. We don’t love resorts, hotels and Airbnb’s as we are both a bit squeamish about sharing pillows and cutlery with strangers and much prefer our own bed and linens and our own food and kitchen, even if that means that space is tiny and on wheels. With our home always with us, we never forget anything and we always have food ready. Now that Tony has fixed the Webasto van heater (it was a simple $20 secondary fuel filter replacement) we are able to go anywhere, even cold places.

Enroute to Northern Arizona, we stopped off at Cave Creek Regional Park and hiked the Go John and Quartz loop. The weather looked ominous with dark skies and rain in the distance, but we pushed on regardless and we were treated to a lovely day with few others on the trail. As we pushed further north, there was a perceptible change in temperature as we crossed into the Verde Valley. We booked a lovely Hipcamp in Cornville, AZ that came complete with a full RV hook-up, patio area with a kiva fireplace and expansive views of the terrain. It turned out to be a perfect campsite for our trip.

Even though our Webasto van heater is again working like a champ, Tracey still didn’t trust it so we brought a small electric heater with us to keep us warm overnight since we had a 30-amp electrical hook-up. The little electric heater worked like a champ and on low kept the inside of the van 40 degrees F warmer than the outside temperature which dipped into the 20’s (F) at night.

Our host provided a list of some of their favorite hikes and so we set out the first morning to hike the Baldwin and Templeton trails near Cathedral Rock. We arrived early at the trailhead so parking was not an issue. The temperatures were quite cold so we procrastinated a bit before heading out on the trail. The trail was uncrowded and well-marked and provided wide open views of the red rock formations towering above us. With sunshine, blue skies and only a few puffy clouds it was a nice transition day into exploring the Verde Valley.

We next set our sites on Montezuma’s Well National Monument and Montezuma Castle National Monument which are 20 minutes apart from each other. The well location was fascinating, as it is a deep-spring fed body of water that has unusually high levels of dissolved carbon dioxide and arsenic and therefore the only aquatic life are diatoms, amphipods, leeches, scorpion, snail and pondweed. Montezuma Castle was a cliff dwelling built by the Sinagua people in the 12th century. We returned to our campsite just before dark to learn our host had refilled all of her bird feeders and the birds were out in force. They were so chunky we wondered how they could fly!

The next day we embarked on what is reportedly one of the top 10 hikes in the USA. The West Fork hike is located between Sedona and Flagstaff and the temperatures had dropped overnight even further at this elevation and as we drove to the trailhead there was significant snow and lots of fog. We almost turned back at one point as the mountain road was pretty icy but there was nowhere to turn around so we pressed on without any issues. We were the first vehicle at the Call of the Canyon trailhead but there was quite a bit of fog so we made ourselves a hot tea on the van stove and waited for better conditions. We finally headed out onto the snow-covered trail with microspikes attached to our waterproof hiking shoes, multiple layers of pants and every jacket we had brought with us. The forest floor and all of the trees were covered with several inches of recently fallen snow and the Oak Creek River was frozen over in many areas. We had 13 river crossings to get to the end of the trail, but we only made it through 12 of them as the last one was a bit too slushy to cross on the ice and we couldn’t find any other places to cross that would keep us dry from the frigid water. There were less than a dozen other people spotted the entire length of this 6.5-mile-long trail and we were the first ones out on the trail as there were no recent footprints so we were blazing our own path. It was magical being out on such a popular trail and having it all to ourselves. It lightly snowed for an hour, but the only sounds that could be heard were the flowing river and the crunch of our boots in the snow. I know this will be one of the trail experiences that we look back on with fondness for a long time.

We headed back to Sedona and stopped off at a local vegetarian restaurant for some sustenance. The food was pretty pricey for what we got and was just OK and nowhere we would sadly frequent again. We headed back to our campsite and had a lovely evening in front of the fire watching all of the chunky birds feasting at the feeders.

Since the previous day’s hike was longer and further away, we pivoted and selected a shorter in-town hike the next day. The Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock loop hike was Tony’s favorite as it required little effort but had high reward in the form of views. The trail itself was uncrowded when we were on it, but the parking area was a madhouse of cars jockeying for parking upon our return.

We stopped off at the Amitabha Stupa and Peace Park for a meditative walk around the grounds and Tony cycled on Red Rock Loop Road before returning to our campsite for a repeat of a campfire and more bird watching.

The following day another hike was planned, but this required taking a shuttle to the trailhead. Many of the trailheads are closed to on-site parking Thursday – Sunday and require hikers to park in designated areas and take a communal free shuttle to the trail. We decided to hike the Seven Sacred Pools and Soldier’s Pass Cave hike, which turned out to be our least favorite hike on our trip. The 7 sacred pools were really more 7 murky puddles and the route up to the cave was quite steep and there was really no defined trail to follow and more of a make your own route type of hiking which doesn’t bode well with the Leave No Trace philosophy we try to follow. The only saving grace was that we met a lovely couple from Boston, Roger and Jenny, with whom we hiked most of the trail with and very much enjoyed their company including the walk/jog we all had to do at the end to get us back to the shuttle less than a minute before the shuttle departure.  Next, we did an audio GPS driving tour of the area which was not very good so we bailed after only following half of it. We drove to Red Rock State Park instead and Tony got on another bike ride and Tracey hiked another few miles on the completely uncrowded, but not well-marked, trails. Our final evening back at the campsite was again another repeat of evenings past with a campfire and bird watching, but this time we even had our dinner outside. There was a crescent moon in the sky and Venus was incredibly bright.

We decided to make our trip back home productive with several stops along the way. We drove to South Mountain Park and Preserve near Phoenix where we planned to do a hike and Tony was going to do some hill climbing, but we decided against this after seeing the parking lot which was overflowing with cars resulting in about 2/3 of mile of cars parked along both sides of the street leading to the trailhead. There had to be hundreds, if not a thousand people at this trailhead which is too many people for our liking. We decided to grab a Chipotle take-out and head to Casa Grande Ruins National Monument instead. This ruin was the first national archeological site in the US and we always see signs for it when we travel to the Phoenix airport but we have never stopped. The visitor center had a great short film about the history of the ruins and then we were able explore one of the preserved compounds of the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People’s. A worthwhile stop for anybody traveling in this area. We took one final hike in Catalina State Park where it was so warm we wore T-shirts and shorts.

All in all, we packed in quite a few activities on this trip, but it did not feel too busy or too rushed. Our food planning was perfect as Tracey planned and either prepped or cooked all of our meals before we departed on this trip. Our little electric heater worked perfectly, keeping us warm at night and our newly fixed Webasto van heater kept us warm while sitting at the trailheads waiting for better weather. We enjoyed visiting 3 National Monuments, 2 State Parks, 1 Regional Park and a National Forest on this trip. Tracey was happy to get a chance to photograph some birds with her “big” (but old) camera as nowadays it always seems like she just uses her phone. We both enjoyed sitting by the campfire at night so much that we decided to continue this trend at our own house with our own outdoor beehive fireplace we never use for unknown reasons. The beautiful red rocks are something we are always in awe of when in this area. It was a short, but memorable trip and it only reinforces how much we love Arizona…and exploring Arizona in a van. Tracey still has her respiratory “thing” but hopefully is on the upswing.