Rick and Cathy Hit the Road

 Traveling from Zion National Park back to El Paso we took many short detours stopping overnight in Flagstaff and in Tucson.  Marble Canyon Grand Canyon Montezuma Castle National Monument  Haunted Hotel in Flagstaff - our room was not haunted…at least not that we know of! Hotel McCoy in Tucson- loved this place! They cater to travelers who like to play. The place has a cool artist vibe as local artists display their art and it’s all for sale too. The outsides of the buildings are adorned with murals painted by local artists. They offer free welcome beer or wine and free breakfast. They had awesome outdoor spaces to play corn hole, ping pong, foozeball, a heated pool, fire pit, food truck with amazing food, indoor board game room. Of course we did it all! Saguaro National Park  A Very Cool Winery The wine was okay but the atmosphere was awesome! We stopped to visit some wonderful friends of Bryan and Jill who welcomed us into their beautiful home for 2 nights. They gave us a whirlwind t

 We spent our last day in Zion National Park hiking two trails; the overlook trail and Taylor’s Creek. In the morning we hiked about 3 miles up to the gorgeous overlook and spent about 30 minutes soaking up the sun and soaking in the views of massive red rock mountains.  Following that hike we tackled Taylor’s Creek hiking up to the double arches, crossing the mostly frozen creek bed about 20 times. We were really glad we were wearing our new trax crampons to keep us safely on the trail as it wound up and down the 8 miles of snowy and icy and sometimes muddy trail ending in a spectacular double archway that was massive and echoing.  We ended the day with a fabulous home cooked Christmas dinner at our airbnb!