(12/11 – 12/18/2025)
We used to take a lot of road trips when the kids were little. It has been a while since our last road trip, so Rei and I decided to drive to Southern California and Arizona for a week-long road trip.
Day 1: To Palm Desert
After loading lots of snacks into the car, we left home around 8:20am to drive to Southern California. It was very foggy (“Tule Fog”) when we were on Hwy 580 and Hwy 5. It was cold too, so the first few hours of the road were melancholy and depressing. Fortunately, we had enough snacks to keep us entertained.
There were several places on the Hwy 5 that provided food. Since we were not very hungry (it probably had something to do with the snacks), we only stopped at a rest area that was open (a couple were closed) to have scones and coffee we brought from home.
It became sunny when we were approaching the mountains. Tejon Pass was notoriously hot in the summer, but it was very pleasant and scenic in early December. The fall colors were still strong in the area.
There was an area before Hwy 15 having interesting rock formations. I managed to take some not-so-impressive photos while Rei was driving 60+ miles per hour. We also spotted a lot of Josuha Trees on the way. This section of the road was very scenic.
We found a Costco warehouse on the way where we got gas for the car. We also picked up some blueberry muffins there since tonight’s hotel in Palm Desert would not provide free breakfast.
When we reached Marriott Shadow Ridge II around 6pm, it was already dark. It took us a while to find our room because the resort wasn’t well lit. Rei rented a one-bedroom suite with a kitchenette. It was very comfortable.
The resort only had one Italian restaurant, where we had dinner. Rei and I shared a medium vegetarian hand-tossed pizza. Rei, of course, also ordered a beer. The pizza was good.
Day 2: Joshua Tree National Park
Breakfast was the blueberry muffins we got from Costco yesterday, coffee, and apples we brought from home.
We left the hotel around 8:30am. Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument visitor center was only a very short distance away, so we decided to swing by to get another National Monument stamp.
The ranger at the visitor center was very friendly. He lent us a pamphlet showing a nature trail around the visitor center. We saw many kinds of cacti. However, the timing wasn’t right, and we didn’t see any cactus flowers.
Afterwards, we drove to Joshua Tree National Park through the southern entrance. There was a car stopping in front of the national park entrance sign. When I was about to take a picture of Rei standing in front of the sign, the guy in the car came out offering to take a photo of both of us and asked us to take a photo of him standing in front of the sign.
“He has been waiting there for someone to take a picture of him standing in front of the national park sign,” commented Rei.
Cottonwood Visitor Center was small, but there’s a gift shop and a restroom with flush toilets. I paid for Rei’s new Joshua Tree baseball cap, because he left his wallet in the car.
We didn’t see any Joshua Trees in this area. However, there were a lot of interesting rock formations. The main road inside the park was paved. The road near the southern entrance was in poor condition, but the road condition improved after we drove further north.
There were many cars parked at the Cholla Cactus Garden, so we also parked our car and went out to take a walk. Cholla Cacti looked very impressive reflecting the bright sunlight. The circular walk was short. We saw many families with young children.
The next stop was at Twin Banks to walk the trails to see Arch Rock and Heart Rock. There were many people there when we reached Arch Rock, so we all had to take turns to take a picture under Arch Rock. After we explored the area a little longer, the crowd disappeared, and we were able to take more photos.
You would know which rock was Heart Rock, because its shape was exactly like a heart! It was highly unusual. This was the first time we saw Heart Rock even though we have been to Joshua Tree NP a few times. Rei and I were both amazed by the shape of the rock.
It was already 1pm, so we stopped by Live Oak picnic area to eat our packed lunch. There were two picnic tables under the shade providing great views of the surrounding.
Skull Rock was by the roadside, so many people stopped by to take photos. The area also had a lot of Joshua Trees.
People were advised to visit Keys View when the weather was favorable. We have never been there. The weather today was great with bright sunlight and a few clouds, so we decided to drive to Keys View.
When we walked up to the viewpoint, we found out that the place offered an excellent view of San Andreas Fault and the nearby Salton Sea! Many people were at Keys View to admire the amazing scenery. There’s an information board showing two segments of San Andreas fault coming together in the region. We thought this was pretty cool!
It was around 3pm when we left Keys View to drive to Twentynine Palms. Joshua Tree NP was a great place to visit in December. The weather was warm but not hot. It’s very suitable for hiking in the desert. We wished we could spend more time here to do more hiking – well, maybe next time.
There was another Costco in Palm Desert where we went for more gas for the car. Then we had dinner at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant before returning to the hotel.
Day 3: Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument
We saw Salton Sea yesterday at Keys View. Rei suggested that we should drive past Salton Sea on our way to Tucson. It would only add a very short distance.
When we first reached Salton Sea, there was a rest area with pit toilets, but we decided not to stop. It ended up being the only rest area along the eastern shore of Salton Sea. The rest of the shore was undeveloped.
We planned to visit Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument before going to Tucson. Web information showed that the visitor center would close at 4pm. Moreover, I forgot that Arizona was one hour ahead of California in winter. Therefore, we were on a tight schedule and could only make short stops on the way.
When we arrived at the visitor center around 3:15pm, we found out that the place would not close until 5pm! The friendly ranger at the visitor center suggested we hike the Desert View Trail. The trail was less than 2 miles and was pretty easy to hike. There were many information boards providing interesting information about the plants in Sonoran Desert.
Organ Pipe Cactus was common in Mexico but not in the United States. Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was adjacent to Mexico and was set to protect a large cluster of Organ Pipe cacti in the area. The cacti have a distinctive shape of multiple stems growing from a single base, resembling organ pipes, and thus the name.
After the hike, we left the national monument a little before 5pm to drive to Tucson. On the way, we stopped by the monument entrance sign that we missed previously on our way in to take some photos.
Desert sunset view was splendid! However, after getting dark, it was very difficult to drive because the route didn’t have any roadside light!
We finally arrived in Tucson around 7pm. The lady at the hotel reception desk suggested an Indian restaurant next door, where we had dinner. I ordered Tandoori Chicken. Rei ordered Chili Chicken and a beer. My dish was better.
The Geminid meteor shower was supposed to peak tonight. We didn’t know about the meteor shower before the trip, and therefore, we weren’t very well prepared. I asked Rei whether we should go buy headlights, and he replied that he already packed one in his bag. When I complimented him for his foresight, he replied:
“I didn’t know what kind of crazy ideas you would come up with, so I thought I should be better prepared.”
I had to remind him that watching meteor shower was more of his crazy idea than mine.
The sky was partially cloudy, and we vacillated regarding whether to go out or not. Finally, after 10pm, we decided to drive to Saguaro National Park west district to check.
I figured out last year how to spot the Gemini constellation. It was close to the easily recognizable Orion constellation. Even though the sky was cloudy, both Orion and Gemini were clearly visible. We didn’t see the spectacular meteor shower as reported. I only counted 5 shooting stars during our almost 2 hours of star gazing. The viewing conditions didn’t improve, so we finally decided to leave around 1pm to return to the hotel to sleep.
Day 4: Saguaro National Park
We set the alarm clock at 7:30am, because the included breakfast would end at 9am.
Today’s plan only included visiting Saguaro National Park. We first drove to the Red Hills Visitor Center in the west district of the park. This was also where we parked last night to watch meteor shower.
A friendly ranger informed us that King Canyon Trail was a popular hike, so we drove to the King Canyon Trailhead parking lot. We started from the Gould Mine Trail up. The view of mountains, valleys and cacti was magnificent. Gould Mine was a copper mine dated back to early 1900’s. We could see the remains of mine and an abandoned stone structure at the top of the hill. Then we walked the King Canyon Trail down to return to the parking lot and drove back to the visitor center.
We were just in time to watch a short video show at 12:30pm. Afterwards, we ate our packed lunch at the visitor center patio with great cactus view.
The Desert Discovery Nature Trail close to the visitor center was an easy short trail with more information display. After that, we drove to visit the east district of the national park.
The east district was less developed. Its main attraction was just a one-way loop road for visitors to view the high desert, which was different from the west district. We detoured to walk the Mica View Trail. We were surprised to find many cars and a lot of people there. Despite many visitors, the place was very quiet with only the sound of wind blowing. There were many very tall Saguaro cacti growing in the area.
On the way back, we heard bird calls and saw a Gila Woodpecker perching on top of a giant Saguaro cactus. Both Rei and I managed to take some photos of the woodpecker.
Rei said since we’re in Southern Arizona, we should go to a Mexican restaurant tonight. We decided to go to Guadalajara Grill because it had 22K+ reviews!
The restaurant offered table-side salsa making. Rei was super impressed. Rei ordered grilled fish. He wanted to order his regular beer, but I reminded him that he should order a margarita instead. I had pollo en mole. The food was very delicious.
The sky was still partially cloudy tonight, and we were tired, so we decided not to go out tonight.
Day 5: Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, Montezuma Castle National Monument
After breakfast at the hotel, we checked out to drive to Casa Grandes Ruins National Monument. The weather was sunny and cool. This was our second visit to Casa Grande Ruins. We took the kids there on a road trip when they were little.
On the way to the national monument, we saw a lot of Pima cotton fields on the way. Later we learned that Pima cotton is an important crop of the region.
We arrived shortly before 10:30am and were just in time to watch an introductory movie. After that, we learned that there’s a ranger guided tour at 11am, so we joined the walk with a dozen or so tourists – most of them were seniors.
There’s a ballcourt shaped arena. However, now people are not sure whether it was really used for ball games or not, and it’s definitely not the same as the Aztec or Maya ball games that involved human sacrifice!
The Great House (Casa Grande) was a 4-story structure built in early 14th century. It was later abandoned. During our last visit, the ranger described the Great House as a defensive structure like a citadel. Nowadays, people consider it more as a palace or a community center. That is, it’s more peaceful. There are still a lot of unanswered questions regarding the site, and the interpretations keep changing when more discoveries are found.
There was a high roofing structure built to protect the ruins. The ranger pointed out to us that a pair of owls living on the beams.
We were also told that this place had the largest ancient irrigation system in North America. It was the second in America, only surpassed by the Inca irrigation system. In addition to the usual southwestern staple food (corn, beans, squash), Pima cotton was also planted. Evidence showed that people thrived in the area and engaged in art works. However, the site was later abandoned, probably because the environment couldn’t support the population growth.
We left the monument after 12:00 noon to drive to Montezuma Castle National Monument. It was a long drive, and we didn’t arrive until 3pm.
Montezuma Castle was an impressive multi-story building high up on a cliff. It looked magnificent! There’s a short circular walk leading to the castle overlook and a small creek. The place was very scenic and quiet.
There’s another Tuzigoot National Monument nearby, but we ran out of time (the closing time was 4:45pm). So, we decided to just drive to Sedona.
The scenic byway to Sedona was spectacular. We stopped on the way to take pictures of magnificent red rocks. There were many tourists in the place.
We arrived at Chapel of Holy Cross shortly after 4pm. The chapel was designed to be incorporated into the surrounding red rocks and was photogenic. The parking lot was crowded with a lot of cars and visitors.
After taking several photos, we decided to enter the chapel before its 4:45pm closing time. We parked the car near the entrance of the parking lot, so we had to climb up a small hill to reach the chapel. It was possible to park near the chapel up the hill.
It was a small chapel with a giant cross at the back. The backwall was made of glasses that beautifully reflected the light. This was a very popular place with many tourists.
We stayed at Southwest Inn in Sedona. Our room had very beautiful southwestern style decorations and a fireplace! We had dinner in another Mexican restaurant in Sedona. The food was good, but Rei still considered that last night’s dinner was better. There were many shops in the area that were still open. However, it was dark and cold, so we didn’t do any shopping there.
Day 6: Walnut Canyon National Monument, Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument, Wupatki National Monument
Today would be a busy day; we planned to visit three national monuments. After the delicious included breakfast at the hotel, we checked out shortly after 9am to drive to Walnut Canyon National Monument, which was about an hour’s drive away.
This was our first visit to Walnut Canyon National Monument. There were 2 main trails there. We started with the shorter 3/4-mile Rim Trail. The trail was flat and provided excellent canyon view. We could spot some cliff houses on the opposite side of the canyon. There were information boards explaining various plants on the trail. We also saw a couple Puebloan ruins along the trail.
The longer Island Trail required walking down and then up hundreds of steps. There was a warning sign telling visitors that walking down was optional while climbing up was mandatory. Since both Rei and I were good hikers, this wasn’t a problem for us.
The Island Trail passed many cliff house ruins on the way, and therefore it was more interesting. We could even enter a few ruined rooms. We took many photos on the way.
It was already noon when we were ready to leave. Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument was less than an hour’s drive away. We were able to get the stamp of this NM and the stamp of nearby Wupatki National Monument. (Later we found out that the visitor center at Wupatki was closed for the day.)
We have been to Sunset Crater Volcano NM before. Today we only walked a short lava flow trail and stopped by a viewpoint to take photos of the volcano. Then, we continued to Wupatki NM.
When we arrived, we found out that the visitor center was closed for the day. Luckily the restrooms remained open, and there were 2 senior rangers onsite to answer questions.
The main house there was under maintenance. There was a kiva-like circular structure, which the rangers later informed us was actually a “community center.” The real kiva was a small rectangular room (Room 19), and it was for men only! The rangers also told us that Wupatki was a trading center for nearby Pueblo people.
This site also had a ballcourt and a very interesting blowhole. If you put your hand on top of the blowhole, you would feel air flowing up!
Afterwards we drove by Citadel Pueblo and Nalakihu Pueblo. Both sites were close to each other. We only took photos but didn’t spend extra time exploring. Las Vegas, where we were staying for the night was more than 4 hours away.
The drive to Las Vegas was very boring. There was a very long section of nothingness. We couldn’t find a rest stop until we almost reached Kingman. Nevada was one hour later than Arizona in winter, so when we arrived in Las Vegas, it was still around 6:30pm.
We stayed in New York New York. Rei suggested having dinner at the onsite pizzeria. However, the pizzas there were ridiculously expensive at more than $50 a pie! We ended up having chicken sandwiches at the nearby Shack Shack, where the food was more reasonably priced.
Day 7: Death Valley National Park
We went downstairs to a crepe stop to have breakfast. Rei ordered a chicken pesto crepe, and I ordered a blueberry crepe. Both were delicious.
Tule Springs National Monument didn’t have a visitor center. Visitors would have to go to the adjacent Ice Age Fossils State Park ($3 per person) to obtain information and to get a stamp. The Ice Age Fossils visitor center looked very new. There was a short loop describing various Ice Age animals that used to live in the area.
Afterwards we drove to Death Valley National Park, which was a bit more than 2 hours away. It’s the same desert mountain view with some Joshua Trees, agaves and yuccas. It became more scenic when we arrived at the national park.
We saw many cars parked at a roadside parking lot on the left, so we also parked our car there. There’s an uphill trail leading to a great viewpoint (Zabriskie Point). Many visitors were at the top taking photos.
Then we stopped by the Furnace Creek Visitor Center to show our national park pass and to get stamps.
We had lunch at the Inn at Death Valley, a luxury hotel. The Inn was a beautiful building with intricate tile decorations. Rei and I shared a mushroom sandwich and a chicken sandwich at the restaurant rear patio. Both sandwiches were very delicious.
Badwater at 282 ft below sea level was a must see of Death Valley. We saw a lot of cars and people there. There were big storms about a month ago, so now there’s a shallow lake at Badwater. The interesting salt crystal formations no longer existed. There were just lumps of earth and salt. We have been to Death Valley several times, but this was the first time we saw a lake!
The road closed at Badwater due to storm damage, so we returned north. The one-way Artists Drive was also closed. The painted hills were fantastic. However, they didn’t have the vivid colors of the rhyolite hills we saw in Iceland.
I saw an amazing photo of Mosaic Canyon on the park information paper, so we decided to go there to take a look. The last 2 miles to the trailhead were unpaved, and it was difficult to drive on this section of the road.
It was almost sunset when we finally arrived at the trailhead, therefore we didn’t linger long. We only walked about one mile into the canyon, but we still saw some fantastic viewpoints and took many photos. We saw several people walking back to the parking lot, and Rei decided that we should return too.
We stayed at Stovepipe Wells Village hotel for the night. Our only dinner option was at the hotel. Fortunately, they served great food. Rei had a salad, and I ordered Southwestern Stuffed Poblano Peppers.
Death Valley was another dark sky destination. We went to the sand dune parking lot star gazing. Even though we saw many stars, we didn’t get to see the Milky Way.
Day 8: Sand Dunes
We didn’t have time to stop by Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes yesterday, so we were going there after checking out the hotel around 9am. The Sand Dunes were very close to the hotel. It was still early, and we only saw a few cars at the parking lot.
We parked the car to climb the sand dunes. Even though the dunes were not high, it’s not easy walking on the sand. The place was very quiet and very scenic.
Afterwards, we stopped by the Stovepipe Wells Visitor Center to get a stamp. The ranger informed us that it’s a rare stamp because this small visitor center wasn’t open every day! There’s a general store nearby with public toilets. The merchandise in the general store was great but pricy.
It’s the end of the Death Valley visit. We drove on Rte 190 to go home. The route was very scenic with fantastic mountain views and rock formations. This route wasn’t busy; we didn’t see many cars on the way. After we left the national park, the route was still scenic. We saw many Joshua Trees on the way. It was a pleasant drive until we reached civilization.
Amy 'n Rei 