Christmas trip to Arizona and Reno - where to go?

Hi All

I'm making a trip to the US over Christmas and New Years. I'll be in Phoenix AZ for a week and in Reno NV for a week. I'm going to have free time and would like to make some day trips out to go for a hike and see interesting things and take pictures. Can any of you great people make some suggestions about interesting places to walk and see photogenic scenery, or any suggestions of places to go at all?

I'm thinking about historical Indian sites in AZ and lakes and mountains in NV, but where are specific places to go and what great things don't I know about :)

Thanks all

Cheers
 

Richard8971

"There is no spoon" - Neo
Oct 4, 2011
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Tucson, AZ
www.Oldpueblophotos.com
meinthai said:
Hi All

I'm making a trip to the US over Christmas and New Years. I'll be in Phoenix AZ for a week and in Reno NV for a week. I'm going to have free time and would like to make some day trips out to go for a hike and see interesting things and take pictures. Can any of you great people make some suggestions about interesting places to walk and see photogenic scenery, or any suggestions of places to go at all?

I'm thinking about historical Indian sites in AZ and lakes and mountains in NV, but where are specific places to go and what great things don't I know about :)

Thanks all

Cheers

If you are willing to head south for a couple of hours, the Arizona Sonoran Desert Museum in Tucson is worth seeing. It's a world class zoo and offers many things to see that are outstanding, like the hummingbird aviary and the raptor free flight.

D
 
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RC

Jun 11, 2011
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0
Sedona is always a favorite for hiking, biking, and photography in AZ. For Indian ruins, I highly recommend Walnut Canyon National Monument about 5 miles east of Flagstaff. Here you get to walk down into a canyon and see cave dwellings up close. I have not been there this time of year so I'm not sure how the angle of the sun will light up the canyon. I would check with park rangers for ideal times. About 10 miles north of Flagstaff is Sunset Crater and Wupatki National Monuments. Wupatki is loaded with more Indian dwelling and ruins. If you had to pick just one, I'd go with Walnut Canyon. Walnut Canyon will be best with an ultra wide angle lens such as 16-35.

If you make a trip to Tucson to the Desert Sonoran Museum (which is really a very cool zoo), you might also visit Saguaro National Park. The park is split into two sections, east and west. IMO, the west section (fairly close to Desert Sonoran Museum) is the better of the two.


Edit:
Now that I'm on my PC, I thought I'd post some links:

Walnut Canyon
http://www.nps.gov/waca/index.htm
Wupatki (note: Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano parks border each other)
http://www.nps.gov/wupa/index.htm
Desert Sonoran
http://www.desertmuseum.org/
Saguaro NP
http://www.nps.gov/sagu/index.htm
Desert Botanical
http://www.dbg.org/
 
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JPAZ

If only I knew what I was doing.....
CR Pro
Sep 8, 2012
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641
Southwest USA
Depends on your physical abilities (no offense intended). Boynton Canyon near Sedona is a nice hike with some old cliff dwelling ruins along the ridges above you.

+1 on the Sonoran Desert Museum.

Also might want to bring your camera to Desert Botanical Gardens in Phoenix. Really amazing examples of desert flora and also Chilluly Glass on display.

In the metro Phoenix area, look into the Go-John Trail. A pretty nice loop through the Desert near Cave Creek.

A more sedate (it is a paved walkway) but interesting place to go is "Montezuma's Castle" which is about an hour north of Phoenix. there ar some remaining cliff dwellings and a small museum about the Anasazi people.
 
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