Michael Huntley, Author at Traveling Huntleys

Black Canyon City, Arizona: RV Camping, Shooting Ranges & Desert Gardens

April 5, 2018 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

If you’re road-tripping through Arizona and looking for a laid-back base camp between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon, Black Canyon City, Arizona is worth a longer look. Located about 45 miles north of Phoenix along I-17, it’s easy to overlook — but we spent a week here and discovered it punches well above its weight for outdoor activities, wildlife, and relaxation.

After Petrified Forest National Park and Sedona, our goal was simple: soak up some warmth before heading north to the Grand Canyon, restock at a nearby Costco, and wait on a few Amazon deliveries. What we got was fresh-squeezed juice every morning, daily hot tub soaks, a trip to a world-class botanical garden, and a visit to the largest public shooting facility in the United States. Sometimes the practical stops turn into the best ones.

White peacock butterfly feeding on desert flowers at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix Arizona in late March during spring bloom season

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Sedona, Arizona: Best Hiking Trails, Vortexes & RV Camping Guide

March 31, 2018 by Michael Huntley

Updated May 3, 2026

If there’s one place in Arizona that consistently stops people in their tracks, it’s Sedona. The red sandstone formations rising against a sky that seems impossibly blue, the pine forest threading between the rocks, the creek-fed canyons — it’s one of those places that looks almost too vivid to be real.

We visited during spring break, which meant crowds, parking battles, and tour jeeps on every trail. Even so, Sedona absolutely delivered. We hiked four trails, soaked up a vortex, stayed at one of the best-located RV parks in Arizona, and watched a pair of Great Blue Herons nesting just behind our site. Here’s everything we did and everything you need to know before you go.

Sedona, Arizona

Winslow, Arizona: Meteor Crater, Hopi Ruins & Standin’ on a Corner

March 27, 2018 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

Most people driving I-40 through northern Arizona think of Winslow — if they think of it at all — as the town from that Eagles song. And yes, we’ll get to that. But Winslow, Arizona turned out to be a genuinely rewarding base camp for three destinations that couldn’t be more different from each other: the Homolovi State Park ruins of an ancient Hopi village, the extraordinary Meteor Crater, and the luminous Little Painted Desert County Park at sunset. We came for a corner and stayed for all of it.

Sandy Huntley on the historic Route 66 main street of Winslow Arizona with classic American Southwest storefronts and clear blue skies

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Petrified Forest National Park & Painted Desert: Our First Visit

March 24, 2018 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

We’d seen Petrified Forest National Park in photographs for years — those images of logs that look like wood but gleam with purple amethyst and red jasper — and we were skeptical. Would it really live up to the pictures? Driving from Prescott through Holbrook to reach the park, we weren’t sure what to expect. What we found left us completely speechless — and brought us back for a second visit years later. This is the story of the first one.

Panoramic view of the Painted Desert badlands in northern Arizona showing the multi-colored banded hills and vast open landscape of the Colorado Plateau

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Prescott, Arizona: Whisky Row, Watson Lake, Jerome & the Verde Valley

March 20, 2018 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

Prescott, Arizona sits in the north-central part of the state at about 5,400 feet elevation — high enough to be noticeably cooler than Tucson, and blessed with four mild seasons that have made it one of Arizona’s most consistently popular places to live and visit. It was once the capital of the Arizona Territory, and that history is still palpable in the architecture and character of the downtown. We stayed near Watson Lake, enjoyed hiking the trail along the lake’s remarkable granite shoreline, and used Prescott as a base for one of the most scenic drives in the state — up through the pines to Jerome and down into the Verde Valley. From here we continued on to Petrified Forest National Park.

Sandy Huntley and Jake the Great Dane Lab mix hiking the Watson Lake trail near Prescott Arizona with granite boulders and blue water in the background

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Picacho Peak State Park, Arizona: Wildflowers, Hiking & Desert Beauty

March 17, 2018 by Michael Huntley

Last Updated: May 2, 2026

Picacho Peak State Park sits between Tucson and Phoenix along I-10 — easy to drive past, very worth stopping for. We pulled in on our way from Tucson to Prescott, looking for a scenic overnight stop, and found one of the most atmospheric state park campgrounds in Arizona. The park is best known for its Mexican poppies and desert lupine — when conditions are right in late February and March, the hillsides around the peak explode in a carpet of orange and purple that photographers and wildflower enthusiasts travel from across the Southwest to witness. We were a couple of weeks early for peak bloom. But even off-peak, Picacho Peak delivered — early wildflowers, a challenging hike with extraordinary views, a saguaro skeleton that stopped us in our tracks, and Sandy’s birthday dinner at the finest restaurant in the area. It was the only restaurant in the area. Details matter.

Picacho Peak volcanic spire rising dramatically from the Sonoran Desert floor at Picacho Peak State Park between Tucson and Phoenix Arizona

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