Going On The Road with Monte & Rose

8/28-8/31

Sun Valley RV Park

Sun Valley, AZ

While researching RV Parks I discovered there were very few choices of places between Gallup and where we had reservations for the month of September in Apache Junction.

We were able to find a park in Sun Valley, Arizona that accepted our Passport America membership.

After getting set up in our site I turned to Monte and asked him if he remembered pulling into a park five years and me saying to him that I was not going to stay there because there were abandoned RVs as well as old appliances rusting away throughout the park.

Monte responded that he vaguely remembered. I told him that I think that the park we were currently at was that park. After checking my notes I confirmed my suspicions. We had a good laugh about the situation. In all fairness to the park it is under new ownership and has made great strides in cleaning up the park.

The park is located off I-40 in a remote area so our exploration choices were limited.

One day we took a ride to Petrified National Park. We had visited the park over nine years ago so we didn’t find it necessary to stop at every pull off. And it was very hot so we weren’t motivated to take any of the hikes.

After stopping in at the Painted Desert Visitor Center, we drove to the Painted Desert Inn built in Pueblo Revival style in the early 20^th century that is now a museum with exhibits on its history and architecture.

Other stops we made include Newspaper Rock that displays more than 650 petro glyphs, some over 2,000 years old,

Agate Bridge featuring a 110-foot long petrified log bridge and

the Crystal Forest where there is a paved loop trail through a badlands landscape with many in-tack petrified logs.

We ended our drive at the other entrance to the park at the Rainbow Forest Museum and Visitor Center.

One day we took a ride to Winslow, a town along the historic Route 66. The town achieved national fame in 1972 in the Eagles/Jackson Brown song “Take it Easy” which as the line “standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona.”

The city had suffered a loss of commerce when Route 66 was supplanted by Interstate 40 but the popularity of the song has led to renewed attention as a tourist attraction supported by restaurants and souvenir shops.

Another attraction worth visiting, while in the area, is the historic La Posada hotel built in 1930.

The hotel and the adjacent Santa Fe Railway station were designed by renowned architect Mary Jane Colter.

Last of a series of hotel-depot complexes built across the Southwest in collaboration between Fred Harvey and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway.