Southwest Fall trip assistance

Since I recently moved to West Texas I am planning a 3-4 day driving trip this fall. The routes I will be taking are:
1. I-25 to Albuquerque and then I-40 to Flagstaff, AZ.
2. from Flagstaff down I-17 to Phoenix
3. then Phoenix down 10 thru Tucson and back home.
Basically making a big circle.

Looking for recommendations as to what areas that are a must to stop at.

Thanks

If you're anywhere near Flagstaff in the fall, you need to make the drive to Sedona. The colors around Oak Creek Canyon are some of the best in the West.

Three to four days doesn't leave much time to do more than drive. If you take 89 south through Oak Creek Canyon you won't see fall color generally till mid November. Petrified Forest NP is in my opinion an underrated park just off I-40 that would be quick. You could do a quick-and-dirty at Grand Canyon, the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff is one of the best in the SW, Montezuma Castle is just off I-17 and worth a quick visit. There is nothing between Phoenix and Tucson but I would take in the Chiricahua's if at all possible.

irishman wrote in post #14765661
Three to four days doesn't leave much time to do more than drive. If you take 89 south through Oak Creek Canyon you won't see fall color generally till mid November. Petrified Forest NP is in my opinion an underrated park just off I-40 that would be quick. You could do a quick-and-dirty at Grand Canyon, the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff is one of the best in the SW, Montezuma Castle is just off I-17 and worth a quick visit. There is nothing between Phoenix and Tucson but I would take in the Chiricahua's if at all possible.

Is Mid November the normal color shift? I was there in 2008 around the 3rd week of October and the colors seemed to be very vibrant.

Since you're going that way, I'd certainly check out the VLA.

irishman wrote in post #14765661
Three to four days doesn't leave much time to do more than drive. If you take 89 south through Oak Creek Canyon you won't see fall color generally till mid November. Petrified Forest NP is in my opinion an underrated park just off I-40 that would be quick. You could do a quick-and-dirty at Grand Canyon, the Museum of Northern Arizona in Flagstaff is one of the best in the SW, Montezuma Castle is just off I-17 and worth a quick visit. There is nothing between Phoenix and Tucson but I would take in the Chiricahua's if at all possible.

Thanks for the info Bruce.

Trip is more of a general scouting, get out of town type trip. Planning it for fall when the temperatures are a bit cooler. Didn't really think there was much as far as fall color goes. Would I be better off doing this around 3rd week of Nov? I would then have 5 days available to travel for Thanksgiving holiday.

I wonder if I would better off skipping the Albuquerque to Flagstaff part and just do the Las Cruces to Flagstaff leg only. That would cut down on all the driving and give me more time to see things. Could also give me extra time to see some of Grand Canyon too.

Todd Lambert wrote in post #14765816
Since you're going that way, I'd certainly check out the VLA.

Thanks for the heads up Todd. I might just do that one of these weekends instead. It is only 240 miles from me.

I drove the same area in March and irishman suggested I should visit Chiracahua ,we did and enjoyed it very much. Should have spent more time there walking the trails. Also liked Sabino Canyon near Tucson,the temperatures were still very comfortable at that time though. We also liked visiting Montezuma's Castle and the area near Flagstaff.
While driving through New Mexico , we were able to visit Bosque del Apache Nat Wildlife are South of ALB, to my liking it had abundant wildlife to and nice scenery to go with it. On our return home, East of Albuquerque we took hwy 14 North through Madrid, an interesting little town as others were in that area. We ran out of time or would have liked to check out the area North and East of Santa Fe.

While you're in Phoenix, you could check out old town scottsdale. If you want a nice aerial view of the whole of Phoenix, I recommend climbing "A" Mountain on the ASU campus early in the morning. (I think the official name is Tempe Butte, but if you ask anyone around Phoenix they'll know exactly what you mean if you say "A" Mountain). It's a really fast and really steep hike ~ only 315 feet vertically and there's a nice trail all the way up. If you're fit, it only takes 15 minutes. If you're not, still probably only take 30 minutes

If you like older aircraft there are two museums on your route that are Must See places. Check them out on internet for more details.

One of the largest Aviation Museums in the world is in Tucson, Pima Air & Space museum. Lots of photo ops as it has some of every type of Air Force plane.

Also the Champlin Fighter Museum located in Mesa, AZ, which is very near Phoenix and has one of the best collections of WWII fighters I've every seen, a really nice place. Very professionally done with tons of interesting items about WWII Aces.

Canonguy39 wrote in post #14777220
If you like older aircraft there are two museums on your route that are Must See places. Check them out on internet for more details.

One of the largest Aviation Museums in the world is in Tucson, Pima Air & Space museum. Lots of photo ops as it has some of every type of Air Force plane.

Also the Champlin Fighter Museum located in Mesa, AZ, which is very near Phoenix and has one of the best collections of WWII fighters I've every seen, a really nice place. Very professionally done with tons of interesting items about WWII Aces.

I live right by Champlin! It's really a fun place, if I remember correctly if you pay a little bit of money you can sit in their old B-52 and they'll fly around Mesa for a couple of minutes.