Southwest Journey Revisited - Spring 2025 - Part 1

I’ve just returned from a 17 day journey from my home in the verdant Pacific Northwest all the way down to Litchfield Park, Sedona, Camp Verde and Tempe, Arizona and back through New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and finally back home.

What an incredible adventure we had. I brought my Cairn Terrier, Kaela with me and we travelled thousands of miles. She is the best little companion anyone could have.

We started our journey on Wednesday, February 27th driving to Boise, Idaho the first night. Drove further through Idaho and into the wide open landscapes of the Nevada deserts and stayed in Alamo. I have stayed at the Sunset Inn off of the highway about 5 times so far. It’s a perfect stopping point on my route to Arizona. The middle of the desert you can see so many more stars than I ever get the chance to see back home in a very light-polluted and densely populated Seattle Metropolitan area.

The next morning we stopped at my usual spot at the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge for a beautiful, quiet and peaceful walk with nobody around.

We couldn’t stay long because I still had 400 miles to drive to set up for my booth at Litchfield Park. The first day, we had incredibly strong winds and all of the artists were holding down there tents for fear of a strong gust of wind lifting up our booths to toss in the air. Luckily, this did not happen.

After the Litchfield Park Art & Wine Festival, I wanted to drive over to New Mexico. We left early and as I was driving north, I started to have some doubts. The sky looked dark gray with heavy clouds. Sure enough, as I was approaching Flagstaff, Arizona, the snow started and immediately, I made a decsion to turn back south. I drove to Sedona, which I was very happy to see again. All Roads seem to lead me back to Sedona. Bought a sandwich and with my map ready, we headed down a long dirt road to Baldwin trail. Promises of better parking opportunities and fewer tourists. The weather was quite cold and windy in Sedona also, but we still had breaks of sunshine.

I found The Lodge in Camp Verde and booked three nights to settle in and explore this area i had never explored earlier. I searched for hikes in the area and had spoken with several locals and found out about a hike along Clear Creek. The long, dirt road was so rutted out and bumpy. Luckily, I had purchased new, beefy traction tires right before I left on this journey and they were essential to have when I drove out to the trailhead. What a beautiful hike this was. It was so interesting to hike along the creek with nobody around again.

When my Dad had visited me when I lived in Phoenix back in 2002, we had visited Montezuma Castle Monument and Kaela and I did the same on Thursday morning, before we drove down to Tempe to set up my booth for the spring Tempe Arts Festival.

At the Tempe Arts Festival, we were so cold and it rained all day on Saturday. It was quite miserable and I felt like I was back in the Pacific Northwest.

I still wanted to visit New Mexico, so after the art show on Monday morning, I headed east. This was so different than my normal Monday-after-an-AZ art show. I would normally drive straight home in three days, but now I had my last opportunity to check out New Mexico.

We arrived in Santa Fe, New Mexico just after sunset. I visited the Botanical Gardens,