Breaking down the trip home on our Southwest USA Screensaver Family Road Trip through Arkansas, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona. What were some of the distractions along the route home from the Grand Canyon?
Whew, what a week. Thank you for sticking with our adventures. It was our first family road trip and no doubt, we will be doing these often. We are already talking about Pigeon Forge, TN, and Asheville, NC for next summer. So, send all your tips.
Honestly, if you plan to do much, you might think about this trek being a 3-day stretch unless you are really trying to get back. You will be tempted to pull off and do things rather than just drive it straight and without any stops it’s already a long drive. With one of our side trips, we added a few hours and got into our hotel at 1 am with a full day of driving in front of us. I’d suggest planning to stop in Alburquerque instead of Amarillo.
What was included in our trip home from the Grand Canyon to Arkansas?
- Our day started with breakfast at the lodge and the Harvey House Cafe.
- Make sure you take one last look at the canyon and head out, you won’t go past all the pull off unless you intentionally take the road back out to the Welcome Center.
- City of Valle – historic Flintstone Park, Arizona Welcome Center, Planes Museum
- City of Williams, AZ – get on I-40 but this is where it meets up with historic Route 66 and there are many extra fun sites to see.
- Winslow, AZ is home to the Meteor Crater National Monument. this is the first proven and best-preserved impact site on earth. Plan to spend some time here. We were just going to see and did a quick walkthrough, but there was so much more we could see as a full stop including, wide open range, prairie dogs and watch for free-range cattle. Apollo astronauts are still trained here and it is a big research lab.
- This is the stop you are waiting for – Holbrook. Get off for the Painted Desert in the Petrified Forest National Park. Go in the north entrance and come out the south end to get back on I-40. Holbrook was a cool town with lots of petrified and Native souvenirs. Cool food stops as well. We really enjoyed lunch at the cafe in the Visitor Center (the chicken stew was my favorite, but there were Navajo tacos, chicken tacos, and burgers.) This stop was cool. I could write a whole post about our time here, mostly because we added about 4 hours to our day. But it was worth it. Just plan accordingly and research it on Trip Advisor, I left a lot of thoughts there!
- Next was dinner in Alburquerque and we stopped at a place Little Man could play after sitting in the car so long. I would encourage you to make this your first stop for the day and then drive on. we pushed through to stay in Amarillo where we had reservations we could not change, but it was a late arrival and a quick nights sleep.
Thoughts, reflections, and final observations for the perfect family road trip.
- Plan to stop more than you think you will
- Stop at places where you kids can run around and get the steam out
- Take a cooler with snacks and beverages.
- Check Pinterest and Trip Advisor for recommendations.
- If you didn’t see my first post, go back and look at my recommendations for success.
- Plan to slow down and not have an agenda
- Be flexible, the best memories are made in those moments.
What a week. This will go down as one of our favorite memories of this stage and for sure a first we will always mark with our family. What have been some of your favorite family vacations?
Southwest USA Screensaver Epic Family Road Trip Itinerary
If you missed any of the previous posts from this epic family road trip with a toddler, check out the full itinerary below:
