I scribbled my trip as follows:

Day 1: Arrive

Day 2: Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley (est. 7 hours drive RT)

Day 3: Grand Canyon +/- Meteor Crater (est. 6 hours drive RT, sites included)

Day 4: Sedona, AZ, and Phoenix, AZ arrival (est. 5 hrs drive, sites included)

Day 5: Tombstone, AZ and Saguaro National Park (est. 7hrs drive, RT)

Day 6: Phoenix, AZ and South Mountain (est. 2hrs drive RT)

Day 7: Return

(*Note: Some of the coolest stuff to shoot in Arizona is closed/inaccessible in the winter and or without prior authorization. Don’t be like me. Plan ahead)

Scribbles.

It wasn’t until I went outside in the morning light that I realized that I was, in fact, on a mountain and that, while my hosts had taken some liberties with the home description, they didn’t take many. I like to cook on the road and being close to a grocery store, this go-round, was a net asset, not an annoyance. My breath was visible in the dawn air. My hosts had told me it would be chilly, but I wasn’t as prepared to deal with 20-degree weather as I thought I was, considering my previous year in the frigid Midwest. Allowing myself to acclimate to the cold, I grabbed my equipment, got focused, and made my trip up to Canyon de Chelly.