We went on a vacation with my parents a few years back and stopped at the Hopewell Indian National Monument in Ohio.  While we were there, I noticed a fun little Passport Book that you can take with you around the country and stamp with the different park’s name and date.

I had no idea how much fun this was going to be.  My dad and I kind of compete to see who can get the most stamps:). For our Fathers Day gift to him, my husband and I took him and my mom on a trip to Flagstaff Arizona so we could get some stamps in our passports.  It was WONDERFUL!

I am so thankful to this little book.  I have lived in Arizona for over 50 years, and my dad has lived here almost 80 and we have never seen or even heard of these fantastic places.  We wanted to hit four parks, but because of time, we could only see three. That’s ok though, we will stop at Montezuma’s Castle another time. I just love road trips and go whenever I can:)

Our first stop was just outside of Cottonwood called Tuzigoot National Monument.  It wasn’t very big, the hike was short and the view was beautiful.  It was over 100* and there was no shade, so we made sure to have our water. The big house was made with rocks and more rocks. There were little rooms with windows and stairs.

It didn’t take long to walk around and explore these ruins.  We stopped at the little mining town of Jerome for a bbq lunch at the English Kitchen.  It was so good!

They made homemade corn bread with prickly pear butter and yummy pulled pork sandwiches and more.  If you ever get the chance, I highly recommend it:)

We drove through beautiful Sedona which could have been the destination in itself.  It is so green and beautiful there.  I loved how the weather cooled down as we got higher in elevation.

We were happy that the next two monuments were on the same road just north of Flagstaff.  Yea!  The first was Sunset Crater.  It is the site where a volcano erupted over 900 years ago.

 

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 It gave me  a  weird feeling to see all of the lava rock and black sand.  I can’t believe that this is just right off of the highway a few miles and I didn’t even know it!   I will be bringing my kids back here to see it for sure

The final stop was further down the road, Wupatki National Monument.   This Indian ruin was impressive.  There were lots of sand stone rooms and it covered a lot of land.  We just stayed near the first large building.

 

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We had such a fun day and I got THREE more stamps in my passport! SWEET!!

–Tracy:)