# Road Trip from Central Canada to [revised:  Sedona]



## dreamin (Nov 18, 2012)

Call me crazy but I'm trying to plan a month-long road trip to escape our cold winter weather.  I have vacation time reserved for the month of February and will be travelling with husband & dog.  Our dog doesn't do well in kennels; in-house pet care is unaffordable; and our pup loves car rides.  This won't be a timeshare vacation for obvious reasons so we'll be looking for pet-friendly hotel accommodation.   We expect to be on the road for 7-8 days, which will give us about 3 weeks to explore these 3 states.  For those that live in the SW or have done similar trips, is this plan too ambitious?  Which route south do you recommend so that we can try to avoid snow and ice driving conditions?  Which area is likely to have the best weather if we have to narrow it down to one region?  Because of the dog, we won't be spending too much time in the big cities and prefer the outdoors where we can do some hiking and picnics.  I've been doing some research with Google Maps and the Weather Channel but there's nothing like advice from someone with first-hand experience.  Thanks!


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## talkamotta (Dec 2, 2012)

Yes I think to cover those 3 states in 3 weeks is too ambitious.  

I would wait for another time to see Texas.  I would spend one week in Arizona just around the Sedona/Flagstaff.  There are about 5 National Parks including the Grand Canyon.  You could drive over to Vegas for 2 days w/ one of those days driving up to Zions National Park.  Then over to Southern California. San Diego, L.A and the coast.  

Not sure how you would want to make it back home but I think the Pacific Coast going through northern California, Oregon and Washington would be good.  


Give us more details on what you would like to do and what you had it mind.


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## T_R_Oglodyte (Dec 2, 2012)

Let's see. You're in Manitoba, you want to drive to CA, AZ, of TX in February, and you want to avoid snow and ice.

Crossing the Rocky Mountains is has a high probability of snow and ice no matter where you do it.  You're best option there to avoid snow and ice is probably I-10 in southern Texas.  That means that you have to deal with chances of snow and ice as you come down through the prairie states.  But as you get further south that will ease.  

That also means that your best option for avoiding snow and ice is to spend your time in Texas. Just come straight south and enjoy San Antonio, Austin, Galveston, Padre Island, etc.  

Your next snow minimization option is to just bite the bullet and get across the Rockies as soon as you can then travel on the west coast of the US.  So either take the Transcan toward Vancouver, or cross the border and take I-90 past Spokane, then drop through the Columbia Valley to I-84 near Hermiston, OR and follow I-84 to Portland. From Portland, follow the coast southward. 

Forget about the Grand Canyon. The south rim of the Grand Canyon north of Flagstaff is 2200 m elevation; in February snow and ice is the norm.  Same is true for most of northern Arizona.  

*****

Personally, for what you describe I think your best options are Texas or California, but not both.


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## hjtug (Dec 2, 2012)

T_R_Oglodyte said:


> Forget about the Grand Canyon. The south rim of the Grand Canyon north of Flagstaff is 2200 m elevation; in February snow and ice is the norm.  Same is true for most of northern Arizona.



True.  But the Sonoron desert area of Arizona is fine in February and there is much to see and do near Phoeniz, Tucson and other areas.   




T_R_Oglodyte said:


> Personally, for what you describe I think your best options are Texas or California, but not both.



I would recommend Southern California and, if there is not enough of interest there for you, including Southern Arizona.  Consider Death Valley and Las Vegas.


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## Passepartout (Dec 2, 2012)

As one who traversed the USA in all seasons for decades on a schedule, the only times I was ever stopped or significantly delayed by weather/road conditions were on or South of I-40. North of there, the authorities realize that winter occurs and they have equipment to deal with it. Drivers, and their vehicles are prepared with good traction tires, proper belts, hoses, lights, blankets/sleeping bags aboard, chains in the trunk if passes are anticipated whereas in the South, the attitude it that "Mother Nature brought it, Mother Nature will take it away."

Some of the best prepared are those from Manitoba, N. Dakota, Minn. and other places in the upper Midwest of the US and Canada.

So, now, where to go from there to escape ol' man Winter for 3 weeks from Manitoba? My vote is to head due South to South Texas. From San Antonio to the Gulf Coast. Join all the other 'Winter Texans' in the Rio Grande Valley, down Brownsville way.

There are plentiful rentals there. Check VRBO, or Google S. Texas Rentals. Craigslist vacation rentals is also a good place to look. Pet friendly rentals, while not as plentiful as those that exclude pets do exist. While traveling, many lower priced hotels (especially those that cater to truckers) like Super 8, Motel 6, Econo Lodge do have rooms where pets are welcome. Sometimes there is an additional charge for Fido.

Jim


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## MaryH (Dec 2, 2012)

Texas and California are large states that are not boardering so not sure if you would have time to do both plus AZ.  

Geographically I might see Texas with Louisianna or New Mexico in terms of geographic closeness.  If CA and AZ are the primary interest, Talkamottas suggestion of Vegas could be good.


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## dreamin (Jan 17, 2013)

*Arizona*

Thank you all for the advice.  When reviewing your suggestions, we realized that it was unrealistic to try and cover all 3 states.  We did our research and have come to the decision to stay in Sedona, Arizona for 3 weeks.  We plan to do day trips from there and possibly an overnight stay in the Phoenix area.  We realize that the weather will likely be cool but not as cold as Manitoba.  It just seemed that Sedona was a perfect fit for our dog, Kobi, as we all love going on hikes.  Texas didn't seem to have the same outdoor recreation that Sedona has, and didn't seem to be as dog friendly.  We're now looking at a monthly rental of a house in the Oak Creek country club area.  I think this will also be more cost-effective than staying in hotels.  It would be so much cheaper if we could stay at a timeshare but, of course, none are pet-friendly.  I'm finding that it is so much easier to plan a timeshare vacation than to arrange a rental property one.  We're spoiled!!  

Google maps is suggesting we take route I-76W and I-25S through Denver.  As passepartout commented, we do have winter tires on our car and are well prepared for winter driving.  As long as no Colorado lows hit Denver, would we be wise to take this route as it is the most direct route to Arizona?  We're also thinking of spending an extra day in Sante Fe as it sounds like a very interesting place to visit.

Any comments or suggestions would again be most welcomed.


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## CO skier (Jan 17, 2013)

dreamin said:


> Google maps is suggesting we take route I-76W and I-25S through Denver.  As passepartout commented, we do have winter tires on our car and are well prepared for winter driving.  As long as no Colorado lows hit Denver, would we be wise to take this route as it is the most direct route to Arizona?  We're also thinking of spending an extra day in Sante Fe as it sounds like a very interesting place to visit.



I-76W and I-25 through Denver traverse the flat lands east of the mountains.  As long as you travel at least one day in advance of any storms (or no earlier than one day after), you should have no problems.  (This holds true for the entire distance of I-25 through CO and NM).

In Santa Fe, be sure to see the Old Town Square and plan to have lunch at either location of the Blue Corn Cafe -- they make the best roasted corn chowder anywhere.

http://www.bluecorncafe.com/


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## CO skier (Jan 17, 2013)

dreamin said:


> Google maps is suggesting we take route I-76W and I-25S through Denver.



If you are traveling through Denver during "rush hour" (7-9 a.m. or 3-7 p.m.), it would be worth taking the E-470 Toll Road from I-76W to I-25 south of Denver to avoid some difficult traffic jams -- it might save you an hour's travel time and a lot of frustration.


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## talkamotta (Jan 17, 2013)

There are many places to go that are fairly close to Sedona.  Dont forget Flagstaff and Walnut Canyon (pretty cool),  I love Jerome and Ghost Burgers. Lots of National Parks in that area (Grand Canyon will be a  long day but worth it)


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## Passepartout (Jan 17, 2013)

3 weeks will be a long stay in Sedona. You and the dog will be pretty well 'hiked out.' You can always break it up with an overnight trip to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. Another overnight (or 2) to Phoenix/Scottsdale would break up the red rock experience.

Sounds like fun and a great break from Manitoba. You can always hope Manitoba has back-to-back blizzards while you are gone. Makes the leaving sooooo much sweeter. 

Jim


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## PStreet1 (Jan 17, 2013)

Having lived in Denver, Albuquerque (one hour south of Santa Fe), and now Arizona, I can't recommend New Mexico enough.  It is truly a glorious state to visit.  Hiking, natural beauty, prehistoric ruins, volcanos, year-round-ice caves because of the volcanic action, Native American markets, skiing, Southwestern culture with great cuisine, historic missions and churches, an very active art scene......I could go on and on.  If it were me, I'd spend no less than a week in the Santa Fe/Albuquerque area.  Altitude is high, but snow is extremely unlikely.  I'm sure there are possibilities on www.vrbo.com that would be available in the area.

From there, lovely as Sedona is, I suspect you'll look back on your time in New Mexico with longing.


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## eal (Jan 17, 2013)

We spent 3 weeks in Sedona in February 2010 and had a WONDERFUL time! The day we got there there was a little snow on the ground, and as the time passed we watched spring arrive - the trees leaf out and the hills turn green, it was SO beautiful. And there is so much to do and see in the area and places nearby. You will really enjoy yourselves.


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## deannak (Jan 18, 2013)

I love Sedona!  The hiking and outdoor beauty is outstanding, and there are activities in the area ranging from ancient Sinagua ruins to art galleries and wine tasting.  Wonderful, and I'm sure you'll enjoy it!  We usually go there a few times a year.

I also agree with Pat that you would probably enjoy more than a day in Santa Fe on your way through New Mexico.  There's so much to do there, with fascinating multicultural history.  And food?  Santa Fe has fabulous restaurants, and I can't visit without having the Shitake & cactus spring rolls at Santacafe.  Also, on your way south from Santa Fe, Tent Rocks is a very cool hike through a slot canyon.  

Enjoy your trip!!


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## gnorth16 (Jan 21, 2013)

Passepartout said:


> Sounds like fun and a great break from Manitoba. You can always hope Manitoba has back-to-back blizzards while you are gone. Makes the leaving sooooo much sweeter.
> 
> Jim



Easy...Some of us still have to stay here and brave the cold weather.  Tonight's low is -24F and -41F with the windchill.


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## Passepartout (Jan 21, 2013)

gnorth16 said:


> Easy...Some of us still have to stay here and brave the cold weather.  Tonight's low is -24F and -41F with the windchill.




You have my sympathy. Since we returned from Hawaii over 3 weeks ago, it has not been above the current temp of -6 C and every night about -20 C with wind chills in the -30's.  Not Manitoba-like, but unusual for our locale. We just got a new dog who thinks the cold and snow was created for his personal enjoyment. I get the dubious honor of walking him.


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## talkamotta (Jan 23, 2013)

Passepartout said:


> You have my sympathy. Since we returned from Hawaii over 3 weeks ago, it has not been above the current temp of -6 C and every night about -20 C with wind chills in the -30's.  Not Manitoba-like, but unusual for our locale. We just got a new dog who thinks the cold and snow was created for his personal enjoyment. I get the dubious honor of walking him.



I feel your cold.  Salt Lake has had mild winters and this year its terribly cold. We have the inversion in the valley.  The ski resorts are warmer than Salt Lake.  The only good thing is that it kills all the bugs that were getting a good start last summer.  I dont even see spiders.  

This is the only time of the year when Im glad I have a daughter that lives in Orlando and a son that lives in Dallas.  I spent a week in Orlando 2 weeks ago and Im leaving for Dallas on Thursday.  Here comes Grandma.


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## dreamin (Jan 23, 2013)

*Thank you for all your advice*

gnorth16, I feel your pain!  You are stuck in a deep freeze that won't let up by the looks of it.  I'm in Maui right now (but that's another thread), so I certainly picked the right time to get out of Winterpeg.  My long-term goal is to be anywhere but Winnipeg for the months of January, February & March.

The townhouse that I was trying to reserve in Sedona fell through.  The owner didn't want to deal with me once she found out that I was in Hawaii.  She was worried that I wasn't a legitimate renter.  I give up on VRBO and Craigslist.  This is the 3rd arrangement that hasn't worked out for one reason or another.  

So now we are going to stay in hotels and that will give us the flexibility to stay longer in Santa Fe as recommended by Pstreet 1 and deannak.  I am so used to having everything nicely organized before we leave home but for this trip we are just going to wing it.  There seems to be lots of availability in the areas where we will be going so I am not worried about a place to sleep.  Our dog, Kobi, is going to the groomer before we leave and our car is going in for routine maintenance.  I think we are almost set to go!  Thanks for all the suggestions.


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## PStreet1 (Jan 23, 2013)

I sent you a couple of messages with Santa Fe/Sedona information.


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## deannak (Jan 24, 2013)

Have a great trip, and enjoy Santa Fe and Sedona!!  

PS. My parents used to live in Winnipeg, and every time I visited them at Xmas it was 40-below.  Brrr.....  I can see why you want to be out of there in the winter!


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## dreamin (Feb 9, 2013)

*Trip Report - Santa Fe*

It is a very long 27 hour drive from Winnipeg to Santa Fe!  Our first day was the absolute worst driving through North & South Dakota.  Due to patches of black ice along this route it took us 13 hours when it normally would only take 10.  Lots of cars losing control when they hit the ice driving at high speeds.  We drove carefully and also had the winter tires on.  When we arrived in Santa Fe, our "check engine" light went on.  We had it checked at the local Mazda dealer and 3 hours later and $600 poorer, we were on our way.  Apparently the thermostat and sensor had to be replaced.  There goes the budget!

We've just spent 6 nights at the Homewood Suites 15 miles north of Santa Fe.  We got an extended stay rate of $89/night + $75/stay for our dog.  It was a very good deal as we have a large one bedroom casita with partial kitchen.  The free breakfast and evening meal with wine was a real bonus for our budget.    The distance from Santa Fe is an easy 20 minutes on a 4 lane highway.  The hotel may lack the SW quaintness of the downtown hotels but it's worked well for us.

Our tours of the area haven't been all that successful.  We enjoyed the Hwy 4 circular tour through Jemez but didn't get to see everything suggested.  Bandelier was closed for construction; Valle Caldera was covered in snow and there were no cows or elk; didn't find Soda Dam; and Coronado State Monument had just closed when we arrived.  The Jemez Springs area was beautiful.  We spent quite a bit of time at Los Alamos because my husband especially was very impressed with the Bradbury Science Museum.  One day we did a walking tour of the Plaza area and another day I drove to Albuquerque to see the International Balloon Museum and do some shopping.  Today we drove to Cochiti Tent Rocks Monument (about 35 miles south of us) but when we arrived at the fee station they wouldn't allow us into the park because we had a dog.  That was disappointing because we had planned to leave him in the car and they still wouldn't allow it.  My husband has been sick with a cold since we arrived here, so that has slowed us down a bit.  I had a mild headache for the first 3 days and can't seem to drink enough fluids as I am always thirsty.  I guess that's what happens when you go from 780 feet to 7200 feet elevation!

Besides taking advantage of the free meals at our hotel, we also ate at Mucho Gusto, Tomasita's, and Gabriel's.  I've listed them in order of our favourites but we loved them all.  Such delicious food and margaritas and so many restaurants to chose from.

We've had pleasant, sunny weather (mid 40's) all week until today.  There was a winter storm and wind advisory.  The temperature dropped to -2 and the strong winds were blowing around a lot of dust.  We had a sprinkling of snow.

Tomorrow we leave for Sedona.  I had hoped to stop at Gallup to look for jewellery as recommended but since it's Sunday, all the shops will be closed.  We are so glad that we listened to all the Tuggers who advised us to stay awhile in Santa Fe.  We really enjoyed the area and the people have been so friendly.  We'll be leaving with lots of good memories.


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## deannak (Feb 10, 2013)

Hi dreamin -

So sorry to hear about all of your troubles on the trip, from black ice, to engine problems, to cold symptoms.  I'm especially sorry that you didn't get to see all the sights around Santa Fe that you wanted to.  

I had a trip there once like that, where our Bandelier picnic was rained out, we couldn't see Taos Pueblo because it was closed for a funeral, and Tent Rocks was closed to repave the road. Sometimes that's the way things go! :-(

At least it sounds like you found things to enjoy there, and wound up with some positive thoughts and memories. I'm glad that you were able to enjoy some of the sights, as well as the terrific food around there, and found a good place to stay.

Have fun in Sedona, and hope more things go your way on that part of the trip! 

-  Deanna.


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## eal (Feb 11, 2013)

Do have fun in Sedona. 

I always say when things don't work out that we will just have to come back to whtever wonderful place we are at to do all the activities that we missed. Santa Fe is a place you can "do" more than once.


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## dreamin (Mar 2, 2013)

*Trip Report - Sedona*

We stayed one week at Sedona Pines and thoroughly enjoyed our stay.  I rented the week through an owner who requested a pet friendly unit for us.  Sedona Pines has 3 pet friendly units for owners and their guests only.  This was a perfect solution for us.  Twenty miles east of Flagstaff on I-40 we hit a white-out.  We were thankful we had our snow tires on while driving through Oak Creek Canyon.  That short drive to Sedona took us nearly 3 hours.  Sedona got about 3 inches of snow.  We can't seem to escape winter weather.  The rest of the week was sunny and we all loved the hiking we did every day.  Sedona was amazing and the out-of-town peaceful location of Sedona Pines was perfect for us.  We did a day trip to Jerome and enjoyed the museum, the wonderful views and the shops.  

Our final week was spent in Phoenix as we decided we didn't want to add any more travel miles by heading further west.  It was a good decision.  We stayed in a suite at the pet friendly Drury Inn & Suites in Happy Valley.  Not quite as good as a timeshare but it certainly met our needs.  We did more daily hikes and especially enjoyed our desert hike in Cave Creek.  We only had one rainy day and spent the afternoon at the Musical Instrument Museum, which was unique and interesting.

We decided to take 4 days going home to make it an easier drive.  Our route took us to Las Cruces, Amarillo, Kansas City, and Fargo.  We were only hours ahead of the crippling, historic winter storm "Rocky" so luck was on our side this time.  The highlight of our return trip was White Sands National Monument in NM.  Wow!  We've never heard of or seen anything like it.  Here's our Kobi enjoying his vacation.






It was a wonderful vacation.  There certainly is a lot of natural beauty in America and we are fortunate to have such good neighbours.


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## ricoba (Mar 2, 2013)

dreamin said:


> It was a wonderful vacation.  There certainly is a lot of natural beauty in America and we are fortunate to have such good neighbours.



Spoken like a true Friendly Manitoban.  

I am glad you had a good trip, in spite of some of the weather and car problems.

Where in Manitoba are you from?  I used to call both Dauphin & Ashern home for a few years, many, many years ago. I remember your Province with great fondness, but I don't miss the winters at all.


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## dreamin (Mar 3, 2013)

Ricoba - I live in Winnipeg.  Although Dauphin and Ashern aren't that far north of the city, I've only been there once or twice.  Our travels tend to take us south, especially in the winter, but we also do all of our summer camping in Minnesota or Wisconsin.  Warmer temperatures in the winter and fewer mosquitoes in the summer!


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## PStreet1 (Mar 3, 2013)

For me (extremely sensitive to them--whole arm swells), that may be the scariest line I've read:  "fewer mosquitoes in the summer--" IN MINNOSOTA?????


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