Traveling Through Arizona

Taking a road trip through Arizona was pretty incredible. In the winter, the climate is quite diverse from one end of the state to the other. Temperatures in the northern part of the Arizona were in the 20s with snow and ice on the ground as we made our way up to the south rim of the Grand Canyon. The observatories on the south rim had ice right up to the guardrails. This made me a little nervous as I tip-toed to the edge, with camera in hand, and the wind whipped through the canyon, freezing my hands and face almost instantly.

The snow capped mountains made for beautiful scenery on our way to and from the Grand Canyon.



The view was really incredible, but hard to enjoy in the bitter cold.

We were all bundled up and I still could hardly feel my fingers.



The rock formations and view are really breathtaking. It certainly makes you feel small.



After leaving the Grand Canyon, we headed due south on our way to Phoenix. The scenic route through Sedona was probably the most amazing part of the drive. The red rocks here just dwarfed those that we saw back in Vegas. Chris and I were staring up in awe as we wound down through all the canyons and in between mountains (of course Chris was driving so he could only pay so much attention). The GPS gives you an idea of how crazy these roads were.









Getting to the southern part of the state meant a huge temperature rise. It was in the upper 70s when we met up with Phoenix wedding photographer, Melissa Jill, and a few other Phoenix based photographers later in the afternoon. We had a great time hanging out with Melissa and playing some Nertz... even though she totally beat up on us. =) We also got to meet her blog famous sidekick, Dixie, who was more than happy to share her couch with us as long as we agreed pet her. I'm ashamed to say that we didn't get ANY pics while we were there.

On our way out of Phoenix, we finally found a rest stop and this was all I could find to take a photo of. I was really hoping to get a shot of one of the huge cacti that are all around Phoenix, but by the time we stopped, they were gone. This other interesting plant was all I could find. =)



Stay tuned for more photos from the last leg of our trip!