Land of Giants: Arizona with Vader
Vader and I loaded up the car and pointed it at Arizona. Then we did it again. And again. Three road trips, in January, April and June, two or three days each time. I had a rough plan: red rock, pine trees, cactus, and as many golden hours as we could catch. Arizona had a bigger plan than mine.
STAGE 1 · SEDONA
We started on the red rock, and Vader started by jumping straight into the air. That set the tone for the whole trip.
Sedona at golden hour doesn’t look real. The cliffs light up orange from the bottom up, and the slickrock under your feet glows like the floor of a giant oven. Every trail seemed to end at a view too big for one frame, so I mostly stopped trying and put Vader in front of it instead. A small black dog against a wall of red rock gives you a sense of scale nothing else does.
My favorite moment came at the end of the day: the sun dropping behind the buttes, the sky going deep blue, and the moon rising over a cliff that was still on fire.
STAGE 2 · INTO THE PINES
Heading north, the road climbs out of the desert and into ponderosa pine. A little ranger station sign told us we were at 6,420 feet, with Flagstaff one way and Sedona the other. Vader found a stick, which in his opinion was the best thing in the state so far.
STAGE 3 · DESERT GARDENS
Somewhere between the pines and the saguaros we wandered through a cactus nursery, rows and rows of barrel cactus in little pots under a long shade house. Vader walked the center aisle like he owned the place.
STAGE 4 · THE SAGUAROS
Then came the Sonoran Desert and Saguaro National Park, both the east and west sides of it. This is the part I’ll be talking about for years.
I’d seen saguaros in pictures my whole life. Standing among them is something else. Some are taller than a house and older than anyone I know, and they stand with their arms raised to the sky like the whole desert is cheering. Every bend in the road had another one, each a little stranger and more wonderful than the last. I felt small and lucky and wide awake all at once. It was honestly life changing.
The car got its moment too. It earned it.
From there the road wound up a mountain, past cliffs and hoodoos, until the desert was spread out below us like a map.
STAGE 5 · PALMS AND PONDS
In Tucson we found Gene C. Reid Park, where palm-lined ponds felt like a mirage. The water was so still it doubled every tree. Vader made two new friends, a pair of white ducks, who were much less excited about the meeting than he was.
STAGE 6 · LAST LIGHT
Some of the best light of the trip came up in the high meadows, with the mountains behind us and the pines lined up against the sky. Vader posed on a rock like he’d been doing it his whole life.
And then the sky did this.
BONUS STAGE · NIGHT
We closed it out in Phoenix the way I like to close out any city: walking the streets after dark, under murals and neon, Vader leading the way down a sidewalk glowing red.
GAME OVER?
Not even close. Arizona surprised me at every turn, and I can’t stop thinking about it. If you want to see the whole trip, the full Arizona gallery has every shot, in order, from the first jump in Sedona to the last neon light. And if you’d rather play it, Vader’s got two games now: Vader’s Arizona Trail and Desert Dash.
See you on the next trail.