One of the Great Lesser-Known Drives in the West

My family and I took multiple vacations per year when I was a child, but not one of them were by airplane until I was 17 years old. 

We drove.  

Sometimes as far as Canada. Once all the way to Boston. 

We drove a lot. 

And then I started taking out-of-state road trips on my own at the age of 19. I have always loved the open road in the West. 

But until 12 months ago, I had never driven the above route from Holbrook to Phoenix.

(To be honest, until 12 months ago, I had only been to Phoenix once in my entire adult life - and that was just driving through. I didn't even get out of the car. It never held much allure to me: If I were going to visit someplace hot and crowded, why not just stay in Los Angeles or go to Las Vegas?)

The drive starts just outside the Petrified Forest National Park and ascends into the Tonto National Forest, full of aspens, pines, and bears. It cuts through Payson, a mountain town I promise to visit this spring or summer. It then descends several thousand feet down through the low mountains that surround Phoenix, into the heart of the Sonoran desert. 

And like all of my favorite drives, you do not see nearly as many cars as you do on the interstate.