We did a 15-day vacation to Arizona, staying mostly in Tucson for 8 days, which was my favorite part of Arizona! The low humidity and high heat was heaven to me. We also saw Phoenix, Sedona and Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon.
We did a lot of hiking in Tucson and our first evening, we didn't realize how soon the sun sets in Arizona lol and we got lost in the desert in the dark. We saw 4 tarantulas across our path and one, the largest of all, was on my daughter's leg! Yes, I screamed and she was able to shake it off. I think the spider was just as afraid as she was and the locals told us tarantulas don't hurt you usually, so no big deal besides they are HUGE! Thankfully no rattlesnakes, although we did see the skin of one laying in the desert. There are tons of butterflies in Tucson, so pretty! Then of course all the saguaro cacti everywhere - they are amazing looking.
We had our own private pool during our stay and we swam day and night every day. We also met up with some old friends on our trip, good times! We drove Route 66 from Flagstaff, Arizona all the way to St. Louis, Missouri on our way home. We went through a total of 11 states on our trip. We were going to go to San Diego for a night and drive up the coast to Santa Monica and stay in Palm Springs but we nixed the California portion to spend more time in Arizona. We did a stop in Placitas, New Mexico and hiked a trail there that we missed last time we came there in 2019.