Arizona for 60th Birthday

I would start by seeing if you can get lodging inside the park at Grand Canyon. There are six lodges in all, varying from historic to cabins to motel-style. Five of them can be booked on this site:

http://www.grandcanyonlodges.com/

And the sixth at www.visitgrandcanyon.com

I can tell you more about location, amenities, dining options, etc. once you see what is available. Book two nights if you can, to have a full day there to explore.

Wupatki National Monument, between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon, is amazing. The architecture (Anasazi, I think) there just kind of grows out of the rock formations in a beautifully organic way. It is also the quietest place I have ever been, when the wind died down. I remember a little bird flew by c. 30' away, and I could hear the wing beats.

Definitely take a Pink Jeep Tour in Sedona. We did that decades ago, so I just looked on-line to see if they were still around. They are, and they are still getting 5-star ratings on Trip Advisor. I didn't look on the Pink Jeep site, but if they still do the tours to Chicken Point, that is a great one!

Montezuma's Castle is an Anasazi cliff dwelling. Well worth the side trip on your way to Sedona.

The Grand Canyon is amazing and worthy of 2 or 3 nights. I recommend hiking below the rim, for example to Indian Gardens.

If you are strong hikers, see if you can get reservations at Phantom Ranch at the bottom, the cabins sell out a year in advance but dorm beds are sometimes available. Sunset at the bottom of the Grand is fantastic.

Monument Valley is also wonderful.

Right now it is still a little cold in AZ. My daughter lives there and they had snow in Pine - about 1 1/2 hours north east of Phoenix. There is a ton to do there and what ever hotel you stay in will be able to give you all sorts of ideas of where to go, what to see. Phoenix is a huge town with tons of shopping, dining, and things to do and see. Late March is the beginning of spring training for 9 major league baseball teams, so be sure you have hotel reservations in advance. It may still be too early to see the Grand Canyon as they will have snow up there. Sedona, Flagstaff will also be cold at that time. Think - go south - Mesa is just another suburb of Phoenix. There are many beautiful day hikes in Phoenix.

Check out the botanical garden there. Go to yelp.com also for ideas, oh, my daugher uses Groupon a lot in Phoenix!

Time to hit on the rivalry, says this Baja AZ dweller. My opinions follow.

Phoenix is just an LA wannabe with too many freeways, too many people (4.5 million) and too much traffic. They have grass up there, for Pete's sake! And swimming pools! Do I need to say that water is our most precious resource?

The Grand Canyon is definitely a must do experience, if it is open and not too cold. Elevation of the south rim is 6800 feet. Many people think all of AZ is hot and sunny, but the north can be cold. Think UT. Sedona is unique and quite beautiful, but might also be cold at its elevation of 4326 feet. Think a strange combination of woo-woo crystals, condos and golf courses. Flagstaff is high at about 6900 feet, but just ordinary.

If you can adjust your sights farther south, well worth seeing and taking the docent tour are the Casa Grande Ruins. This civilization developed highly successful methods of getting water to their fields with canals. They actually were able to grow more food than they could use and traded it with other native peoples far and wide.

Go farther south to Oracle and you can visit Biosphere 2. The website describes the history and science. It's fascinating.

Just a bit farther south and you're in Tucson, a manageable city of about 530,000 people. It's home to the University of AZ, Frost Gelato and the Tucson Tamale Company. Having received the first United States designation as a UNESCO World City of Gastronomy, there are many great places to eat.

The Mexican food tends toward Sonoran style. Sonora is the Mexican state right across the border. Our favorites are not fancy. We like Teresa's Mosaic, Rosa's and El Charro. There are lots of other delicious options.

For Sonoran hotdogs, find a food truck or go to El Guero Canelo. For great salads, sandwiches, soups and desserts, go to Beyond Bread.

Want mountains? Clockwise from the north are the Tortolitas, the Santa Catalinas, the Rincons, the Santa Ritas and the Tucsons. All can be found by Googling. The most popular hiking trails are probably up Sabino Canyon.

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This is the place for live Sonoran Desert fauna in a setting of native flora, not the kind of museum you might expect. The Raptor Free Flight goes until April 2nd. And the Ocotillo Cafe is a very nice restaurant.

Kitt Peak National Observatory. Weather permitting, this is a great place to see stars in a dark sky at an elevation of 6880 feet. They have special night programs.

Mission San Xavier del Bac. Still an active church on the Tohono O'odham reservation. Get there at the right time and you can have some of the best fry bread ever.

There are many other places to see, go and eat, but I can't finish this without mentioning the Pima Air and Space Museum with its shuttle tour of the boneyard. They have a good cafe, too.

So that's just a hint of what you can find if you go south, in March or on another trip.

Five of them can be booed on this site:

Boo! Boo!

Just kidding but it was a very funny typo, Lola!

We love the canyon, and while it may be pretty chilly in March, crowds won't be what they are in high season, either. Definitely try to book one one of lodges Lola linked, and do stay at least a couple of nights; there's plenty to do! Our favorite are the cabins at historic Bright Angel Lodge. Rates are reasonable (for a National Park) and you cannot get any closer to the rim than that one. They book up quickly, though, so get a giddyup on for making reservations.

I'll second the motion for Wupatki and Sunset Crater
https://www.nps.gov/wupa/index.htm
https://www.nps.gov/sucr/index.htm

They're right next to each other on 89 north of Flagstaff. This also mean you can enter G.C. National Park from the east entrance (on 64, west of Cameron) and get your first eyeful from Desert View: amazing. Climb the tower there and take in the view before continuing west on 64 to Grand Canyon Village, stopping at the overlooks along the way.

Then check in, park your car and LEAVE IT as you won't be using it again during your stay. Hermit Road west out to Hermit's Rest is via free park shuttle only or you can hike it (we have). That's an 8-mile section of 13 total miles of rim trail you have to explore, and which is particularly nice to do - east or west - at sunrise/sunset. The interesting thing about the canyon is that it constantly changes colors and depth with the angles of the sun, and is at its most dramatic earlier or later in the day (if skies are clear.)

Dining: a fair amount of choices but we've found El Tovar not worth the price tag and prefer for the cafeterias at Maswik and Yavapai (which has a nice new pub) instead. Bright Angel Restaurant isn't bad for the little-more-upscale dinner.

Bikes can be rented at Bright Angel Bicycles, near the main visitor center
http://bikegrandcanyon.com

Biking routes:
http://bikegrandcanyon.com/bike-rentals/biking-routes/
http://bikegrandcanyon.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/websiteversion3.pdf

Print this out to help you get a handle on the layout of the park:
https://www.nps.gov/grca/learn/news/upload/sr-pocket-map.pdf

Free ranger walks/talks are always fun so check the schedule for your dates. The spring schedule isn't up yet but it will appear on this page (South Rim Ranger Programs):

https://www.nps.gov/grca/planyourvisit/ranger-program.htm

Feel free to hike a bit under the rim on Bright Angel or South Kaibab if you're up to it, but remember that every step down is a step back up? I'd also skip it if there's ice and you don't have traction devices.

Thanks for catching the typo, Kathy. While I would love to see a website for "booing", I would definitely not boo the Grand Canyon hotels!

I should have advised that if no vacancies show on the website, give them a call. There are certain specialized rooms that do not appear on the website at Ll, and sometimes regular rooms that are cancelled do not make it back to the website right away.

As for Phantom Ranch, mentioned above, it is one of the hardest places in the US to get a reservation. They fully book up thirteen months in advance, within an hour or so after the reservation window opens. But----some people make reservations far ahead and then have to cancel, especially as it gets closer to the date ( like now for late March). So it is well worth calling to ask about vacancies if one has an interest. Every time we have been down there (3 times now), we met people who lucked into a cancellation just two -three weeks before.

Lola is right regarding the difficulty of getting reservations at Phantom Ranch. And it is about to get harder, or at least different, with a lottery system.

I have also been to the bottom 3 times. Once in the campground and twice in a cabin. We plan to call next week for 2018 reservations, it requires dialing at exactly 7am but maybe we'll be lucky.

The bottom of the Grand at sunset could also belong in the topic about seeing great art in person- no pictures can prepare you for the feeling of being there.