Travel & Adventure
Sometimes you have to get out of town.
Laughter in the Ponderosas
My children absolutely love being outside. They are happy and most content when they can simply wander, wonder, and play outdoors. These statements are not true only about my own kids; but I have heard the same expressions from endless numbers of parents and caregivers. When you take your children into nature, or even to a playground, you can take a deep breath and know that they will engage in a healthy activity with laughter and enjoyment.
While many of us love to explore deep into nature off the beaten path, that kind of venture can seem like a daunting task when you involve children. Parents often choose to bring their children to play on playgrounds because playgrounds have bathrooms, picnic tables, and ease of accessibility. The Highlands Center for Natural History offers the best of both worlds. There are 80 acres of beautiful, forested trails as well as stroller-friendly and fully ADA-accessible paths, indoor bathrooms with diaper tables, picnic benches, a gift shop, and a playground.
Back on Track
A vacation can throw us off our routine in one way or another. For many, the travel, big meals, and readily available treats mean putting our sensible eating habits on hold. But there’s nothing wrong with indulging a little while you’re on vacation. In fact, the social aspect of seeing new sights and meeting new people helps keep us healthy.
Once we return home, however, resolutions to get back in shape abound. Here are a few sensible tips for a fresh start. You may even lose a few pounds too!
Resume your Routine
A Healthy Voyage
Whether you’re off on a girls’ trip or family vacation, traveling for work, or celebrating a wedding, a trip can be both exciting and stressful. But what if you could sail through long flights, late-night celebrations, and busy schedules on your way to making the memories of a lifetime?
Stress halts your immune system. While some travel stress is inevitable, nourishing your immune system while traveling ensures you get to make the memories you left home for.
These five quick immune-boosting tips will help you stay energized, healthy, and glowing—so you don’t miss a single moment.
Traveling in Style
ave you ever been so excited about your travel plans, only to feel frustrated when you realize you have to pack all your favorite makeup and skincare products into a bag that is a fraction of the size you’re used to?
You rush to the stores to find small containers for transferring your products, only to discover that there is hardly anything available. The frustration is real.
Out of the Classroom and Into the World
Yavapai College EDventures are educational field trips offered through the Lifelong Learning Division on the Prescott campus. Every semester, EDventures offers a wide variety of learning experiences in diverse and spectacular locations throughout Yavapai County and Northern Arizona.
If you are new to this area and curious about early Arizona history and Native American cultures, EDventures has the perfect trip for you! We travel to the Hualapai and Navajo Nations, plus fascinating locations in Yavapai and Coconino Counties and surrounding areas, too. Everywhere we go, we learn about the Arizona pioneer and mining history, which makes our state an incredible place to explore. Find a trip that fits your activity level. Pick a leisurely driving adventure or sign up for a more ambitious hike.
Adventure Health
Whether you’re planning a camping trip to Yosemite or a honeymoon in the Bahamas, travel can be an unforgettable adventure. The last thing you want is an unexpected illness to ruin your plans.
Our immunity can suffer during travel for several reasons. Sleep can be compromised, we’re trying not-so-healthy foods, and we may get a little slack on the exercise routine. Combine this with exposure to more germs, forgetting to hydrate regularly, and the stress of being on the go, and our immune system may end up a little out of balance.
The good news is, that there are a few simple steps you can take to boost your immunity and improve your chances of staying healthy.
All Aboard for the Holidays
McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park is likely the only place in Arizona where someone can ride a train on a figure-eight track that winds through a continuous Christmas display featuring an old-fashioned western town.
Pour on the Beauty
If you’re accustomed to the Prescott Basin’s backcountry roads, which are chock full of rocks and bumps and inclines, experiencing the seemingly endless smooth, flat unpaved roads that crisscross the vast Kaibab Plateau feels like a dream. This forested island rises abruptly above the Grand Canyon to an elevation of 9,200 feet. “Kaibab” is appropriately a Paiute word meaning “mountain lying down.”
Bringing the Past to Life
If you wonder how Sedona used to look as you drive up Highway 89A through its busy business district, a Red Rock Loop History Tour with the Sedona Historical Society offers you that view into the colorful past.
The historical society conducts an annual fall tour in town as well as an annual spring tour up Oak Creek Canyon that will impress anyone with an interest in local history – especially when you couple the tours with the spectacular backdrop of the Red Rock formations and gorgeous canyon.
Juneteenth!
Juneteenth celebrates June 19, 1865, the day this country’s last Confederate slaves were freed in Texas. The Emancipation Proclamation declared that slaves in Confederate states were free on Jan. 1, 1863. The Confederacy surrendered on April 9, 1865. But in practice, unless slaves escaped north, their freedom remained elusive until Union troops arrived to enforce it.
The Wonders Await You … In Arizona!
Local First Arizona’s mission is to help advance tourism in rural cities and towns. A past Arizona Office of Tourism study found Arizonans were spending a whopping $6 billion annually on tourism in southern California alone. In an effort to shift even a fraction of that money into local communities, Local First set out to make it easier for Arizonans to discover all that in-state rural communities offer as destinations in their own right. Enter WeekendZona!
WeekendZona, just one of several tools and programs Local First launched to promote rural destinations, features guided three-day excursions into rural parts of the state.
A Little Bit of Everything
You won’t find any expired equines at Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood, but the riverfront scenery is just as memorable as the unusual name.
The Ireys family required the state to keep the ranch name when they sold it in 1973. The family chose the moniker after touring several Verde Valley properties in the 1940s. Calvin “Cap” Ireys asked his kids which place they wanted to buy and they replied, “The one with the dead horse.” He bought the place in 1950 and the name stuck.
Today, the ranch looks a bit different but retains its rare riparian beauty. It spreads out along the Verde River just across the waterway from Cottonwood’s Riverfront Park. Three lagoons keep fresh with river water via the 1870s-era Hickey Ditch water rights that came with the park. A park store, ramadas, playground, restrooms, campsites, and cabins are connected by a system of trails that links to neighboring federal and state lands. Visitors enjoy fishing, swimming, hiking, bird watching, and horseback riding; an on-site riding concessionaire makes the latter easy for everyone.