Verde Valley, AZ 2025

Travel Day

Sunday, Jan. 19th 2025

We pulled out of Thousand Trails Las Vegas at about 7:40 am and headed south on US-93. We stopped at the Last Stop Travel Stop in White Hills, AZ at about 9:40 am. After stopping at the Petro Truck Stop on Kingman, AZ at about 11am we turned East on I-40. We made two more stops along I-40 one at about 12:20 pm in Seligman, AZ and the second in Williams, AZ at about 1:20 pm. After turning south in Flagstaff, AZ, we made one more stop at the McGuireville Rest Area on I-17 at about 2:40 pm, before arriving at Thousand Trails Verde Valley at 3:17 pm.

Campground Life

Thousand Trails Verde Valley, Cottonwood, AZ

Check out our Campground Review here

We really enjoyed our time at Thousand Verde Valley and quickly became one of our favorite Thousand Trails. We did pay extra for a ‘premium site.’ The campground staff was very friendly and accommodating for our son’s medical packages. Sadly the pool was closed while we were there but they had 2 lodges with games for the kids and had weekly craft fairs with lots of great stuff. The town has almost everything you might need. There is also access to a couple national monuments, public lands and historical sites to see in the area.

Montezuma Castle National Monument

Jan. 20th 2025 | National Parks Service

We started out at Montezuma’s Well, located in Montezuma Castle National Monument. The trail was a nice paved loop leaving next leaving form the Northeast corner of the parking lot. It is a nice steady rise with some uneven stone steps to get up to the ridge above the Well. It was surprisingly cold and windy. There was an interpretive volunteer up there answering questions. There was great signage and picture opportuties there. Richard would not go down the trail to the bottom of the well, so he stayed with mama while papa and Sidney explored. There were some more ruins at the bottom. It was very humble to think about what the life was like for the people living in the small shelters that were there.

We then moved on down the interpretive trail, papa and Sidney did another side trip town the trail to the outlet of the Wet Beaver Creek Trail. Sadly the trail was closed before we got to the spring. We finished the interpretive trail and drove to the Visitor Center at Montezuma Castle.

The boys explored the exhibits at the Visitor Center before going out to view Montezuma’s Castle itself. We finished the day with Sidney getting sworn in as a Jr. Ranger.

Fort Verde State Historical Park & Sedona Heritage Museum

Sunday, February, 2nd 2025

For this field trip day, we headed down to Camp Verde, AZ to visit Fort Verde State Historical Park. We started out at the visitor center. The rangers were wonderful spent a lot of time with the boys talking about the park. Sidney even got to hold a period carbine.

They had a decent museum showing the history of the community and fort. Outside they had several of the historical buildings setup with period examples of what they were like. This included the Commanding Officer’s Quarters, Bachelors Officer’s Quarters and the Surgeon’s Quarters. This park was a lot of fun for the history buff in Sidney and papa. The boys both got their Jr. Ranger Badges. This was well worth the entrance fee.

After enjoying the launch we packed at home (PB&J sandwiches and veggie bag), we enjoyed the scenic drive to Sedona, AZ to visit the Sedona Heritage Museum. The museum did a great job of showing how the area grew and its connection the classic western movie industry. Plus the red rock landscape was absolutely beautiful.