Bee T r avel
Arizona's riches enrich
CHRISTINE HICKS- USTA Travel
An article in a newspaper got me to thinking. That's a good thing, for that's what it's intended

to do. It was about the fifty states and best places - oh, and that drives me nuts because "best places" are so enormously subjective. There being 50 was too much, also... Without too much digression, though, let me get back to what I was thinking. Focus.

Arizona. That's it. I was thinking about Arizona, and what a surprising state I have found it to be. I've visited several times, and each adventure has brought exceptional - and different - memories. It's an amazing state.

My first visit to Arizona? Phoenix. A business trip checked us in to the Arizona Biltmore, lodgings I have erstwhile opined as being too rich (stuffy) for me, though it is a great place to pretend. Phoenix is a fine city - but there's something askew about so much civilization "out west." We went in search of what else Arizona had.

We took our whale of a white, rented ragtop outskirting, to visit shirttail relations near Tucson. The drive south took us through northern chunks of Sonora Desert territory. I love desert - from the confines of a vehicle, mind you. Post-visit, our hosts chased us out the door, while handing us tickets to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. This being whimsy from the get-go, we went. The museum, largely paths out of doors, turned out to be among the most memorable ever.

In Arizona Part Deux, we stopped at Holbrook. Now, Holbrook doesn't have much. What it does have is proximity. There's Winslow, Arizona, where Eagles fans can now visit "Standin' on a Corner Park." Of course, my memory is of Winslow's laundromat, but at the time, we were there less for the corner than clean laundry - and a crater down the road - for within easy driving distance of Holbrook (and Winslow) is the Meteor Crater, mentioned in "that other paper." A magnificent hole in the ground - oh, and the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert.

En route to another magnificent hole in the ground, the Grand Canyon, I found wonder in Flagstaff. Maybe it was the time of year, the weather or my mood, but the gray, rolling mists drifting over evergreen sheathed mountains seeped indelibly into memory. Flagstaff still feels like outlaw west, and it's a place deserving your visit and my return.

Leaving the Grand Canyon, we took an unscheduled, out-of-order route to California, over Route 66 through Kingman and Oatman. This whimsical Arizonan sidetrip is tops among memorable drives anywhere. I've seen the tail end of the petered out Rockies in Arizona, and marveled at ancient Indian petroglyphs. The sunset over the Arizona desert is just one of myriad reasons to make it your destination in any season.

There are still plenty "to see" places on my Arizona list...Tombstone, Oak Creek Canyon in Red Rock Country, Canyon de Chelly, Organ Pike Cactus National Monument. And Nogales. Arizona - "Ditat Deus." The state motto is dead on. "God Enriches." Let Arizona's riches enrich you.

(Christine Hicks-Usta has enjoyed more than 30 years of globetrotting as a member of the travel industry in various capacities. Direct questions to her at Bee Group Newspapers, P.O. Box 150, Buffalo, N.Y. 14231-0150.)