Sara and I, complete novices in RV travel, decided to take the plunge and embark on a Northern Arizona road trip along the legendary Route 66 ... between the Painted Desert and ponderosa pines ...

Visitors can see dinosaur fossils and petrified wood while basking in the surreal landscape of the Painted Desert ... Forest was one of the uniquely Arizona road-trip destinations on the list.

A sun-swept corner of the Painted Desert draws more than 600,000 visitors each year. While most come to see one of the world's largest concentrations of brilliantly colored petrified wood ...