Road trip destinations?

Looking for good road trip destinations in CO or AZ! We have an air mattress and want to camp out. Any suggestions?

 

There are books written on that topic because there are so many great places to choose from. I'm taking a 2 month trip this year to Garden of the Gods and the San Juan Mountains in SW Colorado, southern Utah and northern Arizona. There are a couple of series of books I'm using in my planning that might help you choose from the tremendous number of options and plan future trips as well. For destinations and photography, volumes 2 (Arizona) and 3 (Colorado/New Mexico) of Photographing the Southwest by Laurent Martres. For 4 wheel drive trails, the books on Colorado and Arizona in the FunTreks series by Charles Wells and Matt Peterson.

 

The options are endless. One area of AZ that's reasonably cool and not overcrowded are the White Mountains. Hanagan Meadow is far from everything and more of an alpine setting than most of AZ. I'm not sure if the USFS campground there is open yet. Also, areas along the Mogollon Rim are starting to open up for the season as the snow melts off. There are plenty USFS campgrounds, but they will start getting busy as the heat sets in at lower elevations.

 

One of my bucket list items is to do Rt 66. Been from Santa Monica to Albuquerque now. Getting hot but Flagstaff (be sure to visit Walnut Canyon), Canyon de Chelly, North Rim and the Kaibab (Vermillion Cliffs), Chaco Canyon (NM), Mesa Verde in CO, Clark Mountains in CA, Durango area of CO. We just returned from SoCal and AZ. Flag was still comfortable, but Vegas was over 100 already. Snowed on us in Klamath Falls and along 395 south of Alturas; nothing was sticking, though.