The Sedona thread got me thinking about how to spend 2 days in AZ in January.
My 13 year old son has a soccer tournament in Phoenix Jan 3-5 (Fri-Sun). We want to spend a couple of days on the front or back end to do something fun. Leader in the clubhouse is fly into Phoenix Wed Jan. 1, drive somewhere in the afternoon, spend Thursday doing something fun, then returning to Phoenix for a Friday late afternoon game.
The two options we are most heavily considering are the following, and I would love some advice. It will be me, my wife, and 3 boys aged 8, 10, and 13. In general, 3-4 hours is about the max length of time we have before "this is awesome!" turns into "when are we going to be back at the car?" for my kids on hikes and/or scenic outings.
1. Use Flagstaff as a home base Wed and Thurs. night for a day trip to the Grand Canyon on Thursday. We've never been, and it seems silly to be in the area and not go. But that feels like a lot of time in the car (2+ hours to Flagstaff and another 1.5 hours to South Rim), and my fear is that 1 day won't feel like long enough to say we "did" the Grand Canyon. I honestly have no idea of what there is to do other than a bunch of hikes and scenic overlooks. That gets old for my kids, so maybe 1 day is plenty.
2. Sedona. Looks like ~2 hour drive from PHX, and the Sedona thread looks like there are a ton hiking of options that will satisfy our needs. Less time overall in the car, but it's not the Grand Canyon. We'd probably have time to do something in the afternoon if we wanted to, but would need to be something that doesn't require much energy.
I'm open to a potential 3rd option, but these seems like the most obvious 2 to consider.