Arizona
 

To travel from the Sedona area to Tucson would take how long-is it an easy trip?

Thank you.

It's about 2+ hours from Sedona to Phoenix and Phoenix to Tucson is another 2+ hours, so give or take 4+ hours total without stopping for lunch and gas.
Super easy trip..highway all the way from Sedona to 17.

Mapquest says 3 hours 49 minutes, 232 miles.

Easy freeway driving (once you get to I-17 from Sedona) when traffic is light, but traffic is often very heavy in Phoenix during rush hour, and I-10 from Phoenix to Tucson is mostly two lanes and typically very crowded, especially with a lot of big trucks once you reach the I-8 turnoff. Lots of people get bored in this stretch and drive too fast.

Be extra careful if it is windy because there are problems with dust storms between Phoenix and Tucson, which can cause multi-vehicle pile-ups. Here's a recent one, from last Dec, with 22 vehicles involved, 14 injuries and three deaths ... http://www.azcentral.com/community/p...dent22-ON.html

Hi Bill!
Coming to AZ tomorrow for 5 days..I'll wave to you on the way to Sedona.
Love your insight on all things!

We have been bogged down more times on that route by staying on Hwy 10 to 17. 17 is very slow just north of Phoenix and it can be very congested. We now take the 101 loop and just zip through no problem. Looks like it is slightly out of the way but we find it much quicker.

Hi Ksucat, sunny and 70 here today so no doubt nice in Sedona, but "partly cloudy" is the forecast for the next few days.

For Rose, I forgot to warn you to watch out for the speed cameras, you will pass several of these on the freeway and if you are eleven mph or more over the posted limit you will trigger the flash and get a ticket by mail. My wife did this recently and it cost $181. Most of these camera locations are marked and not all.

As for traveller69's suggestion (take 101 instead of 17), sometimes this works great and sometimes it doesn't, depending on the traffic flow and time of day.

You can see the updated freeway conditions at this link: http://www.azcentral.com/news/traffic/ I think he was suggesting getting off I-17 where it hits 101 (far north) and taking 101 east and then south all the way past 202 and 60 to the second 202 intersection and then connecting with 1-10 south of Phoenix from 202 westbound. This would probably work best early weekdays when traffic into downtown Phoenix is often backed up coming in from the north. Note that the car pool lanes are usually pretty fast and here you only need two people to qualify as a carpool.

If there's a wreck all bets are off. This morning an RV overturned on I-10 just south of the I-17 split and the freeway was shut for several hours, backing up all major roads as commuters tried alternates. So you never know for sure. Personally I'd try to time it so I was passing thru Phoenix mid-day (between say 10 AM and 2 PM) and just stick to I-17 and I-10.

Hate I-10 and consider it taxing at its best and downright dangerous at its worst. I would advise you to head east from Phoenix toward Apache Junction ( sorry can't remeber the route number...I-60?) and then south to Florence on 79 to Oracle and on into Tucson. A very scenic drive taking a bit longer but far less traffic, trucks and other potential problems.

Those cameras on the 101..Yikes!
I like the 101 loop too..
Didn't they disable those cameras just recently?
They don't give you any advance warning but you do see people slow down where they are but for us tourists..not so good.
:(

<b>Those cameras on the 101..Yikes!</b>

Too many drivers seem to think 101 is the posted speed limit, not the highway number :) I think Danica Patrick got a ticket for doing 125 mph on 101 when she lived in Scottsdale.

<b>Didn't they disable those cameras just recently?</b>

It was discussed but they are still operating. We have been on 51 and 101 often the past two weeks going to the Mayo Hospital and always see 2 fixed and one mobile camera on 51 and at least two on 101.

<b>They don't give you any advance warning</b>

Actually there are warning signs for all the ones we've seen recently on 51 and 101, yellow signs placed 1/4 mile before the camera saying something like "Speed Camera Enforcement Zone". So people slow down for 1/4 mile, then speed back up. But there are occasional ones that aren't marked on I-17 and I-10, plus it's easy to miss the sign unless you are in the far right lane.

<b>I would advise you to head east from Phoenix toward Apache Junction ( sorry can't remeber the route number...I-60?) and then south to Florence on 79 to Oracle and on into Tucson</b>

Yes, US 60 is the route for this ... per Mapquest doing this adds about 35 minutes (I would have guessed more) and you miss all the heavy truck traffic on I-10. If you do this then for sure take 101 around the east of Phoenix until you hit 60 instead of driving straight thru via I-17 past downtown.

I found this map showing the locations of the 36 fixed-location speed cameras on Arizona freeways (my wife is having to drive downtown for jury duty for a week so I was checking around ... she already has two tickets from these things). Also at the bottom of the site it mentions there are another 40 mobile units that set up in different places, depending on the criteria listed.

Just keep your speed no more than 10 miles above the posted limit and you'll be OK.

http://www.azdps.gov/Services/Photo_...ement/Cameras/