Hey, gonna be heading to Albuquerque first part of October for some meetings. After that planning on renting a car and making my way to Phoenix to visit some old friends. Any recommendations on a good route to get there and things to see and do along the way? I have a pretty open itinerary after the meetings are over and would like to see some cool stuff in a part of the country I've never been before. What's cool and what's not worth the time? So far was thinking about wandering my way over to the Grand Canyon and staying there a couple days, doing some hiking and taking pics, etc. Any awesome day-hikes I should consider?

Thanks for any ideas you all might have. I'm super pumped about this trip. For a boy growing up in the Bluegrass I've always wanted to explore "out West".