I'm not sure how much picturesque damage was done by forest fires lately, but following 89A south through Sedona
from Flagstaff, continuing south to Gerome and up over the mountains to Prescott and beyond is both a challenging
and beautiful ride.
I also love the desert and have ridden on some of the secondary relatively uninhabited roads south of hwy 8 between
Gila Bend and Tucson. I've been told the secondary roads east of hwy19 and south of hwy 10 to the New Mexico border
are great and interesting rides as well, probably better than the ones I did.