I generally photograph scenes that I want to remember. I bump contrast, vibrance, clarity, and a host of other relatively minor changes to achieve the image that corresponds to my pleasant memory. If I occasionally overprocess a photo, so be it! That's the way that I choose to remember the scene.

Bell Rock/Courthouse Loop. Airport Mesa at sunset. Chapel of the Holy Cross. Use the Baldwin trailhead for Cathedral Rock, as the Cathedral Rock parking lot is impossibly crowded. Little Horse Trail to Chicken Point. Boynton Canyon Trail. You can hardly go wrong on any of the trails, provided that you can find a parking spot at a trailhead (which is often extremely difficult, especially on weekends). Shopping at Tlaquepaque or in downtown Cottonwood or in Jerome are also interesting. Don't forget to stop at the Visitors Center in downtown Sedona. Renting a jeep is also fun.

From Monument Valley (a must see) it is only a short drive to Valley of the Gods (spectacular scenery in S. Utah). Heading south, don't miss Sedona, which is as spectacular as any of the national parks. In the Tucson area, also consider Kartchner Caverns or Collossal Caves. Proceding south from Tucson, Chiricahua National Monument is gorgeous. Tombstone and Bisbee are also worth visiting. Arizona is truly an amazing state. So much to see and do, with unbelievable winter weather.

I was looking for a picture of a witch on a bicycle to put into this picture of the haboob, but the red house still makes the point. "Stay out of the way when a haboob is blowing."

1. Join a photo club nearby. Perhaps they might have some activities, outings, exhibitions, lessons or photo shoots that might trigger your interest. Plus, it helps to know a few people with similar interests with whom you might schedule your own outings.
2. Go away for a weekend, to the most scenic place you can find within a one-day drive. Obviously, bring all your photo gear and be sure you are someplace interesting at both dawn and dusk.
3. Set a goal to shoot several different types of shots over a weekend, such as "moving subjects", "flowers from ground level", "sporting events", children, celestial objects, moving water, sunsets, sunrises, still lifes, blurred background, high contrast (HDR), night lights, etc., etc., etc.

I read the list 3 times and didn't see Lightroom. Am I missing something?

Roswell is interesting, but it's about 40 miles out of your way. In Arizona, from Wilcox head south and visit Chiricahua National Monument. From there, drive to Bisbee and to Tombstone, then to Kartchner Caverns near Wilcox. In Tucson, I'd put Colossal Cave, Saguaro National Park (Western section), Old Tucson and the Biosphere all ahead of San Xavier. On the way to Phoenix, Picacho Peak is photogenic.

Thanks for all your suggestions. I did find a "work-around". If I save a photo with Lightroom corrections to the desktop and then open it in Elements, all of the Elements editing functions, including "layers" work. I'll continue trying some of your other suggestions.

I tried 8 bit files. Didn't work. I tried PSD. No effect. As before, I can "Edit in Photoshop Elements WITHOUT Lightroom adjustments" but I can NOT "Edit in Photoshop Elements WITH Lightroom Adjustments". The Layers function doesn't work in Elements. I've tried just about every option that I can find, with no results.

Yes, I'm on a PC. After a couple of days of fiddling with the settings in Lightroom the Faststone issue has disappeared. I am still unable to "edit a COPY with Lightroom adjustments" in Elements.

Previously, when I exported the file from Lightroom to Elements it was showing as a "Faststone" file in Elements. I just tried to repeat the process, and it is no longer showing as Faststone.
In running several more tests, I now find that if I instruct Lightroom to edit a copy in Elements WITH Lightroom adjustments, the layers panel in Elements doesn't work. If I instruct Lightroom to edit the original in Elements WITHOUT Lightroom adjustments, all of the Elements functions do work.

My "Edit Preference External" settings are as follows:
Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments
Edit in Adobe Photoshop Elements Editor
File format: Tiff
Color space: SRGB
Bit Depth: 16 bits/component
Resolution: 240
Compression: None

I use Lightroom 15 for most of my editing, but I occasionally like to do further editing in Elements. I also have Faststone Image Viewer on my computer, which I use rarely, but would prefer to keep. When I am in Lightroom and attempt to edit a photo in Photoshop Elements (using the command "Edit a copy with Lightroom adjustments"), Lightroom creates a Fastone image (even if I try to create a jpeg or tiff file). Most of the editing commands in Elements will not work with a Fastone image (in particular, the "levels" commands.) I have tried every variation of the "Edit In" command in Lightroom, but the results are the same. I suspect that the problem would go away if I deleted Faststone from my computer, but I would prefer not to. Any other suggestions?

If you want a program that is easy to learn and easy to use and inexpensive (free!) you might want to try Faststone Image Viewer.
If you want more and better features I feel that Lightroom is much easier to learn and use than Photoshop Elements.
I agree with the other posts that Elements is an excellent program, but I find it much more difficult to use than Lightroom, and only use it rarely, for more complex issues.

Great images. Excellent composition. Where is this place anyway?