Day 41 Sedona Arizona Sunday 26 April 2015 USA Day 13
We woke this morning is sunny Sedona to more rain showers, but Georgie promises the rain will stop by 7! (Sorry an in joke 🙂 ) The rain stopped before we left. 🙂
We started our day with a walk around the tourist hub of Sedona. Yvette gave us a really good running commentary on the main local Indian Tribes, the Hopi and Apache Tribes, through their handicrafts. It was really interesting finding out a bit of the “dreamtime” stories of the local tribes and what stories and meanings their artefacts told.
Next we jumped in the cars and headed out to do some sightseeing and a few Trail walks. Our first stop was at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a small, but very popular, Chapel built into the red rocks of Sedona. The Chapel is small and commands great views over Sedona. Deb lit a candle for all our family and friends who maybe struggling, we hope you feel the love.
From there we went to a walking trail, I think it was called the Sugarloaf or maybe Coffee Pot. It was really good to get out and amongst the native plants and into the terrain we had seen from a distance. The ground and hills here are such a deep red colour, and with the green vegetation and glimpses of blue sky, it’s all very striking. Deb is slowly being converted to liking Cactus – in its natural environment. We walked for about an hour then went for lunch.
After lunch we drove to The “Red Rock State Park” and went for a walk along the Apache Fire Trail. As we started Yvette called out, she thought she had seen a Rattle Snake in the grass beside the trail. I got some quick photos of it and it is really hard to tell from the pics on Google. It may have been a Diamond Back Rattlesnake. I’ll put some pics of it up on FB (better quality than I can put here). We had a great walk through the natural landscape, it did rain for a very brief time, but we didn’t really get wet. There are so many great walks around Sedona, if you’re into hiking in beautiful desert conditions with huge red rock formations jumping out of the ground this is the place to do it.
We had a bit of a relax back at our rooms late in the afternoon (I tried doing a Geocache, but there were too many “muggles” around. So I will try for another elsewhere in Arizona.
We took Georgie, John, Yvette and John out to dinner to thank them for everything they have done for us and giving up their time, we really do appreciate it. We went to the Enchantment Resort on the outskirts of Sedona. We had pre-dinner drinks and nibbles on an outside patio with sweeping views of the Red Rock Mountains and then had an amazing dinner inside. It was very lively with so many great travel stories being told.
Tomorrow we head to Pinetops via an east/west road made by the US Army in the mid 1800’s. It’s still dirt for a good portion of the way, and hugs the rim of the plateau (the same plateau the Grand Canyon is on) and sits around 1500m above the plains below.
Day 41 Sedona to Pinetops Arizona Monday 27 April 2015 USA Day 14
We began our day by picking up some provisions for lunch and filling the cars full of “gas”. We were on the road by 9:10am heading for Pinetops.
It’s a bright sunny, warm, blue skied day, perfect weather.
Before we left Sedona, we called into one last viewing point for a few last photos of the Red Rock Formations.
We drove on to just past camp Verde and called in to see Montezuma’s Castle. Montezuma was a name given by the Spanish to the local Pueblo people of the Southern Sinagua area. These people had built cliff side dwellings. The last one remaining is 5 storeys high and has 20 rooms. It was built between 1100 & 1300AD, and the people abandoned the village around the 1400-1500’s. No one knows why they left, but it seems something happened around that time broadly over this area and down into South America, as there are a number of civilisations that fell apart at the time. (Incas, Aztecs, etc). The “Castle” is now well preserved by the National Parks Service. It is fascinating to look at and try to work out how the people lived in it, and why.
Next we set off onto the Mogollon Rim Road. It was dirt all the way to the Payson-Heber Highway, around 40 miles (70km). The views were spectacular all the way. The valley/plains way below and the hills in the distance were incredible. Pine forests for as far as the eye could see and sheer cliff faces. There were areas where snow was still lying in the forest after the falls the last few days. We even got to have a bit of a snowball fight at one stop, we’ll call it a draw I think 🙂 . Along the way we stopped at a camp site for lunch, so peaceful and restful. Sitting among the pine tree and relaxing.
As we drove along the Rim Road just after lunch we came across a Cooler (Esky) on the road with its contents of Bud Light and water strewn all over the road. We stopped put everything back in the Cooler and put it on the side of the road. Hopefully the owner will come back looking for it, a few of the beers were dead, but they were light anyway!!
At one stop, with vast views over the valley below, there was a very straight wide cutting through the pine trees. An electrical transmission line cut its way straight through the forest, a blight on the landscape, but necessary I guess.
Along the way we saw a little bit of wildlife. A couple of Wild Turkeys crossed the road in front of us, the male was chasing the female and strutting his stuff for her, but she didn’t look very interested. Apart from that a few deer and some horses were the only other fauna we saw.
We arrived in Pinetop around 5.30pm, it had been a long day in the car and it was good to get out and chill for a while.
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