This was just a travel day and not much to write about. Other than the steep 6-8% uphill grade from Camp Verde 30 miles north up to Flagstaff. It went better than I thought. The truck performed better than I thought it would. We stopped off in Kingman to make lunch in the trailer and then after lunch continued on to Needles to stay in the same park as before, Desert View RV Park. We spent the afternoon catching up on phone calls and I took a much needed nap. Then dinner, TV, and bed.
This was our last full day in Sedona. We decided to go back and do some more urban hiking in the downtown district. It’s like any other touristy spot, like Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, or Cannery Row in Monterey, but we really enjoyed it there. It’s fun to look at all the “Indian jewelry” and “mystic crystals”. Pretty but nothing mystical about beveled glass. We had lunch at Wildflower Bakery near the Hyatt and enjoyed the cliff views from their balcony. Then we slowly walked across the entire shopping district and then the art district of Tlaquepaque. This was the extent of our hiking today. Then back to the RV resort and the hot tub!
I really enjoyed the hot tub at this park. It was large, clean, warm, and I had some of the best conversations with people that I’ve had in a long time. Learning about where they are from, how they are travelling, and where they are going. Like the Germans who had come from Detroit and were on their way to San Diego before flying home to Germany. They rented a Class C RV and were scouring the country looking for girls. They hadn’t found any as of yet. They were the only ones other than me to see the giant green meteor with the orange tail streak across the sky as we were sitting in the hot tub. Or the couple from Surprise, Arizona who just come over to Sedona to relax. The couple from Hawaii that keep an RV in Las Vegas because flights are cheaper from Honolulu to Las Vegas for some reason. They come stateside and travel for several weeks before going home. There was the single woman who lived full time in her RV travelling between Texas and Colorado. All of them were great conversations and it was hard to leave, even after soaking for three hours. All that to say that even though this RV park was next to a freeway, and a casino, it was easily my favorite park and we will be back.
Our first stop in Sedona today was a trip to the Chapel of the Holy Cross. An architectural wonder! There is lots to read on it’s history on Wikipedia but nothing prepares you for actually seeing this wonder. Or at the very least, the views from the chapel. We didn’t take any pictures of the interior out of respect for those who were praying inside.
Afterwards we drove up to the Sedona Airport (KSEZ) and walked about 1/4 of the airport loop trail. The trail circumnavigates the runway down on the side of the mesa and provides stunning views of the red rocks surrounding Sedona. There is a parking lot just outside the airport where you can park for $3.00. However, (pro tip) you can continue just past that lot and you come to the airport parking lot which is free and only adds about 100 steps to your hike.
The trail drops one or two hundred feet before joining up with the main loop trail. It’s VERY rocky so watch your step. Otherwise it’s an easy hike. Down at the airport loop trailhead there is a rock with a trail and steps leading to the top of it. It’s called the Sedona Trail View Point on Google. Think mini-Half Dome. We climbed to the top of that and found the most stunning views of Sedona. The airport loop trail was a let down after this rock
After eating lunch at the top of the rock we headed back up the trail to the airport. The downhill hike we had enjoyed had now turned into a longer uphill hike. Luckily I found a shortcut to the airport frontage road which cut a lot of time off our hike. We found the airport terminal to use some CLEAN restrooms and then headed back down to town.
Just when we thought we were done taking pictures…
Tomorrow is our last day in Sedona. We’re going to go back to our favorite places in town (which will most likely include Starbucks) and just chill.
This is the grand finale of our trip. We have wanted to visit Sedona for years and finally we are here. Today was tourist day. We stopped at some of the scenic overlooks on the way into town but mostly spent our time on tourist row. “Indoor hiking” as Cristy calls it. We bought some gifts for family and continued to take in the magnificent views of the cliffs. Tomorrow we’ll do some outdoor hiking. For now, enjoy the photos we took…
And in town I saw this statue which I’m including in homage to the folks I work with at San Joaquin General Hospital.
More pictures of Red Rock Country tomorrow…
Today was the shortest travel day yet. Only about an hour. We traveled from Flagstaff down to Camp Verde, AZ. After a little up and down hill driving there was a long 5 – 6% grade drive (18 miles) down into the Verde Valley. We stopped at a scenic overlook prior to tackling the long downgrade.
We are staying at Distant Drums RV Resort. They were gracious enough to let us arrive before normal check in time and were really helpful in taking us to our spot and guiding me into the back-in spot.
We don’t have many pictures from today but expect some really good pictures from Sedona tomorrow.
Today we spent the day strolling around downtown Prescott. We checked out their visitors center which is built into an Amtrak station. Far more freight trains went past than passenger trains. The we strolled around the downtown area. It reminded us very much of San Luis Obispo on the California coast. Probably because this is a college town just like SLO. We found a Thai restaurant and ate lunch there.
Afterwards we headed up to Lowell Observatory. We paid the admission and strolled around the observatory looking at the various buildings and exhibits. They, like I, very much hold that Pluto is INDEED a planet. Pluto was discovered at the Lowell Observatory. Pluto and Mars both fascinated Lowell and there are many Pluto and Mars themes throughout the grounds. Except for the library, it’s Saturn-themed because Lowell’s wife loved the planet Saturn. Lowell is entombed onsite. There is an amazing view of Prescott from his mausoleum.
Then we headed back home, hitting Starbucks on the way. Our home, our Lance 1995 travel trailer which we have nicknamed, “Little House on the Highway.”
Tomorrow we head down to Sedona, AZ.
This was a good travel day. It was only an hour and a half drive to our destination in Flagstaff, AZ. On our way we decided to swing through Winslow so I could see the “Standin’ on the Corner” statue.
As we approached the “corner” with our travel trailer in tow we saw that that street was blocked off up ahead. I found a large gravel lot next to the Winslow Visitor’s Center and parked there. We walked two blocks to where the road was closed and found they were having a vintage car show and had blocked the streets off. Lots of really nice restored cars from the 40’s through the 70’s were there. And eventually we made it to “Standin’ On The Corner”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00ySZOPPDD4
We had lunch in the gravel lot in the trailer and then moved on to Prescott to J & H RV Park. A really nice little ’55 and over’ park. It’s quiet and shady and no smoking allowed! We love that part. We’ll be here for three nights.
This morning we slept in and then I cooked Cristy breakfast. Scrambled eggs with shallots, onion salt, and Thai lime chile seasoning. I also fried her some bread in butter on our skillet. After breakfast we went to a local church, Grace Community Church. Then we went and got coffee at Starbucks, and grocery shopping at Sprouts. Afterwards we headed back to the trailer and just relaxed for the rest of the afternoon.
Tomorrow, shopping in downtown Flagstaff and whatever else strikes our fancy.
Today after a slow leisurely morning we drove to the Petrified Forest National Park. This has been on my bucket list since I was a kid. I wasn’t expecting much. Many times you build things up in your head and when you see them in real life they are so much smaller than they thought they would be. I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. There are so many petrified trees there. Plus the park also encompasses part of the painted desert. It’s about a 30 mile drive through the park and it is so worth it. There is a lot to learn about the indigenous peoples who lived here, their ruins and petroglyphs still stand today.
We entered by the north entrance and the first part of the park we came to were the overlooks that give you stunning views of the Painted Desert.
A little farther along the drive we came to the Puerco Pueblo ruins. A place first built most probably by the Anasazi people. Here is what it looked like in its heyday:
And here is what it looks like today…
They also left behind quite a few petroglyphs. They are not a written language but convey ideas or are symbols of the people who lived here or passed by over the years.
But the showstopper for me was the petrified forest itself. So many trees knocked down by a huge flood and all came together in a huge logjam and were buried beneath the silt together until minerals from the surrounding earth were absorbed into the wood leaving behind a crystalized ghost of the tree that was.
All in all a wonderful day and wonderful drive through time. Tomorrow we head to Flagstaff, AZ.
Today we slept in and slowly got the trailer ready to go. It was a short drive from Grants, NM to Hollbrook, Arizona. We stopped in at the OK RV Park. It’s kind of dated but all still in good working order. Including the park staff.
Not much happened on the way. The wind was at our backs and we were at the park by 11:30pm. We decided to use to today to catch up on Internet stuff; email, updating blogs, etc. Tomorrow we’ll explore the petrified forest and see what else we can find here in Hollbrook.
I didn’t get to update the blog yesterday due to lack of Internet. We had to stay at a KOA in Grants due to there being no room anywhere near Albuquerque because of the balloon festival. This KOA had very poor WiFi and I can understand why. We also had poor data reception on our cell phones. Verizon was showing only a couple of bars of LTE, no 3G or 4G. So… it was slow, even on our phones.
Before talking about the Grants area, let me catch you up on our travel day. Here is why we were unable to continue. The line of thunderstorms stretched from El Paso, TX all the way up to Minnesota. It was a slow moving line as well. This is what we would either have to drive through or delay for. We didn’t have time to delay our trip and be able to make it back to work in time. So, we turned around and headed to…
As it turns out, Grants was a wonderful place to stop for two reasons, the Western New Mexico Aviation Heritage Museum and El Malpais National Monument.
This museum is a restoration of two forms of aviation infrastructure, now both largely gone. The first and foremost reason I wanted to visit this museum is it’s exhibit on vintage airway beacons. In many places throughout the country people have stumbled on mysterious concrete arrows and wondered what they were for. At this museum they have completely restored the concrete arrow and the lighted beacon tower it supported. As well as the generator sheds that accompanied these towers to power them. These beacons lighted the way for early airmail aviators so they could continue to fly the mail at night. There were literally hundreds of these arrows and towers across the country. The museum is only open on Saturdays so we took the outside walking tour. There are free pamphlets you can grab that talk about the outdoor exhibits and the history. This was one of the stops I was most looking forward to.
If you’ve ever seen the movie Cars, think “Radiator Springs” and you pretty much have Grants. Still it was fun to drive down the main drag and look for remnants of her Route 66 glory days. We stopped at AutoZone to buy a new tire pressure gauge. Then we stopped at a touristy little spot to take a picture.
After visiting the museum we decided to check out El Malpais (literally, The Badlands in Spanish). El Malpais is a hugh lava field created by volcanic erruptions. Spanish explorers named it El Malpais due the fact that it was impassible for their horses. The terrain is literally littered with razor sharp chunks of black lava. They had to find a way around. Other than some Indians that lived in the area the place was largely abandoned for thousands of years.
We drove out into the park and stopped at an area with some sandstone bluffs. This turned out to be the hidden gem in all of Grants. Here is a taste of the sandstone bluffs:
We drove a little farther down the road and stopped at La Ventana, a large natural arch. It’s a nice easy hike, only about 10 minutes from the parking lot.
Afterwards we drove back and had dinner back at our trailer. And enjoyed a beautiful New Mexico sunset thanks to the storms passing by to the east.
All in all our decision to turn around was a good one. We saw some things we may not have had time for otherwise.
Air Prayer 