(Writing this log from the car… since there is no cell service, no wifi, and no internet here on this long stretch of mountainous road. So please forgive if this rambles or grammar gets lost)
Minor adjustment to the Day 1 log. Forgot to mention the fab restaurant we ate at. In case you are ever in Sedona, make sure you visit the “Barking Frog”. We had the pecan bisque (soup), house salad, cactus fries, mango swordfish, shrimp tamale’s, Sedona sangria, cactus Mojito, and a shot of tequila. If that weren’t enough, we rounded it all out with a coffee crème brulee. And good night!
Day 2 (Sunday) you already heard about (off roading and devils bridge).
Day 3, October 27, 2009: Monday. Though well intentioned, we didn’t get up early enough to drive to Soldiers Pass and hike up 3 miles before the sunrise. Instead, thanks to franks suggestions we drove to a mountain top just 3 minutes away and took in the view with minutes to spare. I forgot to mention that my buddy frank from college lived in and was a tour guide in Sedona for years so gave us a bunch of great pointers for great look out spots and hiking trails. We went back to the hotel for a yummy egg burrito breakfast and some coffee to begin our long day ahead.
Advice if are considering visiting and hiking in Sedona – buy the week long red rock pass since it allows you to travel all the paths (even those covered by the pink jeep tours) as also gets you into certain place without paying any additional charges.
Our second stop today was the Ranch, just at the beginning of the Cathedral rock trail. We hiked through the woods, saw a gorgeous stream, and were intrigued by the odd little people made of rocks. We walked up the road and saw… even more odd little people. And then more. Wow. It must have been hundreds of little rock people called “cairns”. We then came upon Budda Beach, which is also where the Cathedral Rock “vortex” is. Normally we’d be skeptical, but thought, why not, let’s sit here awhile and rest, munching on a granola bar (isn’t that what vegetarian granola hippie’s do anyway?). I even found a nice little stream with a rock formation guy, and found a wonderful “nature’s tripod” to allow for some slow shutter action of the water flow over the black rock. A few hundred shots later and we rested with a granola bar.
Our third stop of the day was the “Secret Canyon”. Only one question comes to mind… why, dear friends, would you name something a “Secret Canyon” and then put it on all the maps and have a giant sign pointing to it? Maybe the French thought of that?
Advice if are considering visiting and hiking in Sedona – visit the Secret Canyon. We hiked through this secret canyon for about 8 miles each way, all the way to the end. Through the hike we went through pine woods, oak woods, desert, canyons, a giant cliff, and then finally the secret canyon. Through our voyage we found ourselves on top of a giant mountain overlooking other giant mountains. I had the odd sensation that I was in the middle of a Lord of the Rings movie, something from return of the king. Luckily though we were no attacked by orks or oggers or any other such creatures. We simply continued on with our peaceful yet strenuous hike (and no worries, we did stop along the path for many many pictures). Finally we reached the “secret canyon”. There we were, the two of us, just standing in the middle of this giant canyon that stretched for 5 more miles through the land. It was simple amazing. We stopped for lunch (peanut butter sammiches and fruit granola bars) and rested our weary feet. At this point we considered continuing our hike for the rest of the 5 miles (per the ranger who passed by) or beginning the long descent back through the canyon and valley. We decided to head back and complete out nearly 18 mile day of hiking. Wow. Our dogs were barking (as Ron DLS says). Our final stop of the day was a 10 mile drive up the Schnebly Path to try to watch the sunset. I saw a bride and groom on the top hill and we rushed up to get some sunset photos, but alas we were too late. We did however, catch some neat sunset over the valley photos and some nice evening cityscape photos. Can’t wait see them all!
Advice if are considering visiting Sedona – visit the vegetarian restaurants. We closed our evening with a bit of food from D’lish – a yummy vegetarian café on route 89. The veggie burger was yummy, as was the “green drink” which consisted of a mixture of random green vegetables. Highly recommend it!
Day 4, October 28, 2008: Tuesday. We woke early this morning, packed up, ate breakfast (French toast with strawberries) and head to the Grand Canyon. You think it was that simple with me? Ha! No way dude! On the way out of town I suggested “we’ll maybe we can just go look at Bell Rock and the Vortex there”. And this means? Yes, an hour long detour to climb the mountain. Not just climb the mountain, literally climb on hands and knees as the mountain was smooth in many place and at a 45 degree angle. On a few points, Ben had to pull me up since my shoes were slipping.
Advice if you want to ever climb Bell Rock to see the Vortex – purchase and wear some comfortable and non slippery hiking boots. Old gym shoes just won’t do the trick with climbing the mountains in Arizona. And bring water. Lots of water. And bring an open mind and some granola bars (any flavor will suffice).
Normally a trek like this would have meant more complaining from the peanut gallery (me) and tons more breaks and snacks being consumed. But today, at 90 degrees and in the middle of the morning, wearing jeans and a shirt, I climbed that mountain faster than a Billie goat off to the post office. When Ben stopped for a photo about mid way up, I just started climbing and didn’t look back. Nothing was on my mind but getting to the top and finding that Vortex of energy. I just went. He looked up and was shocked to see me so far up, and couldn’t figure out how I’d done it so quickly and with such agility. Must be the vortex energy.
When we got to the spot, the top of the main section of Bell Rock, we found the vortex. It isn’t a thing, per se. There isn’t a “welcome sign” and there is no one greeting you or congratulating you. You just arrive to this flat section turn the corner and find another semi flat section surrounded by trees with a superb view in either direction. We sat and rested. Sitting there I got to comparing the journey up to the journey of life. No one is there congratulating you on each section or when you reach the end, you have to keep going. No signs is there saying you have reached your life goal, you have to keep going. And mostly if you slip and fall, sometimes you can grab a tree branch on your way down, recover and keep going while other times you just keep falling until well… you just keep falling. Luckily no one fell this time around.
Next stop was the Grand Canyon National Monument! After a grueling two and a half hour drive from Sedona (through Flagstaff), we arrived. As this was my first time there I couldn’t even imagine it. When we arrived I was surprise by how few people there were.
Advice if you are considering going to the Grand Canyon – go in the off season like the end of October. There was ample parking, no lines to get in, plenty of space, no fear of someone bumping into you, and just more ability to relax and enjoy.
Ben was right… no photo could ever describe it. We walked along the rim and then drove to the next section. We decided (thanks for the suggestion frank, you were right) to at least try a little hike. The signs everywhere suggested not to climb down and up in one day, and since we arrived at 2pm, it wasn’t even an option. We hiked around a bit for a few hours and then rested along the rim and watched the sun set over the mountains. Though normally I have a fear of heights, I found a nice little ledge with a sub ledge to rest my feet. The wind was blowing hard, so I wasn’t standing near the edge.
On the way to the car… I spotted a 12 point buck elk and chased him around for photos. He didn’t quite mind too much though as he seemed to be quite used to people. Ben’s internal thoughts as he stood by the car? He was imagining me run across the platform chasing the 500 pound Elk with camera in tow (insert tink tink tink tink tink tink sounds like in cartoon). His next thought was of me running away while the giant elk chased me across the platform form (tink tink tink tink sounds but only faster). As Ben got lost in his own imagination… a family of four deer and one baby elk walked passed him waiting. He stood silently and watched as lightning (lightning agnes that is) flashed in the background about 100 feet away.
That evening we headed to Flagstaff, walked around the college campus there, caught a lunch at the Thai place on the main drag. And finally we crashed early at the hotel.
Day 5, October 29, 2008: Wednesday. This afternoon we have to drive from Flagstaff to Phoenix to pick up the family (about 140 miles, 2.5 hours). We woke this morning to a brisk 32 degrees and proceeded promptly to the local starbucks for a house coffee and venti mocha light frappacino double blend no whip. Don’t laugh at me because the lady before us ordered a something or other with half caf two pumps of this and two pumps of that low fat latte something. What ever happened to coffee… black?
With coffee in one hand and leftover Thai food in the other, we headed out to the Sunset Crater. We arrived through sharply at 8:05am, even before the retirement bus of tourists. Again I say, I am so ready for retirement. What was the Sunset Crater? Basically, around 1100 AD the mountain around Sunset Crater erupted, causing lava formations within miles of the opening. Due to the recent earthquakes and the shifts caused to the earths structures, Sunset crater (and the other 6 volcanic mountains around it) are not expected to erupt anytime soon. Thank you California, you’re the best!
Around 9:05am we hoped back in the Hummer and drove to the look out point. Click click click of the camera and we’re back on the road. Vroom. Along the way we stop at a scenic overlook of the “Painted Desert”… everyone together now… ohhhh…. Ahhhh. Having already taken many desert photos, I decided to trek into the middle of the highway for some “lost highway” shots of the desert, the road, the signs, and the sky. Again…ahhhh. Ohh no, time to change the memory cards again. Looks like I am on card 4 of 4, 14 gigs done and only 4 left!!! With the last click we were back in again and speeding off. Is it snack time yet?
Finally, just before 10am we arrived at the three story “Wukoki” house – an old family home made of earth rocks and clay. All orange. All old. Pretty falling apart. Amazing that it was that well preserved in any case. Didn’t catch the date, but assuming it was built sometime around 1100 ad since the neighboring were dated to around that time period. Next we rushed to the Wupatki national monument, a small city of Native Indian families. There was even a ball field where the scientist people found evidence of rocks used for games. We even saw a natural “blowhole” — you may giggle here — which is a naturally occurring air hole which feels like air is blowing out but really it is sucking in. We tried it with a receipt on the crate and yes, it was sucked down. Ok, click click and we’re off to the last stop within the Wupatki Park… the “Nalakihu Citadel”. A small house on top of a hill (yes, another hike uphill) with views for miles and a view of six different homes in the area. According to the evidence found there, the natives abandoned the area
Note that the surrounding area was a 22 miles drive from Sunset crater in a circle to end in the Citadel. Imagine what living there and traveling that distance was like back in 1200. Really makes you stop and appreciate the amenities of today’s age like running water, cars, internet and Starbucks. Yeah I said Starbucks people!
Trying to recreate the “see Paris in a weekend” experience of 2007, we decided not to stop the activities just yet. We drove about 5 miles east and visited the “Walnut Canyon National Monument”. Unlike what the name suggests to most of us, this is a civilization of homes within the caves. Similar to Montezuma’s castle (visited in the 2007 Arizona trip) the people lived inside the caves on the mountain.
Finally, we raced off to see the Meteor Crater — a big whole in the ground the size of twenty football field and the height of a 60 story building. The crater was caused by a meteor (around the size of a small parking lot) crashing into the earth around 50,000 years ago. No center was ever found, but numerous pieces of it were found in the surrounded area’s many miles away (presuming it was from the impact). Click click and we’re off to Phoenix. Lunch? Consisted of granola bars, rice cakes, cranberry juice, water, pretzels, dried apricots, trail mix, and the rest of the left over Thai food.
We made it to Phoenix in plenty of time to pick up the parents and head to the townhouse in Tonto Verde, Arizona. Only problem was… someone (me) entered “West Mitchell Avenue” instead of “East Mitchell Avenue” as Mike’s address in to the navigation system. What the? This means we ended up in some dilapidated area with, ahem, interesting people around us. We promptly sped away and called our friend Mike who confirmed we were in the “bad” part of town. At least we were in a hummer right? Ended the day with a yummy dinner and drinks.
Day 6, October 30, 2008: Thursday. Went off roading nearby the townhouse. No cell phone reception. So nice to be out in the middle no where. Followed up with a few hours of laying by the pool and then a quick swim. We did learn that there is no kayak or canoe rentals in the area because if you canoe down the river and end up on Native Indian land you could be caught for trespassing. Interesting and understandable.
First funny story of Annie trying to buy drinks at the pool bar:
· Annie – can I buy drinks here like a pina colada?
· Bar tender – no we don’t have a liquor license
· Annie – I see beer in the fridge behind you
· Bar tender – yeah, I can see you beer though
· Annie - ? (puzzled look)
· Bar tender – you can buy drinks at the bar inside and drink them out here in the pool area
· Annie – thanks
Second funny story of Annie trying to buy drinks at the restaurant bar:
· Annie – can I buy drinks here and take them outside
· Bar tender – no you can’t take drinks outside
· Annie - ? (puzzled look)
· Bar tender – but you can take them and drink them at the pool
· Annie – ok, two pina-colada’s and one dirty martini please?
Moral of the story? I don’t know, I was pretty happy after my pina-colada and restful afternoon in the sun. Ahhh. SPF 15 work your stuff on the pigmently impaired!
The evening was spent at dinner at a sports bar with vegetarian pizzas all around. Yummy!
Day 7, October 31, 2008: Friday. Sad day in deed. Today we headed to the airport to return home. So sad. Did I mention we didn’t want to head back? Alas, wedding on Saturday morning and unpacking on Sunday all day means the Plums return from their multi destination vacation happy, tan and relaxed. J
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