Thursday 11th June - Sedona

We have had so many experiences and seen so many wonderful things/places since we started this trip, and each time we think ‘it can’t get any better than this’. But today really had the ‘Wow Factor’. We visited Sedona and the surrounding area.

The original plan was to hire a car and drive there, but when I realised what the road through Oak Creek Canyon would be like, especially driving ‘on the wrong side of the road’ I chickened out as it was very steep with many hairpin bends. So when we were in the Information Centre in Flagstaff yesterday we picked up a Sedona Tour brochure, liked the look of it and booked it. And we are so pleased we did.

If I had driven there we would not have seen all the amazing places that we were taken to. We were the only two people on the trip and the driver/guide was a lovely part-Cherokee lady named Dora. The trip was advertised as ‘nature and geology’ and Dora was so informative about everything. She explained a lot about the geology of the rocks in words that we could actually understand and knew the name of just about every plant and tree we saw.

We headed south out of Flagstaff and after about 15-20 minutes of driving the first ‘Wow’ was heard as we had our first view of Oak Tree Canyon from the top. We descended around 3,000 feet to the bottom and drove through the canyon with the most fantastic scenery on either side and stopped for a while at Slide Rock State Park which is a popular area for families as the creek is ‘swimmable’ and there are lots of rocks etc to play on. We then drove into Sedona where we saw many spectacular red rock formations. It was interesting to see how the buildings are all constructed in adobe of the same red colour as the surrounding landscape. Even the poles supporting the traffic lights are painted in the same colour.

We went to the top of a ‘mesa’ (a table-top mountain) where the airport is situated and had a wonderful view over the town with the red mountains behind

Nestled into the hillside ahead we could see the small town of Jerome. The town originated as a mining settlement in the late 1800s, as the area was rich in copper, silver and other valuable minerals. Once the minerals had been all but mined out, Jerome became a ghost town for many years until hippies discovered it in the 1970s. So began its revival as a New Age and artists’ centre.
Next stop was Tuzigoot to see a reconstructed hilltop village of the Southern Sinagua people, a hunter/gatherer tribe who occupied the Verde Valley for thousands of years.
On the way home, we stopped at the Verde River to look for birds and enjoyed a cool shady riverside walk. We managed to spot a scarlet cardinal, several wrens and phoebes and a pair of red winged blackbirds.

Our final stop was at some roadside stalls selling Navajo jewellery and other crafts.

Sally cooked us a most delicious meal which made an enjoyable end to the day.