Spring 2016
Sedona, even more so than Niagara Falls and Lake Tahoe, really should be a national park. It sits 2500 feet lower than the southern rim of the Colorado Plateau and its unique red rock color is the result of individual grains of sand being coated with rusted hematite before being compressed into the sandstone layer. Erosion has created from this one of the most famous landscapes in Arizona.
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| Room with a view |
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| Sedona Sunset |
For those who follow New Age practice, Sedona was a major site of 1987's Harmonic Convergence and has long been known as the location of at least four spiritual vortexes. (While these are claimed to be something more than the mundane, scientific "vortices" of fluid dynamics, it would have been interesting to hear a Ranger Naturalist's presentation on this. Aliens might have been involved, but let's not go there.) Sedona is also the gateway to Oak Creek Canyon, known for Sinaguan ruins of the Ancient Puebloans including Montezuma's Castle.
There are a number of off-road tours to choose from here. Some focus on the New Age aspects, others on hair-raising rides up and down narrow cliffsides, and the most popular ones that climb up to the Mogollon Rim of the Colorado Plateau. You can try to drive your own vehicle up that trail or rent a jeep or dune buggy. You can also opt for the famous pink jeep tours or pick from several other operators, but since we had never ridden in an original Humvee, that was our choice. That thing was really built for rough terrain and the ride was great fun even though they wouldn't let me drive.
Montezuma's Castle National Monument
If you actually follow Oak Creek itself out of Sedona you would soon enough see a fortress built into the side of a cliff above the creek. Spanish explorers named it Montezuma's Castle under the mistaken assumption that it had to be part of the Aztec empire. The structure is even larger than it looks based on a model displayed on the trail that shows six levels behind the walls, Unfortunately, actual tours of the structure were halted in 1951.
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| Montezuma's Castle |
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| Montezuma's Well |
Verde Canyon Railroad
Oak Creek feeds into the Verde River south of Verde Canyon where we rode the short line railroad that up until the 1980s serviced one of the world's richest copper mines. The depot is located in Clarksdale, not far from Jerome, AZ, a National Historic Landmark similar to Virginia City, NV.
The train ride itself was a real treat. The canyon was as impressive as we expected but I didn't realize that this was such a bald eagle habitat. There were two nests along the train tracks (we could glimpse activity in one of them in the trees through the thickening spring growth) and, at Montezuma's Castle, we watched a bald eagle riding the thermals in the sky above us.
Spring Training
We watched the Giants work out at Scottsdale Stadium (amazingly it was free), and Nancy worked hard to get Bruce Bochy's autograph. Botch doesn't like to give out autographs, but when he saw Nancy waving the book he wrote about his favorite walks, you could see his mind trying to figure a way to give her one without giving one to anyone else. After a few false starts, he finally gave up and came over to the feeding frenzy of autograph seekers. He signed two, took a pen from a third, signed Nancy's book, thanked her, and then to the others said, "That's enough, gotta go." It made me laugh.
This trip was really about seeing the Giants "on-the-road" at some of the other spring training facilities. Salt River Fields at the Talking Stick Indian Reservation is home to the Rockies and the local Diamondbacks, so we weren't really surprised at the size of the place or the crowd that was there for the Giants-Diamondbacks night game.
However, we were a little surprised at the Peoria Sports Complex, home to the Padres and Mariners. We went to an afternoon Giants-Padres game and took our usual 6th inning tour of the stadium. Out behind center field we found an open-air Hooters complete with Hooters girls in their typical outfits and a couple of young ladies in tight black dresses and full make-up flirting with guys sitting at the bar. Spring Training has always had a Vegas vibe to it (golf, ballgame, bar hopping), but this did seem a little excessive.
Touring the West
This trip marks the beginning of our plan to tour the country only by car - no more flying. So we drove to Arizona and back. It was a long drive, but forests of saguaro cactus, wild burrows, Death Valley wildflowers, and drone landings at Creech AFB kept things from ever being boring. Stops along the way included an original Route 66 restaurant, Lake Havasu's London Bridge, Bellagio's buffet in Las Vegas, and, of course, Eric Schat's Bakkery in Bishop, CA. All in all, a really fun trip.
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Google is killing Picasa and I have to learn how to use Google Pictures. In the meantime, here is a link to some more pictures:
Sedona Trip Pictures
Sedona Trip Pictures
