sedona
From our desert treasure campsite just outside Phoenix, we headed north to see what the Sedona area had for us to explore. We stayed in a state park to the west of Sedona, Dead Horse Ranch SP in Cottonwood. The Verde River runs through the town and the park so we had some extra greenery and some real trees! Other than that, the landscape and scenery seemed fairly dull, (especially compared to our last site) until we got close to Sedona. Then…OMG…jaw droppingly gorgeous! It met and surpassed every preconceived notion, thought or dream I had of what it might be like. But before I gush all over the page, I bet you're curious about the name of the park we were camping in, right? Dead Horse Ranch??? It turns out a family came to the area from the Midwest to buy land for a ranch. They all decided they liked this land the best. It just so happens there was a dead horse on it when they saw the property, so they referred to it as the "dead horse" property. After they bought it the kids wanted to name it after the dead horse and when they bequeathed it to the state, one of the conditions was for the name to stay. 😳
We did a ton of hiking. The Sedona area is full of trails and we were in training mode. Now, I've hinted at this a couple of times, so here's the explanation. No, we're not training for the Olympic trials (haha), not even the senior ones, if there is such a thing. Yosemite NP has a program where you can go backpacking in the high Sierras from camp to camp. You just carry your personal stuff, toothbrush, clothes, bugspray, CPAP 🙄, batteries for CPAP🙄🙄, etc. The tents and sleeping pads are all set up, they provide and cook breakfast and dinner. Each day's hike is 7-10 miles and rated mod to strenuous (mostly strenuous). Sounds fabulous, yes??? Well a lot of people think so. It is so popular they had to institute a lottery … but … we won!!! We can go. I first heard about this 20 years ago when we were having our cross-country adventure with the boys and now we have the opportunity to participate. Of course, we are 20 years older. 😳 So, we've been purposely and deliberately training to prepare for this once in a lifetime (for me, Martin has been backpacking before) adventure while keeping our fingers crossed no injuries will prevent us from participating.
Besides hiking, we drove up through the mountains toward Flagstaff and explored some nearby national monuments. We checked out the Sunset Crater NM; another "how did this get here" geologic moment, another giant volcano, fascinating to see. We also visited Wupatki NM, home to several ancient pueblo remains, Wupatki being the largest. Another day we drove to Walnut Canyon NM, home to cliff dwellings of the ancestral sinagua pueblo peoples and Tuzigoot NM another sinagua pueblo remains which we could see from our campsite and was interesting because it covered the crest of a hill and went down toward the Verde River.
It was while we were at Tuzigoot that we had some interesting wildlife encounters. First, I really, really saw a roadrunner. Not just one, but I think a whole family, dad, mom and youth. And I took dozens of pics! They were just hanging out on the exposed walls of Tuzigoot. One was pacing, (a sort of speed walking), up and down the walls. We watched for a long time. I can definitely check roadrunner off the list. But as much as I tried, as hard as I listened, I didn't hear a single beep, beep. 😂 The other experience … was with a rattlesnake! It was along one of the paths, curled up around the bottom of one of the bushes, sleeping. Word filtered through the visitors that a rattlesnake had been spotted. One of the rangers was headed up the trail with a white 5 gal bucket and a pole that looked a little like one of those gripper tools. I immediately started following him. I wanted to make sure I could identify a rattlesnake in its "natural habitat". I mean, sure, put it behind glass and label it "rattlesnake" and I have no problem, but what if I'm hiking? Would I know one if I saw one? What should I be looking for? Fortunately, after a bit, one of the rangers let me take a peek. I can honestly say I never, ever would have seen it. Yikes! And, the million dollar question…if I'd been hiking by, would it have rattled at me, let me go by without a peep, or bitten me? I was not as reassured as I'd hoped I'd be. 😳
Shortly thereafter, while on one of our hikes in Sedona, I'm merrily hiking along looking for wildlife, wildflowers and rock formations while trying not to trip or slip or slide (my natural hiking state) when I hear this noise … a someone stepping in dried leaves noise … a rattling kind of noise 🤔… A rattling kind of noise!
I stop immediately, start to scan the ground and there, right there, on the right side of the trail is a rattlesnake, coiled, rattle up, head in striking position. Our eyes locked. I slowly backed up a couple of steps. We both felt a bit safer and were weighing our options. Who makes the next move. Meanwhile, Martin, who is behind me, is unaware of what is going on and is asking me what I'm doing, why did I stop and why did I back up. I mutely move my arm a bit but don't move my feet or speak or take my eyes from the snake. After what seemed an eternity, I felt we (the snake and I, not Martin and I. Martin still couldn't quite see what was going on) reached an understanding, I wasn't going to hurt it and it wasn't going to hurt me. It turned and making the slightest rustling in the dead leaves made its way off, away from the trail.
WOOWZA!!!
That encounter left me feeling quite secure in my ability to:
1. Recognize the sound of a rattlesnake rattle
2. Recognize a rattlesnake in its natural setting
3. Encounter a rattlesnake while hiking and remain calm
4. Continue to hope that rattlesnakes live long fruitful lives, just far away from me 😏 (with a nod and paraphrase to Fiddler on the Roof)
So all in all a successful encounter 😁
This is turning into a super long blog, but I also wanted to give some impressions of Sedona and Cottonwood.
Sedona.It is also:
-crowded streets and tourists and tourists and more tourists
-a perfectly coiffed image-
a disney-esque feel
-something a bit artificial for "the haves" of the world
Cottonwood.-Cottonwood is real-
It has shelters for the homeless and food shelves for the hungry that the Sedona churches help sponsor (I know this because we went to church in Sedona and their mission project was raising money for these)
-Although not blessed with the geographic beauty of Sedona, it has the Verde River, a life source in the desert
-it has t-ball in the community park
-many socioeconomic levels and you can buy a house for less than $2,000,000.
-It is a community.
The longer we stayed in the area the more I grew to appreciate and like Cottonwood.
Ok, finally! On to the pics 😁
These first pics are from our first day's hike. We went to church in the morning and then this hike in the afternoon. Oh, what a wonderful world ❤️
Chapel of the Holy Cross, built into the stone. (Not where we went to church, though)
more views and vistas
Sunset Crater National Monument
The volcano likely erupted in 1060s AD, certainly between 1040 and 1100. It is told of in the stories of the indigenous peoples living near here at that time.
Again, what's in a name. General Powell explored the area and from afar thought the bare two colored peak looked like fire when the sun caught it at sunset. The local tribes all have very different names: Hopi- Red Hill; Navajo- Yellow-tipped Mountain; Pai- Home to Our Father Sun; Southern Paiute- Mountain with Hole; Apache- Where it Burned
Note that in 1000 years the ash of the cinder cone still only has vegetation on one side.
There are several different types of lava that resulted from this volcanic eruption.
This jagged type of basaltic rock is called a'a and is the result of the hot lava oozing out more slowly, starting to cool a bit on the surface, but then being pushed by more lava so it "breaks" apart into chunks and jags rather than smooth rivers and ropes There was one short trail through this type of lava field. It was sharp, jagged and tough walking! Our earth creates, as in this case, such bizarre (!) and diverse landscapes. I'm continuously astounded.
Snow covered San Francisco mountains in the background.
Butterflies in the lava fields
Mourning Cloak
Question Mark
In this pic, I'm in the a'a field in the foreground with the cinder cone rising behind me.
And what's past the lava fields you ask? The Painted Desert National Park, of course.
Wupatki National Monument
One of the puebloan remains
Below are the Wupatki pueblo remains, a considerably larger pueblo complex. It had a kiva and ballcourt as well as many rooms and levels.
After our day exploring the national monuments around Flagstaff we headed into the town in search of a good brew pub. Being a college town and all … we found several, and happily settled on this one.
Walnut Canyon National Monument
This area has a series of cliff dwellings tucked into the sides of the very steep, very deep ravine. They were an agrarian society and cultivated the land along the rim of the canyon and many lived tucked into its sides. Of course the water source for agriculture and everyday life was at the bottom of the canyon. Yikes! 😳 I'm glad I didn't have water duty.
In this shot you can just start to make out some dwellings under the ledge.
I found this rock totally fascinating. The oozing blobbiness of it. This is not volcanic rock though, as I had assumed, and is actually former sand dunes hence the patterns in the rock. I'm pretty sure Mark Lucas, creator of Jabba the Hutt, could have used this as an inspiration. Haha.
More cliff dwellings
Just another breathtaking and historically significant area (sigh)
Tuzigoot National Monument
This is the one we could see from our campsite. No red rocks over toward Cottonwood.
Note how it's built along the ridge of the hill.
Note also how green it looks. Why Donna-Sue, you say, this is lovely. Why are you always complaining about it being so unattractive and brown??? You are looking at the Verde River lined by the namesake cottonwood trees of Cottonwood, AZ.
Now, once you've looked at these gorgeous walls and admire their sloping lines, look beyond and what do you see? Yup, brown.
A roadrunner!
This is the second one, on patrol, gazing into the distance, looking for danger. (Keep an eye on his or her crest in the next couple of pics.)
Wait, what? What was that??
Are you laughin' at me? (You may have to enlarge the pic to appreciate the attitude of this guy)
And adolescent makes three.
Check this guy out "speed walking". If you look closely, you'll see that neither foot is actually touching the surface…so maybe that is the definition of running. 🤔 Hummm, Roadrunner…
Zoom, zoom.
Back in Sedona hiking again. We hiked up Faye's Canyon, with a side trip up to see the arch. This is the hike with the rattlesnake, but alas, no pics. I know you're all disappointed.
Poor Martin, always so patient while I take pics of crazy things. (Of course, he does have a nice view.)
We went on another hike in the afternoon
the seven sisters
Flowers
Desert paintbrush. I loved the brilliance.
There were tons of agave plants along this trail. Not only did they look large and healthy and full, but their particular shade of green made these lovely soft patches on the landscape.
We also went horseback riding. I may ride a mule down the Grand Canyon so we can stay in the Phantom Ranch in Oct. (Martin's hiking down.) But it occurred to me that I hadn't been on a horse in probably 50 years (!) and perhaps with my back, joints, etc … I should make sure I could actually do it. 😂 My horses name was Fred.
One afternoon we drove up into the mountains to a tiny little historic mining town, Jerome. It was really perched on the side of this bare steep mountain. We visited the ghost town, a collection of old things. It really had everything from nuts and bolts to mining machinery to cars to washing machines and everything in between. And animals! Burros, goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, ducks and hummingbirds at feeders out front. What a crazy place!
They made a fence from old tools and parts. I thought that was sort of genious, sort of …
Look, a Mike Mulligan steam shovel! 😂
A javelina! I'd been wanting a pic of one. He was there, but not actually part of the collection. He was just passing through.
A silly goat
An even sillier goat 😂
Looking for handouts
Hummingbirds
These are Broad-tail, I think ... But they might be Anna's or Black- chinned ???🤷
And some bird pics from the area
Woodhouse Scrub jay
Rock wren
Blue-gray gnatcatcher
And now , more hiking pics
Boynton Canyon with a side trip to the Subway cave area. Boynton Canyon, the end of the trail, is said to have the strongest vortex in the whole area.
Up on a cliff ledge looking at subway
In a cliff dwellings looking out. Martin's convinced people moved to cliff dwellings for the views. Tee-hee.
Contemplation …
On a ledge near subway cave
The terminus of Boynton canyon trail. It was a pretty steep climb at the end and I'm not convinced I felt any unique energy, but perhaps it was because I was breathing so hard to try to get oxygen into my lungs that I failed to focus on the "energy". 😳🤷😂
Old Town Cottonwood
Wine tastings, some shops, some eateries and bocce with the pope. Who could ask for more?
Next stop: Joshua Tree NP, California
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