We left Blanding, UT and drove to Cottonwood, AZ where we are scheduled to spend 2 weeks at the Thousand Trails campground. Originally, we were supposed to meet Cathy and Tom, Gary’s sister and brother-in-law in the Grand Canyon but, as we all know, that plan fell through with the government shutdown. We all devised alternative plans, Cathy and Tom extended their stay in Sedona while Gary and I reserved a spot in TT for 2 weeks. Though we are about 25 miles apart, we can still see each other and enjoy their company on the road. We miss them when we are on the road and they are in Iowa, now that they also have an RV, we will be able to see them more.
The goal while we were all in Sedona was to hike through all this beautiful red rock wilderness. And today we chose to hike some of the trails closer to the city, along the western rim. We picked up Cathy and Tom and headed off. It’s not too difficult to find red rocks in Sedona and it’s also not too difficult to take a good picture in this area. The red rocks set off agains the azure blue sky and the green of the brush is a feast for the eyes.
We hiked for about 2 hours, marveling at the sights, then found a cool shady place to have lunch.
Of course, lunch has to be followed by dessert so we stopped in for an ice cream cone afterwards. Then Gary, fortified with all that sugar, decided that he wanted to try Schnebly Hill.
Schnebly Hill, if you haven’t been to Sedona, is made of ‘natural materials.’ And, some of these ‘natural materials’ were large irregularly shaped rocks, coincidently half-buried in the middle of the road, ready to jump out at any tire coming close. Somehow, I’m thinking that they keep this road in rough shape so that the Pink Jeeps have somewhere to take all their clients. Now, I realize that this road is pretty tame compared to some I’ve seen where vehicles are at a 45% angle getting over boulders. But, then this is my car and this felt like we were shaking every last screw out of it. I know my teeth were certainly loosening.
On the other hand, Gary was calmly choosing his pathway through the the rocks being vary careful to keep our Jeep intact. Meanwhile small vehicles with goggled drivers were whizzing by us. We weren’t wearing goggles but we were hanging on for dear life. Here’s Cathy who found a handy hand hold. It’s not that there was any danger, and our Jeep was far from coming apart (in fact, it was probably screaming ‘wheee-eee, this is what I was built to do.’) it was just that we in the back seat kept jouncing from side to side. We had nothing to hold on to, except the front seat.
Interestingly, the road has a storied history. It was built by Carl Schnebly who wanted to transport lumber from Falgstaff to his new home in the Sedona area. He continued to use the road to transport wagonloads of his produce north to Flagstaff and, on the return journey, supplies back for his general store. Because his home was large at 11 rooms and 2 stories, it soon became a way station for others traveling to this area and soon he converted his home into an inn. He then petitioned for a post office to be called Oak Creek Crossing or Schnebly Station but these two names were too long for a cancellation stamp. Thus he used his wife’s name, Sedona, and that is how the town was named.
When route 89A was built connecting Flagstaff with Sedona, his route became much less used and is now used for fun: hiking, driving, motorcycling, Pink Jeeping. It actually has an exit off of Interstate 17. Imagine getting off at that exit in your RV, taking a shortcut on down to Sedona for a week. Whooo - eee. Big Mistake.
Finally, the sugar high wore off and we turned around and headed back to Cathy and Tom’s RV for dinner.
Beautiful vegetation around their campground.
2.79 492'
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