Well we knew the snow yesterday was not done and when we got up this morning it was everywhere. Apparently the roads were not plowed south on A89 either, so after packing up the car and get JW her coffee, we headed south on a very remarkably straight road, which probably saved our lives, but a very snow covered and slick road at a whopping 35 mph. I am a very careful driver when it comes to ice and snow and I didnt really given a shit when the few cars we saw pasted us in a huff, but when we reached the outskirts of flagstaff an hour and a half later, the roads were plowed and all was ok..
At the recommendation of a few people we headed on towards A89 south that was a gorgeous and dangerous continuation of what he had already experienced, but the road was clear of snow and it really was just a pretty drive to Sedona.
We arrived in Sedona only 1/2 an hour behind schedule and went straight away to Wallflower for breakfast. Living in the future means were ahead of schedule even when were not. We had a lovely and very expensive breakfast and then headed out to one of the many trails that Sedona is known for.
I had thought the snow would ruin the hiking day, but to our good fortune, Sedona got zero snow, and it was much warmer than Flagstaff. At the recommendation of my college chum VIrginia, we decided on the Devils Bridge Trail, which because of parking issues, we had to jump start from the Mesa Trail and park on the road like everyone else, even though the signs clearly said don’t park on the road.
It was a marvelous trail at first, very scenic with a red clay path, and gradually rising to a little clearing, when it sudden went nearly straight up towards the bridge. There were as many people coming down the trail as there were going up it and they were so fucking loud, I just don’t understand why people can’t shut the fuck up and enjoy the nature. So many people sprinted past us without even looking up at the mountains around us, it was ridiculous.
When we reached the last summit before the climb to the bridge, JW wasn’t feeling it so I went up alone. It was a chock hold to get up and down at the same spot, but I followed a dude around them and made it up lickity split, where I witnessed the most ridiculous thing of all. A line of people waiting to go stand out on the bridge by themselves so someone could take a picture of them. I’m not joking there were 30 people up there waiting their turn. I have no idea why this is, or why anyone lets this behavior continue, but since I had no desire to climb on the bridge, I took a couple pictures and climbed back down.
I caught up with JW resting near a tree, and we made our way back to our car. JW said her friend Laura suggested the Chapel of the Cross, which was clear on the other side of town. So away we went, and the traffic in this town is the shittiest, and when we got near the chapel, which we could clearly see from the road, the traffic was severely backed up waiting for parking spots. I wanted none of this, and told Jw there were plenty of things to see in Flaggstaff, so we turned around and headed back to Flagstaff on the interstate.
Stop 1 was a place called Walnut Canyon, which I had on my list of things to see, but I couldn’t remember why. When we got there there was a trail with a million stairs down to the Island which was infested with Pueblo Dwellings. Down we went and it was marvelous, absolutely cool as shit.
We climbed back up the stairs and in the lobby discovered another park 20 miles away, Sunset Crater which was an actual volcano that blew up in 1000 ad or so. So away we went towards the volcano, an unplanned adventure, and arrived at the Lava Fields in the shadow of Sunset Mountain. It was pretty pretty cool as well.
JW had spotted the Elgin Pueblo on the drive up and we had just enough time to cram in one more unplanned thing. The drive was short and out we got to see, this, well, reconstructed rock walls in a field that looked like it had probably once been something. It reminded us so much of the reconstructed sites of Greece, so obviously this is a thing everywhere. We got a few picts and away we went to our hotel.
Probably headed to a few brewery’s for dinner and desert, tomorrow we;ve got more adventures in store
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