This blog is about the next chapter.... about love, about life and about adventure! It is for our family and friends to follow along... so they know where we are! Catch us if you can!
On Monday, May 20th, we went for a ride to Prescott, AZ to find the Costco. We needed to stock up on a few things because there will be no Costco stores for a while. I also wanted to run through a Michael's store for a few things because I had a coupon to use. Not impressed! The Michael's store was small and didn't have anything I had on my list! I spent my coupon on a tube of paint (not even a color I needed) so it wouldn't expire.
Forgot to tell you about the day we were driving along the highway after seeing all the monuments. A car was pulled over on the side of the road. A grown woman was a few feet off the road doing a handstand in the grass. Must have felt the need I guess. We laughed because we have seen so much strange stuff including the people sharing a joint at the stoplight. Of course it is legal here, but really? I've never seen so many homeless people and drugged up people...twitching and scratching. There is one Fry's grocery store in Mesa that we noticed had security guards. Later someone at our resort told us not to go there because the guards are there because of drug addicts and sales. We started going to another grocery store after that.
I made chicken street tacos. Yum!
We drove up to Sedona to do a couple more things before we leave the area. We had tickets for the Sedona Trolley Tour to see Faye Canyon and Boynton Canyon.
The Driver talked about the area and here are some facts:
The median price of a home in Sedona is $950,000 (way out of our price range!)
Sedona is the home of the only McDonald's with Turquoise arches. Apparently, when the McDonald's was proposed, and eventually built, in 1993, city ordinances and planners didn't like the bold yellow arches of the traditional McDonald's design and thought it would interfere with the beauty of the rocks. McDonald's proposed the adobe style building and turquoise arches that were approved. This is the only one in the world and the building has become one of Sedona's tourist attractions with people from all over the world stopping to take photos in front of the turquoise arches.
There are 5 million visitors to Sedona each year. There is so much traffic that they are digging through the rock to create more roads. They have been digging for a year and they are very close to breaking through the other side. Al is amazed at how slow construction progresses in this State!
The population of Sedona is only 11000 people but there are 5000 more in the sister village of Oak Creek.
We stopped at Faye Canyon to look around and smile for the camera!
Katchina Woman and the Boynton Vortex
The Katchina Woman Spire
Boynton Canyon Vortex is also known as the Kachina Woman
Vortex Site. The Kachina Woman Vortex is one of the most sacred areas in
Sedona, as it is known to the Yavapai-Apache Native American tribes as the
birthplace of their Spirituality. The Kachina Woman pillar stands tall as she
watches over Boynton Canyon.
According to our guide, this cone shaped rock in Boynton Canyon is the strongest vortex in Sedona. He said he climbed to the top and did feel it.
The four best known Sedona vortexes are found at Airport
Mesa, Cathedral Rock, Bell Rock and Boynton Canyon—each radiating its own
particular energy. Some are thought to produce energy flowing upward while at
others the energy spirals downward, entering the earth.
Chimney Rock
We went to Canyon Breeze and ordered two western burgers (it had two onion rings, lettuce and tomato and BBQ sauce on it and two Pepsi's. We ordered and paid at the counter and were given a buzzer to notify us when our order was ready. We had a 15% off coupon from the Trolley Tour. Original prices were:
Western burger $18.99
Cheddar Cheese $.99
Fountain soda $3.99
Pre-Discount Total $47.94
Discount $7.19
AZ Tax $4.24
Health Fee $1.22
Total $46.21
Basically the discount paid the taxes.
Ya, we didn't know what a "health fee" was either. It is to pay for the restaurant employees health insurance. So...can you tell, I'm a bit irritated by the price of this lunch, that was not spectacular by the way. In fact, I would not go back.
We sat on the outdoor patio of the restaurant to eat.
I have to admit, some of the art is pretty cool.
Al wanted to hike to Devil's Bridge. I did not. I brought along all kinds of stuff to keep me busy in the truck. There was reception so I watched videos and surfed Facebook. It was very comfortable and breezy. Enjoy your hike, Al!
The scenery in this area is amazing!
The prickly pear cactii are blooming!
The ocotillo are very bright orange in this area.
There are buttes and mesas all over in this area. Our tour guide had told us the difference between the two is that a butte is taller than it is long and a mesa is longer than it is tall.
The Chuckwagon Trail to Devil's Bridge is a 5.9 mile round trip hike.
This whole area is gorgeous!
Devil's Bridge is the largest natural sandstone arch in the
Sedona area. It's hard to tell but the drop below the arch is about 50' but it looks more than that!
I have to admit I was a little queasy up there with the wind blowing, the bridge is not very wide!
This is Kristen! Al met her on the trail and said she reminded him so much of Luci Ringelstetter Breunig. She is traveling alone. They took photos of each other walking on Devil's Bridge. Al didn't know she took this photo of herself until he got back!
This is the area that Devil's Bridge is in.
And...here is my video [ABOVE]. Let me tell you what I did. I thought I was getting all this great footage to show you and when we got back. Well, I didn't get much. When I thought I was turning the GoPro on, I was actually turning it off. I got lots of video of my feet and my shirt and the floor. There was a whole section of the driver playing his steel guitar that never recorded. It was pretty cool too. Anyway, I'll have to be more careful about making sure the camera it ON!! I tried a few new techniques like the voice that read my text. That was fun. I was going to narrate over the video myself but I haven't figured out how to watch my video while adding voice so the timing is right. I will work on that.
Until next time...Be happy and make time for adventure!
RESOURCES
Click the link below to see the U.S. Forest Service site for the Devil's Bridge Trail
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