Easin’ Along – Cottonwood and Sedona, AZ

Two years ago, Helen and I spent one night at Dead Horse Ranch in Cottonwood, AZ and drove through Sedona, AZ to get there.  It only took that brief visit to make us realize that we had to return for an extended stay. We got that opportunity on this trip. Our time in Apache Junction was delightful as well as very relaxing, but we knew that the area we were moving into would be sightseeing gold (or red).

We checked in and settled into our campsite. Later that afternoon, Helen and I took a short hike to the top of a steep slope behind Lucy. From that vantage point, we had a view of the entire campground on one side of the ridge and the town of Cottonwood on the other. I made that hike again the next morning to capture Cottonwood Canyon in better light conditions. The crisp morning air felt awesome.

That same morning, we learned at the State Park Rangers offered a class on “Venomous Desert Critters,” a class I dubbed “snake school.” Our brief meeting with a rattlesnake in the Tucson desert suggested that a class might be helpful. The class was packed with young and old alike and taught by Clint, a wildlife expert who had all of the fingers on his right hand missing.  Everyone assumed that those missing fingers were the result of a rattlesnake encounter, but the instructor explained that it was frostbite that took them. He was the lone survivor of a backpacking group that became buried under an avalanche.

Clint gave us a presentation on Gila Monsters, poisonous spiders, and several varieties of venomous snakes. At one point, he removed a Gila Monster from a cage and held it to give everyone an opportunity to pet the creature. Children were the most eager.  He did not offer any rattlers to the curious, but he did pull a giant Gopher snake out of a bag for a quick look by anyone who wanted to hold it.  Helen jumped at the opportunity to show her grandchildren how tough she was.  I took her picture, and it is my favorite picture of our trip so far.

Later that afternoon, we felt a need to walk out some of the kinks from traveling and took a one-mile hike around Dead Horse Lake at the eastern end of the State Park.  Like many of the days in Arizona, this was another glorious one with clear skies, light breezes, temps in the low 70’s.  Adjacent to the lake was a large picnic area filled with families out for the afternoon. Dead Horse Ranch has excellent facilities including clean showers, nature classes, and several well-maintained picnic areas like this one.

Of course, we had to make several trips into Sedona, just 15 miles away for hiking and sightseeing. On our first trip into town, we went to Sliding Rock State Park to hike the nature trails and eat lunch. Sliding Rock, named for one area of a large creek where the rocky bottom forms a natural slide and visitors line up to take advantage. The temperatures were a bit too cold for me but didn’t seem to affect eager sliders all around us. I watched as one reticent wader stuck a foot in the creek, then slipped and fell in the water up to his hat. He quickly scaled the rocky shore and traded his hat for a towel.

Our next trip to Sedona started with a hike through Red Rock State Park.  This hike would be longer than the one at Sliding Rock, but it didn’t matter because the scenery was something to behold. We pulled into the parking lot in time to scatter a herd of deer. After a short bit of browsing through the Park Office and gift shop where Helen got some trail information from a Ranger, we took off. Soon we began a climb up to a plateau where a rock formation known as The Cathedrals came squarely into our view. That was just the beginning of a day filled with stunning scenes and incredible red rock formations.  I had to restrain myself to keep from using up the one camera battery I had on hand.

Downtown Sedona is a busy place, even on a weekday.  The only comparison I can make to it is the similarity Sedona has to Gatlinburg, Tennessee.  In no way am I making the comparison as a criticism because I love Gatlinburg, it’s just that Sedona, with plenty of well-kept shops and restaurants, has the same feel as Gatlinburg. The difference is that in Sedona, you can see the mountains. In Gatlinburg, the foliage blocks the mountains from view in many directions.  Helen and I walked both sides of the main street as well as an outdoor shopping mall. The statues along the sidewalk made for some excellent points of interest. We shopped only for a few small items then drove back to Dead Horse Ranch.

Hope you enjoy the pictures. I loved taking them! Come back next week…we’re Easin’ Along to Lake Havasu, AZ.