Arizona & the Grand Canyon

 Bell Rock

 

 Sedona - Pink Jeep Tour

 

The Grand Canyon

 

This was Tammy and my first visit to Sedona, AZ, and the Grand Canyon.  We stayed in a small community outside Sedona, Oak Creek Village, where we woke up the next morning next to Bell Rock pictured in the top photo.  It was walking distance from our Inn on the edge of town with hiking trails which we did not tackle. We walked to the trailhead, however. We were saving our legs for Sedona.  That was the next stop on Saturday, that first day of our trip after arriving on Friday night.  We had scheduled a Pink Jeep tour called Broken Arrow that is the only commercial jeep tour into the desert mountains.  Since that was at 2pm we shopped and got acquainted with the town before returning to the inn and putting some left over food in the frig.  The tour was great, as was the guide, Doug.  Lots of fun.  We also had reservations at a restaurant, the Javelina Cantina, for Mexican food.  It was quite different than we were used to, but it was okay. Again returning leftovers to our frig we stayed in the inn after all the walking, the most we did any day, and tour.  Sunday was a free day to check out sites and do more shopping:  Cathedral Rock was the first stop but a trailhead was as close as we could get and we didn't want to hike up the trail, not realizing it was a hike.  We went into town to shop, then back to the west side of Sedona and up to the airport overlook of the entire town and canyon, Oak Creek Canyon, which Sedona is built in.  Then down to Tlaquepaque, which means the best of everything, full of shops, art, fountains, and restaurants.  Then we went to Chapel Rock where the Chapel of the Holy Cross is built into the side of the mountain.  Then back to the inn since we had an early rise for our Grand Canyon tour.  6 am came early and our tour guide, Lynn was early, too, as Tammy hurriedly finished a breakfast waffle.  Lynn picked up 8 more people and we drove through Sedona up 89a to Flagstaff.  Snow that had fallen days before was still on the sides of the road in places.  We stopped in Flagstaff since some wanted Starbucks coffee.  Then on to the Grand Canyon national park where we watched the Imax film first before eating in the nice restaurant there and beginning our sight-seeing tour in five different locations and stops to the east along the canyon.  Then on to a Navaho and other gift shops as we headed back toward Oak Creek Village.  A 12 hour tour.  The next day was our flight home in the afternoon in Phoenix, so we slept in later and ate breakfast across the street instead of the Inn's provided continental breakfast. We checked out and drove back, seeing scenery and mountains we had missed while driving up the previous Friday since it was dark most of the drive.  We were glad we came this time of the year since the temp was moderate and crowds that normally pushed through the streets and cars that crammed the public parking lots and streets were not a problem. Yes, there were still people and cars, but not like the summer with 110-120 degree heat. We were lucky that we were in between two snow storms, too, but we never saw a cloud until the day we left for the airport. It was a great location with lots to do and see. We were also glad we chose not to go to a town and take the train in since we would have missed seeing most of the canyon and information provided by the tour guide. It was a great and perfect trip.  Pictures.  VIDEO PT1    VIDEO PT2