We’ve had some beautiful weather here in Prescott, and Friday we figured we’d take advantage of the blue skies and check out some of the beauty nearby. And while I do think that Gary is maybe getting just a little tired of “looking at rocks”, we still had a great day!
Here’s our route –

We started out in Prescott (bottom left), drove through the built-on-the-side-of-the-mountain town of Jerome, continued on to Sedona and Red Rock Country, headed north through Oak Creek Canyon, touched the outskirts of Flagstaff and then headed south to see Montezuma’s Castle (cliff dwellings), then back to Prescott through the little town of Dewey (in honor, of course of my dear brother!).

“Curves and Grades ahead”

Jerome – artsy town on the side of the mountain. Lots of cute shops and interesting walks, but we just sailed on by. Those red rocks of Sedona were calling us….

Down the mountain we go…..

until the red rocks come into view.
Now the town of Sedona was quite interesting. Everything thing was quite lovely – lots of shops and restaurants and opportunities to take jeep rides into the mountains. And of course, all around this civilization were the beautiful red rocks of Sedona.



With such beauty all around, who WOULDN’T want to live (or vacation) here!
It made me think that THIS is what happens when an exceptionally beautiful piece of countryside does NOT get turned into a National Park. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a lovely town with lots and lots to see and do. It just was so much more commercial than what we’ve seen recently.
But oh, the rocks – certainly worth the traffic (and even the construction)!



There’s the Chapel of the Holy Cross, designed by a student of Frank Lloyd Wright –



And the view from the chapel was also stunning –

All in all, the vistas were beautiful. My camera really didn’t do them justice (or maybe the bright sun was just in the wrong place), but trust me, it was an amazing area!

From Sedona we headed north through the Oak Creek Canyon. Another lovely drive, that took us up (eventually) to a vista where we could fully grasp just where we had been driving!

Quite the drive!
Up to the big interstate, and then south for the return home. (I think you’ve probably seen enough interstate windshield shots, so I’ll spare you any of those from this leg of the trip!) But we were headed for one final POI –
Montezuma’s Castle

However you look at it, that is one big “first step”!

It was an interesting stop – a whole community, that without any apparent reason, just packed up and left about 600 years ago. Maybe they just got tired of all the ladders?

So it was a good day – no dirt, 4 Wheel drive roads, but a good day nonetheless. We spent the rest of the weekend doing chores, washing the truck (sooooo overdue on that one!), housekeeping, and generally getting on with life.
I’ll leave you with this shot of a beautiful cactus flower. Don’t you just love Spring?

Have a good week!
We’ll stay in touch! 🙂

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