Sedona Day 2

Day 2 was really quite exciting. We saw canyons that still had lingering snow. Driving from Sedona to the elevated desert region took us along poorly protected narrow roads and had Mom sitting on the edge of her seat. She decided that the canyons and mountains of Sedona were not that different from the ghats in India (especially with regards to the road quality).

This is what happens to people at the scenic overlook that we stopped at.

 

Mom and Dad with the canyons in the background. Here you can sort of see what we were just beginning to notice: the day was REALLY windy. At this point the wind wasn’t too bad or anything, but as the day progressed the wind became more of an issue.

 

We took the above picture for our Mauritian family members. Unless you know Dad’s side you wont get this, but read on anyway. The name of the National Forest is Kokonino! Really! Although I’m pretty certain it wasn’t named in anticipation of my Dad’s visit, its cute none the less.

Our first real stop of the day was Meteor Crater. This picture was taken from the safety of the museum window. Due to the lack of vegetation (this being the desert and all) you can’t tell from this picture but it was ridiculously windy outside. Not just kind of breezy like in March in Richmond, here they clocked winds at 87 mph.

This is a picture of all of us at the bottom of the crater. Actually I’m lying. Its a fake we took inside the museum. Notice our hair and expressions, and compare them to the next image.

We had such a hard time making it out to the look out point. And you can’t tell from this picture, but the lookout point dangled a fairly high distance above the crater. Normally the height wouldn’t scare me, but when the wooden floor boards you’re standing on are being deformed to a degree that is clearly visible to the naked eye, the height becomes a bit of a concern. Walking back to the museum there was a huge gust of wind so strong that the four of us had to huddle up to make sure none of us flew off.

Even though the wind was really bad at Meteor Crater, we continued with our day, fairly optimistic. I mean, back home things like this die down fairly quickly. Somehow we forgot to take into consideration the fact that in the desert there’s nothing to slow down the wind. Anyway, as we were driving to our next stop we saw this train, and I got to thinking. In all the old westerns you watch you see cowboys robbing trains on horseback. Well I think if they can manage to rob a train in these conditions then they deserve to keep whatever is on it.

Guess what else we didn’t think about? Strong winds + desert = sand storm. Conditions got so bad on I-40 on our way to the Petrified Forest that we could barely see the truck in front of us.

Part of I-40 was part of the original Route 66. Although this motel is from those days, V and I were both tempted to stay there a night. I mean who can pass up an opportunity to stay in a wigwam?

The Petfried Forest is truly something you’ll never see anywhere else. The wood itself wasn’t that interesting to me. I mean it was cool and had some cool colors, and the story of how it was made was interesting and all. Its just that in comparison to the massive landscape the wood wasn’t much.

Mom and Dad didn’t feel like braving the wind to see the Agate Bridge, so only V and I went. Turns out the bridge is a 600 year old structure, not the random building that Dad pointed out, which was actually a modern day restroom.

 

One of my favorite places was Newspaper Rock. V was afraid that if we stopped here we wouldn’t be able to leave until Dad had finished reading the “newspaper”. From the lookout point it just looked like a bunch of rocks. But when you looked a little closer…

These are some of the oldest, and most famous, petroglyphs in Arizona. Here on these rocks you can see references to Kokopelli (I’ll tell you about him later).

From the Petrified Forest we made our way to the Painted Desert. Pictures don’t do justice to the true hue of the color visible. And here, again, the striking thing was the landscape. The feeling you get in Arizona when you stand among the mountains (or rocks) cannot be conveyed in a picture. You have to come out here one day and just feel small. I can’t explain it well, but its amazing.

The rest of Day 2 we have no photographic evidence of. On the way back to Sedona, part of I-40 was closed due to the sand storm and raging winds. The winds were so bad that when Dad got out of the car to get directions for a detour, our car shook violently from the wind, even with three of us still inside to weight it down. Eventually we decided to just get dinner at a Pizza Hut that happened to be at the exit. When we hit the road again a couple hours later the highway had opened up again, and we were able to make it back OK.