Category: Travel

Well, we spent 4 days at the Grand Canyon and got to see the whole park. We utilized the free bus system quite a bit. The rangers had both impromptu and formal talks, which were very interesting. And once again, every visitor center had a museum or display of some sort.

We did spend a day at Bearizona. This is an outdoor zoo, but there was a drive through portion as well. Lots of bears, donkeys, elk, goats and that that sort of thing, all of whom weren’t afraid of cars. But they are very strict about not feeding them, so there was no begging. It was really amazing. Later we went through the viewing part of the zoo and attended a talk on predators. Carlos will go home much smarter:-))

We had an adventure getting to this new place. We had been warned many, many times about not taking 89A to Sedona as it was not big rig friendly, but we got turned around going through construction and that is exactly where we ended up. We tried to find a place to turn around, but the die was cast and we ended up doing 8 miles of switchbacks on a 6% grade.

That is such a steep hill and such tight turns, John had to go into the oncoming lane to avoid the back end of the trailer hitting the guard rails. When there were guard rails! More than once the back end of the trailer swung over the abyss. Then there were the overhangs – red rocks that hung over the roadway about an inch over the top of the trailer. A few people coming UP the hill had to move over or just plain stop to let us through. Carlos and I crossed every finger, every limb and every eye on that trip, but we made it. Whew!

Sedona is as hippie dippie as you may have heard. Psychics and Healers and Galleries and Vortex’s abound. The city is very well manicured and takes honoring the earth very seriously. Not only are there recycling stations everywhere, but evening lights are seriously discouraged. No light pollution! If Vegas has an exact-opposite city, Sedona is it. Even our campground has a rule about all lights out at 10PM.

We leave tomorrow for Camp Verde, which is only a little south of here but has more things to see and do. (Sedona seems to be mostly shopping.). We hope to visit a working copper mine town, Montezuma’s Castle (sorta like Mesa Verde) and Out of Africa, a wildlife park. We’ll have to see. It’s been raining here a lot, too.

The cats are going to miss Carlos, they are just as likely to sleep with him as with us. I am still amazed at how accepting the cats and Rocky were of him.