Sedona Boondocking Part 2

November 20th

We left last Sunday fairly early and were all set up at the Dead Horse Ranch State Park by 10:30 a.m. to spend the next 3 days. As predicted the rain began about 1 p.m. Boy did it rain ... probably 1 1/2 inches over 36 hours. Ray and I hunkered down and I had a baking day (bread and cookies) and then cooked Prime Rib and Yorkshire Puddings for dinner. Yumm. With hooking up about once a week for a couple of days I've been able to keep up with most of the laundry, and dumping before we leave the campsite. Monday afternoon after the skies cleared, we took a drive back up to Sedona and checked out the Boynton Canyon area for other boondocking spots and camera shots for Ray.  The roads were pretty muddy and we decided we liked the last area we were in better. We must have passed about 15 "Pink Jeep Tours". On the way back to Cottonwood we stopped at our old area and the road to the camping spot sported a sign ROAD CLOSED. Good thing we made the choice to get out of there for the rain event. Ray and I learned our lesson last year when the road into our camping spot in Moab washed out and we had to be rescued by a grader! As we were leaving the state park tomorrow we scouted a couple of alternative spots we could take.

Wednesday, November 24th we left Dead Horse Ranch by 9 a.m. We could not stay any longer even if we wanted to with it being fully booked for Thanksgiving. Being Thanksgiving Week, we wanted to get set up before the Wednesday afternoon rush. As it turned out the road to our last spot was open and we took the same spot again. It still is a little muddy in places but with the forecast for the next four days being sunny ... it will all dry out. I set up a "foot washing station" for Freya. The weather forecast for Sunday has some showers, but this time I think we will just stick it out. It is not supposed to rain very much and I know the car will make it out the 1/2 mile to the mainline. Where the rig is parked is nice and solid so no worry's re sinking. The road does dry out pretty fast within 24 hours.

 Once we were all set up (by 11 a.m.) we took a drive back into Sedona to check out some of the roads leading up to the great "rock vistas" for Ray to plan his evening/morning shots. Ray bribed me by taking me back to the Oak Creek Brewery and Grill for lunch! LOL. The traffic in Sedona was crazy. We saw tour after tour going by. I think we will hold off trying to see the Palatki ruins until next week. We plan to stay longer this time so I put out our solar lights and a bird feeder. I might even get Christmas set up next week.  At 3:30 Ray took off to get some sunset pictures. Apparently at the Airport Mesa there had to be 150 people, whereas last week there were only about 30 cars parked! It is nice being only 10 miles south of Sedona so he can just go get his pictures whenever he wants. Freya and I held down the fort. I sat outside enjoying the sun and the silly dog actually wanted in to go to sleep at about 4 pm. All that fresh air I guess. As I had made a crockpot full of homemade baked beans with a pork hock, dinner was a breeze whenever Ray made it back to camp.

Chimney Rock

Coffee Pot Rock on the right

East Sedona Views

Sphynx Rock on the left

Steamboat Rock (on the right)

Thunder Mountain

It sure is nice and quiet here. Glad we have the big buddy heater. The temps overnight are around 30 F. and with the previous rain there is much more moisture outside that freezes up.

Thursday we woke to sunny skies although the clouds came in later so it was overcast for most of the afternoon. We ate a great turkey dinner (Turkey Thighs in slow cooker) with all of the fixin's. Today was a cleaning day for me. Nice to have time to get other things done instead of just the basics. Other than walking the dog we had a pretty quiet day.