Sedona Boondocking

Wednesday morning, Nov 16th, we left Deadhorse Ranch State Park. After dumping and fueling up we  headed to a boondocking area towards Sedona we had scouted out. (Only 20 minutes up the road.) Ray and I have to remember how to do this! :) This is the first time we're boondocking for any length of time since last summer. The plan is stay here for several days and tour all of the rock formations near Sedona. The temps dropped a little so we will be able to leave Freya in the coach when we tour Red Rock State Park where no pets are allowed. We may have to move to another spot on Sunday as the forecast, for today anyway, is for one inch of rain on Monday.  The camping spot we are in is all red sand which we know turns to heavy thick mud when wet.

Our campsite near Sedona

Larny showing Dad our blog back in Surrey

Thursday we toured the Red Rock State Park and Red Rock Crossing, walking some of the trails. Both these places had a fee attached so Ray went back at sunset to take his pictures on the same day so he did not have to pay again. Somehow I thought that there was an auto tour attached to these two places but apparently not. Red Rock State Park is $14 and is nothing but miles of hiking trails and nothing really spectacular to see in the park.  Kind of a bust for us as there are other great vista's without paying. One neat place was the Airport Mesa where you are actually on a Vortex.

" Sedona spiritual vortexes are powerful and transformational energy centers that are located at specific sites throughout Sedona, Arizona. Vortexes are the intersections of natural electromagnetic earth energy, also known as ley lines." There are 5 of them, Airport Mesa, Red Rock Crossing, Bell Rock, Chapel of the Holy Cross and Boyton Canyon." Did we feel any different .... nope.  Guess Ray and I are not very sensitive people. The views however are very awe inspiring.

Red Rock State Park Pictures:

Red Rock Crossing Pictures:

View of Cathedral Rock

The old water wheel below started life as an irrigation channel for the Crescent Ranch farm in the 1800's.  They added the water wheel in the 1900's to power the farmstead.

Friday we toured the Oak Creek Village area. We did take Freya with us for this tour. First up, the Airport Mesa. The city views of Sedona ... spectacular.

Panoramic from Airport Mesa

Next up, the Chapel of the Holy Cross, built over a vortex. Absolutely gorgeous.

We noticed this huge estate at the bottom of the hill to the Chapel. Wow! What a view they have.

Next we stopped at several view points down Highway 179 for pictures, letting Freya out for new sniffs which she always enjoys.

The Seven Apaches

Courthouse Butte

Munds Mountain Range

Napoleon's Tomb

Bell Rock

After 2 hours of touring we decided to stop at a brew pub called The Oak Creek Brewery and Grill for lunch. Awesome beer and awesome food. The plaza the pub is located in is very pretty with lots of art galleries and funky stuff. Ray may go back there next week and take some night shots with all of the plaza's lit up with all the lights circling the trees. We left Freya in the car under a tree for lunch and then brought her with us walking the plaza. Hard to get great pictures though due to all of the shadows.

Saturday we hung around camp for most of the day, although Ray took a short road trip to the ruins near us to check out accessibility. He managed to take in some glorious views. More exploring needed. We are camped close to a model airplane club's landing strip so managed to see them fly this morning. Ray went over and spoke with them and took some pictures. Also this morning we saw 2 balloons overhead. Sweet.

We were visited on two days by these two air balloons below.  One of the days Ray heard voices and couldn't figure out where they were coming from until looking up..... fortunately he wasn't watering the bushes.

Sunday, November 20th, we have decided to go back to Deadhorse Ranch State Park for a couple of days until the rain event is over and then we will come back here to boondock for another week. So many great mountains for Ray to take pictures of lol!