Canyon de Chelly to Sedona, AZ

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We left Canyon de Chelly this morning after spending the night in the free U. S. Park Service campground (very nice). We headed for Sedona. The guidebook said there is no town in the southwest that is prettier with its red buttes and mesas. We decided to forego Grand Canyon since we have both seen it and have a look at Sedona. It was only 60 miles off our route.
It was about a 4 hour drive from the canyon. I think Ginny took us the back way. There were no road signs or route numbers and not many cars (we were still on the Navajo reservation) just a lot of flat sagebrush covered land and old volcano cones (even I am getting good at identifying them now). We didn’t get lost though. Before we got back on I-40 we stopped at a park that’s on the corner of the Painted Desert. It looked like the South Dakota Badlands.
On I-40 we sped by Winslow Arizona, the town immortalized by the Eagle’s hit “Take It Easy”. We didn’t stop, but I read that they actually have a statue depicting, “Standing on the corner.” We have seen more people hitchhiking out west. Outside of Winslow we took a short detour to see the Meteor Crater; a huge hole in the ground made by a meteorite that struck the earth about 50,000 years ago. The crater is 650 feet deep and 4000 ft wide. It’s privately owned and they did a good job on an interactive museum explaining the event. They also offer a half mile hike on the rim, which allows you to view the crater while a guide tells its history. It was well done and we spent 2.5 hours there. Frank was excited about being able to buy authentic crater dust!
We entered Sedona via the Oak Creek Canyon road, which was scenic. This is a hiking paradise and we shouldn’t have been surprised at the number of people around. It’s a large small town, very upscale. Our first order of business was to find a Laundromat.. There’s only one in town and actually it was a very pleasant laundry time. The owner was there and was very helpful (I’m always amazed at how confusing doing laundry in coin machines can be!). He said business establishments in Sedona aren’t allowed to display large signs on the highway. Businesses have to use special color paint for buildings (mostly earth shades) because they don’t want buildings to reflect too much light. McDonald’s can’t even display the yellow arches, instead they’re turquoise blue!
There aren’t any US Forestry campgrounds for RV’s close by Sedona so we ended up in a state park in Cottonwood, about 15 miles from Sedona, which is much less crowded. It has water and electricity at a reasonable price. Now if we only had a TV hookup to watch Dancing with the Stars tonight!
One odd thing about Arizona; it doesn’t go on Daylight Savings Time, except some Indian reservations do (Canyon de Chelly did) so there are 2 time zones in the state- - confusing.

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Photos

Meteor Crater
Different view -- you get the picture.

Deb and Frank at the Crater
Those 2 tiny people are actually us. It's a wide angle view!

Comments

[kimberly]

painted desert
wow...so beautiful. Sounds like you all are having a great time!