Sedona!

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The next day, we took a tour of the red rock country, driving along the Oak creek trail and Desert canyon scenic loop. We didn't rent a jeep but there are plenty of rental jeeps available which would be essential to complete the Desert canyon trail via NF 698 north since it's an unpaved road. But there in also lies the beauty of renting a new Malibu for your road trip, you can drive it where and how you like, provided you have insurance ofcourse. It was fun for a while driving on gravel, but my fellow passengers grew acrimonious and better sense unfortunately prevailed.



Sticking to paved roads we went south on I-17 taking an exit for the Montezuma well national monument. Montezuma castle, incorrectly believed to have been built by Montezuma, Aztec emperor, was abandoned suddenly by the Sinagua Indians more than 600 years ago. Around 11 miles away from the castle is a large, spring-fed limestone well, where the water temperature remains around 70 F all year round. We joined back on I-17 heading to the southernmost tip of the Desert canyon loop reaching the Cathedral rock via 179. The beautiful red rock country is rich in iron content that gives the rocks a typical rusted iron color. Anyway, Cathedral rock also happens to be one of the 'Energy centers', a possible myth but something that lots of locals do believe in. A few websites that we came across pointed out to the twisted Juniper trees in these regions as proof of the energy vortexes, but we saw lots of other trees that were unaffected in any way near the Cathedral rock. In any case, the red rock appears splendid as the sun sets over it, the red color blending with the orange sky... and the shimmering reflections in the water below glowing like dying embers as the paling rocks disappears into darkness.


Here on we went to the Chapel of the holy cross, another energy vortex and finally headed back to Sedona, the whole town surrounded by beautiful red mounntains. Here we had the best thai food ever, at the "Spicy Thai" restaurant, a highly recommended place for the perfect ambiance and awesome food.

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Photos

Symmetry ??
Just one of the striking sights on Desert canyon trail

Montezuma Castle
yup, people use to climb to their 'castle' using ladders.

Cathedral Rock
Approaching sunset

Reflections
So luckily for us, there was a small pond right next to the rock and then Asawari had a budding photographer's accidental stroke of genius...Pretty cool result eh?

Red Rock country
The upper loop drive

Sunset
Yet another instance where 2D photos can never do full justice

huh?
Don't know what this pic's doing here