Mesa Verde National Park

Mesa Verde National Park is different from any national park we have visited in the past.  It’s purpose is to maintain, research and discover new archeological sites/relics from the ancestral Puebloans.  The park has over 4,500 sites of which 600 are cliff dwellings.  This time of year some of the bigger cliff dwellings are closed and will not open until May.  But, again, we prefer the less crowded and more comfortable weather in early April.  So, we were perfectly happy limiting our exploration to the cliff dwelling a short hike down into the canyon behind the Chapin Mesa museum.  What is especially cool about this cliff dwelling. Spruce Tree House, was you are able to walk into the structures and climb down in the underground kivas. 

It is so remarkable how organized the Puebloans were.  Each area of the cliff dwelling is designated for specific functions for the community—communal place to grind corn, individual sleeping areas, cooking, weaving, etc.  It seems like a very comfortable place to live protecting you from the winter snow and winds and the cliff overhang shading in the hot summer.  There must have been something significant happen to make someone abandon a home like this back in 1200 AD.  No one really knows why.

The park has also done a wonderful job of designing their modern structures in a style that complements the Pueblo structures with the same shades of tan and copying the small windows.  The Chapin Mesa museum was not large, but contained a lot of finds from the ruins—woven sandals, baskets, even stored corn from over 100 years ago. 

The twenty miles you must travel to get to Visitor Center is extremely steep and contains many hairpin turns.  It took us an hour to drive.  Before we went to the park, it was hard to imagine the cliff dwellings were not “found” until 1888 over 600 years since they were abandoned, but after the difficult way in it is not so hard to figure out why! 

Last Day in Sedona

Today was our last day in Sedona, and we do not want to leave.  But, we have places to go and things to see.  Our RV Park here, Rancho Sedona was very nice with a great location. It is within walking distance from some of the best shopping and food. This location also puts you less than 5 miles from pretty much anything in Sedona.   The premium sites are very generous with room to park, a concrete pad for your table and lots of big shady trees.  Oak Creek runs through the park keeping temperatures cool and the cheery sound of small water rapids.  Reservations are definitely needed—this is a popular park—we were lucky to get nine nights. 

Another note, although your GPS may tell you to take Highway 89A, do not take this highway with your rig.  Great to travel in your vehicle only for gorgeous sightseeing, but not with your large RV.   It is steep with hairpin turns, no shoulder and the low-hanging branches from the trees will scrape off anything on the top of your rig.  Take I-17 and turn at Highway 179.  You will be glad you did.

Something interesting to note for Sites 60-65 in the RV Park are the roosting herons in the trees above.  We were in Site 60 and we got bombarded with big twigs (the birds break off branches for their nest building) and splashes of poo.  They are fascinating to observe, but watch out!  There were approximately a dozen huge nests and a couple dozen big herons.

One last hike today.  We combined Bell Rock trail and Capitol trail to make a 4.5 mile hike with some elevation challenges.  Again, stunning views all around.  The area almost looks like someone professionally landscaped with beautiful yuccas, varieties of cactus, pinon, juniper and cypress trees.  Really incredible.

Tomorrow we head towards Gallup, New Mexico for an overnight stay (break up the drive) and continue on to our next destination--Cortez, Colorado.  We will be close to Mesa Verde National Park and the Durango-to-Silverton railroad.  Maybe we can squeeze in a horseback ride, too. 

Huckaby Trail

I know you are tired of hearing about red rocks and hiking, but I have to say the Huckaby Trail was another good one.  It is listed as moderate and long, but we both felt the up and downs of the path was just as challenging as Munds Wagon Trail.  The trail along the cliffs give you a great view of Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon.  When you walk down into the canyon, the forest becomes much thicker and cooler from the creek. 

Spring is finally here!  The creek was full and the deciduous trees all have their new leaves.  The weather was perfection at 72 degrees. 

Sedona Shopping

Mike’s brother, John, and his wife, Debi, drove up from Wickenburg, Arizona and we all spent the day exploring a few shopping areas in Sedona.  We started with a stop at a little place off Highway 179 just outside of Sedona.  The place looked interesting to us when we first arrived in town several days ago.  Something along the lines of “American Picker” with old fashioned advertising signs, large rustic metal sculptures, outdoor art, and a little bit of this and that.  Fun place with fragrant pinion wood burning and interesting things to look at.  We bought some of the wood to burn one night in the fire pit.

Lunch at the Secret Garden Café in the Tlaquepaque (pronounced “Tah-lockey-pockey”) shopping area was excellent; the restaurant specializes in fresh salads and desserts, and we were not disappointed.  I love a restaurant with an interesting courtyard for dining outdoors, and most of the eating area for Secret Garden Café is outside surrounded by flowering trees.  To take the chill off, each seat has a Mexican blanket for you to drape over your shoulders. 

Shopping ended today at the Fudge Shop in Sedona Old Town.  The amaretto flavored fudge is was to die for. 

Thanks John and Debi for a fun day! 

Strenuous and Longer

The Hike House in Sedona has just about everything for hiking, and they have something I have never seen before--an interactive trail finder for hikers.  You input the length of time you like to hike and the level of difficulty.  The owner of the store helped us plan some hikes for the next week.  He really thought we should try one of the longer and more strenuous hikes, the Munds Wagon Trail.  The hiking time is approximately 4.5 hours, 8 miles and climbs 1,100 feet.  Okay, we are in.

We started out at 10 a.m. walked up and down on this path, but ultimately we were climbing in elevation over 1,000 feet.  It pushed us, but the effort is worth it for the views of the mountains and the city below.  The trail this time of year includes waterfalls and water running over slickrock at the bottom of the canyon--an added bonus for today’s walk.  The green forest with the backdrop of the red rocks we saw is a color theme in much of the local art and rightfully so, it is beautiful combination.

Instead of continuing to the very end of the trail , we opted to take the side trip to the Cow Pies trail heading out to the tall rock formations looking like stacked “cow pies”.  Still about 8 miles round trip.

Great hike, but we are dragging tonight!

Oak Creek Canyon

My stepfather, Tom, loves western books and movies.  After spending just a short time in areas of Utah and northern Arizona famous for filming westerns and inspiration for western novels, I get it.  I completely understand his love of all things “western”.  I am currently reading “Call of the Canyon” by Zane Grey (free download for your Kindle) set in the location of Oak Creek Canyon between Sedona and Flagstaff.   I love his descriptions of the area, and the fictional plot woven into local history is fun to read.  And we drove through the Zane Grey book setting today.

The 89A route between Sedona to Flagstaff is certainly one of the most beautiful we have encountered in Arizona and in the western United States. Our road trip today started in the canyon and awe-inspiring red rock formations around Sedona, Arizona and ended in the lush forests of conifer trees near Flagstaff.  As we drove through the higher regions of the Oak Creek Canyon we passed through forests of aspen, oak and maple trees.   We left pleasant, warm weather in Sedona and arrived to snow in Flagstaff.  There is a lot of scenery diversity in the short 30 miles.

We absolutely love the Sedona area—many green trees, rivers, and everywhere you look towering rock with the famous Southwest golden sunsets bouncing off the cliffs.  We cannot afford to live in pricey Sedona (home to Senator John McCain), but we love it.  There are over 200 hikes near Sedona, a large art community with many galleries, horseback trips, the nearby ghost town of Jerome, and the Tuzigoot National Monument (ancient Native American ruins).  We will be busy here until we leave on March 30.

Warm Stopover

Grand Canyon was getting too cold and windy for us, so we moved south about 100 miles and got closer to our next stop, Sedona, Arizona where we have reservations from March 21 through 29.  We were able to get a site in the Distant Drums RV Resort in Camp Verde, Arizona for two nights.  Much warmer.

Not much here except the Montezuma Castle National Monument.  Cliff dwellings are fascinating.  It seems the ancient ones knew the view property was prime real estate, too.  The location has a pretty little river running through a green valley.  This would have been a pleasant place to live in the northern Arizona high desert so many years ago.