Sedona Arizona

Sedona was a big surprise for us.  Dan and I had both been to Arizona a few times for work, and had never ventured to Sedona, a shock to many die hard Sedona fans.  Now we know why.  Sedona was beautiful.  Our campground, the Rancho Sedona, where we were lucky to get the last spot, was close to town but the stream and many trees made it seem as if we were far away.  One odd thing about the campground was the 84 sites, served by one bathhouse with 2 showers.  To add to the inconvenience, the men’s shower/bathroom was being renovated, so everyone had to use the women’s according to a schedule.  The first half of the hour was for the women and the men used the second half.  To keep everyone on the right time, the campground had a huge clock hanging above the door.  It was never really a problem for us, but it did involve pre planning.  The campground had a really nice book exchange and also board games to check out.  We ended up spending 3 nights.

Our first full day in Sedona, we hit the Sedona visitor’s center.  The Visitor’s center was well stocked with brochures on the area, and a very enthusiastic volunteer, originally from Alaska, briefed us on vortex’s, hikes, shopping, eating.  Any question we asked, she had an answer for us. We walked around the downtown for a little while and were amazed at the stores.  Sedona has a lot of shopping, but it seemed as if every shop was selling the same thing. On one block alone were 4 stores selling the Red Rock T Shirts.  The exact same shirts.  Another block was selling the Life is Good line of T shirts and outdoor products.  On the whole of the main shopping district, with all those stores, there were probably only a variety of six different things, chocolate, eating, jewelry, tea, T shirts and outdoor gear.  Amazing.  We didn’t buy anything, and instead drove to the edge of town to hike the Boynton Canyon Trail.

My friend Sherry, had told us this was a great hike to a vortex center.  What is a vortex?  It’s an energy center spiraling out from the earth.  To some people, it can feel like a pull, magnetism or subtle electricity.  It’s an energy some people can feel and use to realign the energies in the human body. 

It was pretty hot as we started the hike.  We weren’t sure what to expect, but we all brought along a water bottle, and I brought 2 frozen water bottles.  We read the hike was 2 1/2 hours.  Critical mistake here.    Our previous hikes in Yosemite and Grand Canyon, the hiking times had been in ROUND TRIP.   As we soon discovered, this trip was 2 1/2 hours ONE WAY. 

The trail wasn’t difficult, though the first hour was directly in the hot sun and sand, no shade, as we skirted the edge of the luxurious 4 star Enchantment Resort.  Ah, the Enchantment resort, a real people loving resort, with signs on our trail warning us to not cut through their parking lot as it was patrolled by ARMED GUARDS.  Where are we?  The Green Zone in Iraq?  Plus, we’re walking in the desert, as in no water, while their resort is covered in thick green grass.  Unbelievable! 

We kept going, under the intense sun, until gradually the landscape changed to more and more trees, and eventually a dense forest.  Here it was much cooler, and we walked under a tall canopy of oak and pine trees.  Rounding a curve, near a dry creek bed, we startled a mule deer.  A few people passed us coming from the end of the trail, and when I asked how much farther, they told us at least another 30 minutes.  At this point I checked the kids water bottles.  Much to my surprise, they had finished their first bottle of water.  I couldn’t believe it.  Did they not know proper water conservation on a trail?  Even Dan had finished his.  At that point we had to have a lesson in how you never finish  all your water before the turnaround point on the trail.  I still had water in mine, and we had two more bottles left so it wasn’t dire, but it was a good lesson.  Just about 2 hours later, and the last bit scrambling straight up, we reached the end of the trail.  We perched on the side of the canyon walls, enjoying the view.   The view was great, the red canyon walls stretching up high above you, the hawks crying overhead, and while we didn’t feel any vortex energy, we had a very relaxing time just taking it all in.  The return trip went faster, less than two hour.  Maybe it was the vortex, maybe it was the lack of water, but we were exhausted!

We didn’t have much time to recover as we were meeting Fred and Kathy, our sailing buddies on Makai, in a few hours.  We grabbed an ice cold shower on Awesome (we really should have used the hot water heater!) a quick lunch at a Natural Foods grocery store and headed to the campground.

Kathy and Fred met us there, having driven up from Phoenix where they had been house sitting for a friend.  It was so good to see them!  The last time we saw them was nearly a year ago, in Grenada, right before we left to sail to Venezuela.  There is so much to be said about friends you make while cruising.  I think those are the friendships you keep for life.    We all had dinner together that night.  They gave us some good ideas on what to do on the drive through Utah, and picked our brain on our trip to Peru and Chile.   We had lunch together the next day before they headed back to California and we kept heading east.  They’ll head back to their boat in Curacao in November, and sail east and we’ll head back to our boat in Aruba  and head West.  We don’t know when we’ll see them again, but it was great to see them in Arizona.

Our last afternoon in Sedona we headed to the Amitabha Stupa. The  Stupa is one of the oldest forms of sacred architecture, dating back 26,000 years and there are very few located in the Western Hemisphere. Stupas have been built to avert war, end famine, and promote prosperity and well-being. Their sole purpose is to bring benefit for all living beings.

The Amitabha, 36 feet tall, was located down a short trail, shrub and Juniper lined trail, near the base of beautiful red rock formations, on the edge of town.   The Stupa was built at the direction of Buddhist Masters, on sacred ground, and empowered with mystical energy and healing power.  You can pray here, meditate or walk around the stupa while saying a prayer, and feel the benefits of the Stupa in the form of healing or peace.  

With the sun starting to set, we all walked around the golden statue.  I couldn’t really tell if  I could feel the vortex there.  After about 20 minutes, we walked down to the smaller Tara Stupa, and walking around it we could all feel the energy.  I closed my eyes as I walked around the statue praying silently, and I never had to worry about going off the path as an energetic pull kept you on a circle around the statue.  It was a very calm, peaceful feeling.  By the time we finished, the sun was nearly down, and we headed Awesome back to the campground, happy from seeing our friends, a good tired feeling from our hike, and a wonderful peaceful feeling from our time at the Stupa.  Sedona will now always hold a special place in our hearts.

Sedona Pictures

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fred and kathy  Fred and Kathy  our friends from the sailboat MAKAI

 

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Grand Canyon

 

elk    We travelled 2 days, spending the night in a Bakersfield California RV Park, and a Williams Arizona KOA, just outside of the Grand Canyon.  We woke both mornings to a very cold RV, 55 degrees inside the first morning and 64 degrees the next.  It was time to use the furnace at night!

We pulled into the Grand Canyon late morning on the 21st.  Our first order of business was getting a campsite at Mathers campground inside the Grand Canyon, on the South Rim.    Luckily, we got the last spot, and it was a tight fit.  It had no hookups, but that was fine.  We were just happy to have a space.

After getting the RV set up, we walked through the campground and up the road a bit to catch the shuttlebus.  The Grand Canyon, like Yosemite, had a free shuttlebus that would take you throughout the park.  We stopped first at the Visitor Center so the kids could get the information on how to become a Junior Ranger.  The Junior Ranger program was basically the same as Yosemite, fill out the booklet, attend a ranger led program, and answer some questions.  There were two programs we really wanted to attend, the Ranger Walk around the rim, and the Condor program.  Both were later in the afternoon, giving us some time to walk the rim of the Canyon ourselves.

Ok, to say we were underwhelmed at first, by the Grand Canyon, would be an understatement,  I’m not sure what we were expecting but this wasn’t it.  For one thing, it seemed very commercial,  Whereas at Yosemite, the park services and lodges were discreetly mingled into the background, here they were front and center.  Mostly the reason was  there were no tall pine trees here to block them out.  The foliage here was the small Juniper shrubs, and whereas in Yosemite we were in the Valley, here we were on the top or the rim.  Yosemite had a lot of visitors too when we were there, but you didn’t really feel it.  Here you couldn’t avoid it.  It was very nice to see all the international travellers.  We couldn’t be sure of all the nations represented but Japan, Germany and Italy definitely had strong showings. 

Around noon, when the sun was overhead, not casting any shadows or depth, we had our first view of the canyon.  It seemed just alright.   Not amazing.  We tried different overlooks and had the same reaction.  Not bad but not great.  Maybe it was us.  At 2 pm we went for our Ranger walk.  Our ranger was good.  He led us on a short rim walk, talking about the birds of prey in the Grand Canyon.  As he talked, we were treated to Peregrine Falcons darting overhead. and an occasional red tailed hawk.  During the walk/talk, he told us to be aware of the elk in the park.  It was mating season and the elk were very unpredictable.  There were signs all over the park reminding us to stay 45 feet away from the elk, and he said it was very important to keep our distance. Fine.  I was really interested in seeing a bear, an elk?  Not so much.

After our rim walk, we hurried over to the Lookout for the Condor Talk.  California Condors are very rare and while they have been reintroduced into the Grand Canyon, they still aren’t often spotted.  During the ranger program she talked about the efforts to save and reintroduce the birds back into the wild.  With 5 minutes left in the program, as if on cue, a lone condor flew over our group.  We didn’t have time to get a picture, but we consider ourselves very lucky to see such a large graceful bird in the wild.

The kids finished up their ranger books and we headed to the Visitor Center for them to be sworn in and receive their badges.  After that we decided that watching the sun set over the Grand Canyon might be worthwhile.  We were right.  We sat at the Lookout and watch the sun’s dying light cast purple and red shadows on the rocks, highlighting a few deep canyons we hadn’t seen before.  The Canyon really needs the play of light, highlighting certain nooks, giving depth to the deepest areas, and illuminating the colors in the rocks.  Unfortunately, we couldn’t stay until dark, as our campground didn’t have lights, and our campsite was a fair walk from the shuttle bus stop.  Without sunlight, or a flashlight, we would never find it, so reluctantly, we headed to the shuttlebus stop.

Sitting, waiting for the bus, Tessa was sitting across from me.  All of a sudden she looks behind me and yells “Elk!”  I turned around, and sure enough, coming well within the recommended 45 feet safe zone, was a huge, male elk.  I had never seen an  elk in the wild before, and was just amazed by this one.  He walked only about 15 feet away from us, coming up from the parking lot below, heading to the grass near the lodge and bus shelter, stopping to graze on the green grass.  He was huge.  I imagined an elk would be very much like a big deer.  There was no comparison.  The size was one thing, but how he carried himself was another.  He walked calmly by us, head up, proud, his eye on us the whole time.  He wasn’t a bit worried about us, he wanted us to know we needed to be worried about him.  An elk’s antlers can weigh up to 30 pounds, and you could tell how heavy and powerful his neck was as he carried his head high.   I have really never been so in awe of a wild animal.  As he grazed, people got as close as they dared for pictures.  We watched him for a long time until our bus came and took us back to our campground.

It was warm enough that night that we were able to eat our dinner outside on the picnic table.  Dan built a fire and the kids roasted marshmallows.  The campground was so dark, we were able to get a great view of the Milky Way.  The kids and Dan went inside first, and I stayed outside watching the sky.  Soon it was too cold, and the dark campground was making scary noises, so I started to head in.  As I came around the front of the RV, I heard a noise, and scared myself, sure a huge elk was hiding in the trees.  Later inside the RV,  it was so quiet.  Too quiet.  Tessa, glanced toward the closed shades and said  “I saw some kind of light or something go by.”

I looked at her.  Tristan looked at me.  Our imaginations started running wild.  I was thinking of all the scary movies I had seen of people in the woods.  Dark nights, no lights, no one around, suddenly…….  BANG! BANG!  There was a loud knock on the door.  The kids and I nearly jumped out of our skin. 

“Dan,” I nearly screamed, “Some one’s at the door!”

Dan who had been in the back, watching something on his computer, walked to the door, looking at us like we were crazy.  It was a park ranger.  First, she informed us that we couldn’t run our generator because it was quiet hours.  (Yes, we noticed the quiet!)  Secondly, we had left our fire outside unattended.  As she said this, her hand reached for the gun on her hip and she said to Dan “Just give me a reason”

Sorry.  She didn’t say that.  She just told him to turn off the generator and not to leave a fire unattended.  Still, it was scary.  You know, people ask me all the time, don’t you get scared out on the ocean?  Your out there, in a strange country, maybe by yourself in a dark cove, aren’t you afraid of pirated?  I can honestly say, that doesn’t scare me.  I have been much more afraid inside the RV.  I guess because on the boat, we are as much outside as inside, even at night. In an RV, once you go in, everything is shut up, the doors, the curtains, you kind of cocoon.  Even though we sleep with the windows open, still we are locking ourselves away from the outside and that I think makes you more afraid.

Anyway, we made it through the night, woke up early and went for a short hike down the trail leading into the canyon.  We didn’t go very far.  On every trail are warnings telling you not to try to hike to the bottom and back up in the same day.  So far this year they have rescued nearly 300 hikers who have tried.  We just wanted to be able to say we went on a trail, so about a quarter mile down was enough for us.  The early morning light did change our opinion again of the Grand Canyon.  It was beautiful, and I’m glad we saw it, but I don’t feel a need to ever go back.  We hopped back into “Awesome” and headed to Sedona.

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