Finally made it to Red Rock State Park, and made a couple of new discoveries along the way. Our route took us through what turned out be the incredibly beautiful Coconino National Forest, a place we have vowed to return. If Tolkien’s Elves were a real thing, they might just choose to live in a place like that. Verdant green forests around the bases of giant granite mountains, interspersed all along the way with little villages and expensive looking cabin retreats, with lights hanging from the trees across bridges that span crystal clear mountain streams. It was breathtaking. The city of Sedona begins in that place, and continues for quite a ways as you emerge out into the sunlight and the geography changes once again to drier, rockier terrain. I expected Sedona to be much cheesier than it is; like a sort of Disneyland for New Age bullshit. It was nothing of the sort.
Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of psychics and crystal shops and vortex tour agencies and the like, but they don’t overwhelm what looks like a pretty resort town and what I imagine would be an interesting place to live.
The kids were excited to get hiking after spending most of two days in the car.
The problem was we were dealing with some serious looking storms on the horizon. We decided to risk a short hike, and I was able to take some decent photos of the park that I’ll be posting later.
Those are the Cathedral Rocks that the park is known for, and the ones we hiked to get a better vantage of. We dealt with some light rain along the way, but by the time we got to our overlook we could tell conditions were beginning to get worse. We made it back to the car with no time to spare. We hit hail and heavy rain, but thankfully the car took no damage.
We arrived earlier than expected in Williams and had a great buffet dinner with a decent Arizona margarita. Tomorrow we ride the rails to the Grand Canyon.
On the road from Albuquerque to Flagstaff, near which we turn south to Red Rock State Park in Arizona. The kids are keen to get in a hike today, the first “real” day of our vacation, as far as I’m concerned. It’s been fun watching the younger two get excited over taking pictures from the car with the little Instax Mini. That was Kassi’s great idea. We bought Anthony around 150 exposures and his eyes got wide when I told him I wanted him to use every single one by the end of the trip. So far we just got a few pictures from the hotel, and a pretty nice one of an 18-wheeler on the road.
Picture of me in the Llano Estacado, Texas’s “wine country”. On the road for quite a while and still not out of the state. Holding up well. Fear the little one may be coming down with a cold. Hope he’s better after some rest.
Changed restaurant plans and will revisit our old favorite in Albuquerque for the third year in a row.
The food there has always been great, though the service is consistently slow. Had a very nice steak dinner and a just-OK Old Fashioned. I think I’m spoiled at the Wildwood back home.
Tomorrow we hike at Red Rock State Park. Should be warm, but can’t possibly be as uncomfortably humid as when we left Dallas. Gonna try and grab some shut-eye. Real vacation starts tomorrow morning!
We’re well in to the big family road trip of 2019, and the obligatory Texas pit stop at Bucc-ees has been checked off the list. Would have sent you guys a pic from the storied Bucc-ees bathrooms, but I was too excited about these new hot n’ spicy Beaver Nuggets! You can hear all about my first experience with those glorified Corn Pops in this review I did last year with my good buddy Brian. How trim I looked back then. Guess I’ve been hitting the Beaver Nuggets too hard in the interim.
The name of this sculpture is Entwine, I think a reference to The Lord of the Rings. It’s supposed to be a tree, or plant, to symbolize Wylie’s connection to its roots. I always thought of it as a campfire, and I think that imagery fits much better for a library.
