Vortexes and Pink Jeeps

From the Grand Canyon, we drove south, past Flagstaff AZ and on to the lovely town of Sedona. Sedona is known for a number of things, but most famously as a center for "New Age" studies and "enlightenment". Chief among its attractions for the enlightenment seeker are a number of spots in the desert and around town which are locally known as "Vortexes". I know - I know, the proper plural of the Latin loan-word "vortex" is "vortices" but the folks in Sedona prefer "vortexes". These vortexes are supposed to be areas where one can be put in touch with spiritual forces from other dimensions for purposes of healing, enlightenment and other ethereal stuff. I also think that UFOs may figure in there somewhere. Whatever.

We didn't make it to any vortexes, but we saw and did a lot of other neat stuff during our three-day stay in Sedona. Among these was a jeep tour in the desert and a side trip to the old mining town of Jerome AZ.

Our trip into Sedona was highlighted by a long and rather spectacular drive on AZ Rt. 89A which took us down a long canyon in a verdantly forested area. At length, we arrived in Sedona.

The town is surrounded by desert and red rock mesas which make for spectacular views even from downtown.

This was the view from a parking lot in downtown Sedona

Some red rock mesas outside of town. Note that the desert here is much more verdant than the desert terrain in some of the previous places we visited

Another mesa outside of town

We wandered around town, had lunch, and made reservations for a jeep tour to some Native American ruins out in the desert for two days hence. We planned to spend three nights in Sedona as a way to sort of recover from the mad dash around the canyon lands and Colorado.

Our motel was the La Quinta Inn in the Village of Oak Creek, located a few minutes drive from downtown Sedona.

This was the view from our motel room in the La Quinta

One of the highlights of our stay in Sedona was a tour through the desert to some Indian cliff dwellings. We booked the tour through an outfit called "Pink Jeep Tours". Yes, the jeeps are painted a shocking pink. However, be that as it may, we really liked their tour and I would recommend them to any visitor to Sedona. The guide who drove us and led us on the short (horizontal thankfully this time) hike to the Indian ruins was very knowledgeable both about the history of the local native peoples and the desert plants and ecology he led us through.

The sign at the entrance to the ruins - our tour company helps support their restoration

The ruins - they were not as well preserved as the ones in Mesa Verde

On another day that we were in Sedona, we took a ride to an old mountain mining town called "Jerome" AZ. It was about an hour west of Sedona. It had a bunch of interesting shops and we ate lunch there, but the highlight was a "ghost town" built around an old abandoned gold mine.

The place was an enormous jumble of all sorts of things: mainly old cars, trucks, and earthmoving equipment from the 30's, 40's, and 50's. Michelle and I got a big kick out of seeing all the vehicles we remembered as kids in the 50's such as old gasoline tankers, ambulances etc.

Some of the jumble of interesting junk

Back in Sedona, we also visited a chapel designed by a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright. It was quite striking.

The story behind the chapel in the architect's own words

The "Chapel of The Rock" as seen from the road

The chapel interior

Anyway, after three days in Sedona, it was time to head back to Vegas. On the way, we strayed off the Interstate to spend a little time on old U.S. 66. It's not really an official road anymore, but parts of it are maintained and labeled for the tourist trade.

The world-renowned "Roadkill Cafe" on old Rt. 66

We ate lunch here in Kingman AZ

Finally we made our way back to Sin City, a route which took us across the top of Hoover Dam (although a new high level bridge is nearing completion which should greatly help the traffic situation). Like all traffic, as we approached the dam (this is the main route into Vegas from NW Arizona) we had to pull off into a checkpoint where an officer looked at us and determined we were not terrorists or whatever. From there on in it was a straight shot into Vegas for our 3-night finale.

The first of our nights was at the "Golden Nugget" on Fremont Street. The "Nugget" is the only Strip-quality hotel on Fremont - the rest seem to be dives where it's fun to gamble but you wouldn't want to stay there. The hotel was pretty nice and even had a shark tank aquarium. The funniest thing to my warped mind was the fact that the hotel swimming pool had a water slide which shot you through a clear plastic tube through the shark tank. I can just imagine some drunken guest zipping down the slide and not realizing this only to come face to face (through the plastic) with a huge shark. Aaarggh!

The next two nights were at the New York, New York hotel and casino, which was also fun and in fact we recommended it to our nephew Joe for his upcoming, at the time, trip to Vegas. Turns out he and his friends enjoyed it.

And that, folks, was our trip to the wild, wild West.

How Grand Was My Canyon

Okay, the next day we left Kayenta and headed westward again through the vast Navajo Nation. As we drove along U.S. 160 also known as the Navajo Trail, we passed a spot where a huge overhead conveyor crossed the road from south to north. From there on for many miles the road was paralleled by a set of railway tracks which, judging by their power poles and wires, were for electrically powered trains. I later found out that this was an isolated railroad which existed to bring coal from the huge Black Mesa open pit mine to the Navajo Generating Station near Lake Powell. The coal crossed U.S. 160 on the conveyor and was then loaded on rail cars for the trip to the power plant. Incidentally, the power plant also supplies electricity to run the line's electric locomotives.

But onward to the Grand Canyon. We entered the park from the east and started stopping at lookout points and taking pictures:

Our first view of the Grand Canyon, near the eastern edge of the park

A better view of the Colorado River from the same area

Michelle and I on the walkway in the main part of the park. A friendly young Russian couple took the picture for us.

A view of the canyon from the main part of the park.

Me, standing near the edge. Michelle kept saying: "Step back just a little further."

A panoramic video of the canyon taken by Michelle. Probably better than any of the pictures it gives an idea of the enormous size of the canyon

I'm not going to include anymore photos of the canyon. Many people have, I'm sure, seen it for themselves and there have been about a bazillion documentaries on TV and magazine articles with photos much better than anything I could take.

We stopped at various lookout points, walked along the rim trail, and took a shuttle bus to the farthest westward viewing point in the park. Along the way we ate at the park cafeteria. I recommend it for good food and reasonable prices. There was also an interesting exhibit center explaining some of the geology of the canyon.

Finally, as the day drew to a close, we drove south to our motel for the night, and a good night's sleep in preparation for our next day's adventure.

For dinner that night in the tiny town of Tusayan AZ we made the mistake of stopping at a place called "We Cook Pizza and Pasta". It was awful. When Michelle inquired if there was any other type of pasta beside spaghetti (i.e. ziti, penne, etc.) the counterman volunteered that they had macaroni and cheese. Enough said.

Next: Sedona AZ