Sedona Wrap-up and North to Flagstaff

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

The drive up Route 89A from Sedona to Flagstaff is supposed to be quite scenic and is the shortest route between the two cities. However, we had been warned about not trying it in a motorhome as long as ours especially while towing a vehicle. With that in mind we decided to make it a day trip and just take the Jeep. Our first stop was Slide Rock State Park, but since we only got the standard state park pass, we could not enter for free since this was one of the several parks in the state excluded on weekends. Oh well, we continue north. 

I think we found the reason driving a big class A motorhome isn't recommended on this road. There are a series of hairpin turns that don't look plausible on a map but do in fact twist and turn like that. After surviving the twisties, we hit a section of construction and then get to the Oak Creek Vista Overlook. There were a half dozen tables set up with various trinkets and jewelry items for sale. The view from up here is pretty amazing and you can even see some of the hairpin turns below. 

Twisties On Route 89A

What the Map Looks Like

View from Overlook

We decide to stop at a Fort Tuthill Park next to the county fairgrounds on the south side of Flagstaff. We figure we can eat our lunch and do some hiking and geocaching in the park since there were quite a few. The first thing we notice about the park is that there are practically no people here. Did we miss some sign on the way in about the place being closed? We didn't think so but we weren't going to complain about the lack of people. 

The Flagstaff Views are Very Different than the Rest of Arizona

The nearest cache was pretty new, having been placed only 2 weeks ago. Online, nobody had logged it as being found yet but having a cache go this long unfound back home would be unheard of. We start our search and after about 5 minutes, I spotted the nano cache container. A nano is small, really small. It's about the size of the tip of my pinkie finger cut off just above the last joint. It has a magnetic end so they are really easy to place on a metal object and very difficult to spot. When I opened it up, I discovered a blank log. We were first to find (FTF)! We are not big first FTF hounds having only found 10 previously. We managed to find two more in the park that hadn't been found yet. Not sure if there are very few cachers in Flagstaff or what. The hike was nice and we even stumbled onto some sort of adventure park with all sorts of zip lines and rope bridges between the big trees. Looks like fun for me, not so much for Chris. 

Chris Wants to Climb Tree to Zip Line!

Padded Tree on Right to Stop Zip Line Riders

There was another hike in Sedona that might be the most popular one in town. The West Fork Trail is just a bit north of town on route 89A. This parking lot is crowded too and costs $10 to park there regardless of any passes you have. Even if you park on the street, it costs $2 per person to enter to hike! Everything we had heard about this hike led us to believe it was a must do so we did. It is a 5.2 mile trip out and back up into a canyon. With hundreds of people doing this hike day in and day out, the trail is in very good shape. 

At the Start of West Fork Trail

Creek with Mountain in Background

Colorful Cliff Walls

There is actually water running in the creek. Enough water to make the 13 or more crossings interesting. If you picked your path carefully, even if you did slip you wouldn't get too wet of a foot. It was definitely a great hike with the only real downside was the sheer volume of people out hiking it and this was a weekday morning. The end of the hike brings you to some interesting erosion results. Some people will carry along water shoes and continue up the creek but we opted to stay dry only exploring a bit beyond the trail. If you are ever in the area, put this on your must do list. 

Chris Carefully Crosses Creek (Alliteration at its Finest!)

Interesting Lighting on Flowers

End of the Official Trail

Chris Examines the Erosion

We ended up adding on 2 more nights to our stay at the Elks Lodge for a total of 6 which put us in the Sedona area for 12 nights. Even at that, we probably only scratched the surface but I'm sure we will be back. One last hike we did before leaving was to go back to Boynton Canyon. This time the parking lot was full but we found a spot along the street a third of a mile down the road. This is another pretty canyon hike but there is only a dry creek bed for this one. The beginning of the hike take you above and past a pretty fancy neighborhood. Some looked like single family homes while other building looked more like some sort of resort. Needless to say, that portion isn't the best especially since there was some car alarm going off that never seemed to stop. The only thing that stopped it for us was that we finally got out of range of it. 

Scenic Views Along Boynton Canyon Trail

More Red Rocks

The rest of the hike was pleasant with just the last several hundred feet being somewhat challenging since it was a bit of a rock climb. I would say it's worth the climb for the view you get being above the trees. There were a fair number of people up her when we got there and more groups were heading up as we headed back. Much of the trail is in shade so it helped with the heat on the day we did it. 

View at the End of the Boynton Canyon Trail

Flower Along the Way

Tall Hoodoo

Sedona to Flagstaff isn't that far except we need to backtrack a bit to make the road choice more ideal for the motorhome. Ideal might be stretching it. One we get back onto I-17 and head north, we had a multiple mile stretch of 5 or 6% grade to deal with. I have gotten accustomed to the slower pace of driving the motorhome, but this drive was pushing my limits. There were a few semis that were crawling even slower but not many. We had planned on stopping at a boondocking spot just across the expressway from Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument but we have been without full hookups for 23 nights so we found Greer's Pine Shadows RV Park just north of town. We had tried calling to check on availability but we ended up getting there before they even bothered to return our call. They did have a site and we were in, setup, had a late lunch and headed out to sightsee by 2 o'clock. 

We are only here for 2 nights so we had to really limit our choices. We decided to check out Walnut Canyon National Monument which is just a few miles east of town. Yet another series of cliff dwellings. I have lost track of how many of these things have done in the past few weeks, but I'm glad we tried this one since it was one of the more scenic stops. There are basically two trails: the Island Trail and the Rim Trail. The whole area has a canyon running thru it but there is seldom water flowing in it. The Island Trail takes you around a bit of an island (or peninsula) where many of the dwellings were built. They were built in the overhangs up and down the side of the canyon on both sides. It wouldn't have been very easy for somebody on the opposite side to visit their neighbors just across the canyon. I think zip lines would have worked well!

Cliff Dwellings in Middle of Picture

I Prefer Our Home

Hedgehog Cactus Blooming

Rock Formation Has Interesting Lines

The Rim Trail just goes along the top of the canyon off of the parking area. Many flowers were blooming at this point of time. Flagstaff is around 7000 feet in elevation so the plant life looks quite different from what we had gotten used to over the past few months in southern Arizona. This stop worked out pretty well for a travel day. The walk itself isn't too long but there is a bunch of elevation change to contend with and being this high up doesn't help the oxygen levels either.

Along the Rim Trail at Walnut Canyon National Monument

The next day we headed just a bit north to check out two national monuments. Sunset Crater Volcano and Wupatki. There is a 34 mile scenic drive that takes you past one and then the other. The terrain and vegetation changes dramatically over the course of this short distance. We start at Sunset Crater with a stop at the visitor center to check in and get maps. The volcano here is relatively new, erupting less than 1000 years ago. There is a stop at one of the main lava flows. The short walk into the flow was interesting with all the strange shapes now frozen in rock. 

Bonito Lava Flow Walk

Trees Growing in the Ash

At the volcano, people are no longer permitted to walk up to the top like they used to but there is a paved interpretive walk as well as a trail taking you back to the bottom of the volcano. You are still able to see the scars of the old switchbacks that were used in years past. One additional stop that isn't on the tour map but is on our geocaching map took us to a feature just a few hundred feet from the road. As we walked towards ground zero we saw an odd feature extending out to the earth. A fumarole is an opening near a volcano where hot gases escaped. Now it is a mound of lava rock with a hole large enough to enter. Without a flashlight and with the sharp edges of the rock, I only entered so far. As is exited the one hole, I noticed a smaller opening and there was the geocache. 

Volcano at Sunset Crater

Looking Back at the San Francisco Peaks

Flower Manages to Survive in the Ash Field

Very Bright Fungi

Jack Gets into Geocaching

As we drove to the Wupatki National Monument, we lost elevation and the terrain started to look much like the desert we had become used to. Before the actual visitor center, we check out Wukoki Pueblo. A new walkway was being put in so the construction vehicles severely limited parking. The visitor center at Wupatki has the large and impressive Wupatki Pueblo out back along the walkway. It was amazing how it was built into the large rocks of the area. Just below the pueblo is a blow hole. The one foot diameter opening into the ground has a screen covering it to keep debris out. Depending on atmospheric conditions there will either be a strong wind being expelled from the hole or as we found there was a big rush of air into the hole. I was amazed how strongly my baseball cap was held to the screen. 

Wukoki Pueblo

Wupatki Pueblo

There were a few more Pueblos to check out before leaving this place.  The Citadel was situated up on an outcropping of volcanic rock. Not much of the structure is remaining so there isn't a whole lot to see. There was a really colorful lizard on one of the rocks as we left the area. Most lizards we have seen while in Arizona tend to be very skittish around people but this one seemed to have little fear and allowed me to get reasonably close. One of the caches we did in the area was at a "crack" in the ground. Pretty neat as long as you don't fall in.

Citadel

Lizard Checking Me Out

Chris Signs Geocache Near the Crack

Another Building in Wupatki National Monument

There were likely many more things we should have seen while in Flagstaff. In fact the campground we stayed at backs up to the Coconino National Forest and there was access to its trails right from the place. We will need to make a return trip and spend some more time in the area. Our next stop is just a bit further north to Page Arizona. There were several things we want to check out and a couple of them required us to actually book some tours so we are on more of a fixed schedule than we typically like to do.

More Lizard Pictures

Very Colorful

Make Sure to Click on Image to See Detail in Lizard