Sedona

This morning broke sunny and cool and we sat at the picnic table eating a simple breakfast of scrambled eggs, strawberries, toast and coffee.  Birds were singing and overhead a hummingbird flitted through the trees.  Above this tranquil scene rose the giant red rocks of Sedona.  The campground was still sleeping as we recounted the evening we’d had with our friends Steve and Debbie Rituper.  They live in Phoenix and drove up to Sedona to see us and we were so glad they did.  They showed us a wonderful evening.

As we drove from the Painted Desert to Sedona, we once again saw very dramatic changes in the terrain.  For days, the landscape had been what you would expect in the desert – dry with little or no vegetation.  Then suddenly, we turned right onto a different road and within minutes we found ourselves in a beautiful evergreen forest.  Another hour or so of travel and we began to see what we had come to see – the famed Red Rocks of Sedona.

The landscape is impressive – giant mountains of rock in stunning shades of red and gold.  And not just small mountains – these tower above the roads below. 

We arrived in Sedona around 2:00 in the afternoon and set up camp in the beautiful Ranchero Sedona campground.  Built along a creek, it’s filled with trees and plants – quite a change from the desert country we’d seen for the past few days.   We walked into town to meet our friends, and this proved quite a challenge for me.  The 96-degree temperatures combined with the high altitude made it an extremely difficult walk for me.  But a nice cold glass of tea in an air conditioned room and I was quickly feeling back to myself again.

Steve had made reservations at the Sound Bites grill, a very nice place in the center of Sedona.  I had grilled salmon with mango salsa and it was delicious.  Jim had beef tenderloin skewers and the biggest baked potato either of us had ever seen.  After dinner, we walked around Sedona and found ourselves in a local ice cream shop where I tried a wonderful local flavor which was Prickly Pear.  Debbie was telling me that Prickly Pear is a cactus and it grows everywhere around Sedona.  It blooms a very bright red flower that has sweet nectar she sometimes feeds to her desert tortoises. When we were walking around Sedona, we visited a gourmet store that sold it as salsa, jelly, syrup and other treats. The ice cream was light pink in color and the taste was like a delicate berry.   I loved it.

After dinner, they took us for a drive on the Canyon road around Sedona.  The sun was setting and causing deep shadows that enhanced the rugged crevices of the mountains.  As we headed back to the campground, darkness was setting it and the mountain ridge was all that was visible. We seemed very tiny by comparison as we gazed up at the enormous rocks.  This was an evening we won’t forget.  Thank you, Steve and Debbie.