Arizona - trip to Sedona

Flagstaff KOA, Flagstaff

Wednesday, 9 February 2022

today's route

I had 2 directions I wanted to go while I was staying in Flagstaff, and Sedona and Montezuma Castle National Monument were those in the south.  We were still getting below-freezing temps at night, but today was forecast to be in the mid-50s, so I decided to put off the Grand Canyon for one more day and hope the ice will have melted from the roads when I go north.

Of course I took the scenic route - AZ-89A - that runs right through the town of Sedona, and was once more thankful I'd chosen a small RV.  A sign at the beginning of this highway prohibited any vehicles over 40' for the next 40 miles, which gave me a sneak preview of the kind of road to expect.  It's called Sedona-Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Road, because it ran through beautiful Oak Creek Canyon on its way down to Sedona (how do they think of these things?).

There were lots of hills and Ponderosa pines, patches of snow in the fields and frost here and there on the roadway.  Then I came to a "7% grade, next 3 miles," followed by 7 switchbacks, 5 of them hairpin turns.  So yeah, no long vehicles needed here.

This whole area is part of the Coconino National Forest, running from north of Flagstaff south to the Tonto National Forest.  I passed several Forest Service campgrounds, one of them full; Slide Rock State Park, elev. 5,000'; a batch of resorts, homes, other places to stay; and lots of red rocks.

And then the town of Sedona, with 9,684 residents per the 2020 census.  I remembered coming through here in 2008 with my friend Paula when I was moving from the Seattle area south to Austin with 2 dogs and 2 cats (sadly, none of them the same ones making today's trip).  I remember lots of stunningly red rocks, and lots of narrow lanes from road construction - a problem because I was renting an RV and had never driven such a wide vehicle before.  It was here that I hit one of the orange cones in the road and worried the rental people would dock me for the damage, which actually turned out not to be visible so okay.

Anyway, I wanted to go back and round out my memory.  The red rocks are still there, but I was stunned at how very expensive and tourist-y the town looks.  I don't know where they find people to work in all those tourist shops and businesses, because I'm sure those folks don't get paid enough to afford the houses I saw.  All very attractive, but not the sort of place I want to spend much time in, so we kept going.

And it was then that I made a big mistake.  I'd planned to pick up the Red Rock Scenic Byway from the town, figuring I'd see more red rocks along a road with a name like that.  Somehow I missed the turn and ended up on the Dry Creek Scenic Road instead.  I was reassured by passing Red Rock State Park, but I ended up going about 20 miles down a road I hadn't intended to drive down that wasn't nearly as beautiful as I'd expected to find.  I was finally suspicious enough that I pulled over and looked at the map and found that yes, the town of Cottonwood, which I'd just reached, was on the wrong road.  But it looked like I could still salvage my travel plans by going from there on a different road and still get to Montezuma Castle National Monument.  There was even a highway sign telling me I could.

But once I'd made the turn onto that road, well, that was the last time I saw a sign mentioning the monument.  I went for miles and miles with no hints about where I was or how far still to any place.  I wasn't even positive about which road I was on.  It was very disorienting and frustrating and finally made me mad.  Okay, I made a mistake, but why couldn't they bother to put up even one sign to tell me where I was somewhere along all those miles?  I was getting almost as peeved with AZ's highway department as I had been with NM's.

Finally, we did in fact get to the visitor center for Montezuma Castle National Monument.  And there I discovered they were charging $10/person and the parking lot was almost full.  I walked the dogs around the parking lot, fixed lunch for everybody, walked the dogs again, and decided I just didn't want to find out whether my Golden Age pass would get me past that $10 fee and then go walking around in the rocks where I couldn't take my dogs.

Montezuma Castle, established in 1906, was the 3rd national monument created to preserve Native American artifacts.  It protects a 20-room high-rise building carved into a limestone cliff and is probably fascinating to visit.

an internet photo of Montezuma Castle

But not for me, at least not today.  Some place to come back to next visit.

From there I decided to take the interstate back to Flagstaff, and that turned out to be not as fast a route as I'd've expected.  I traveled from Camp Verde (near the monument) at 3,150' all the way up to Flagstaff at 7,000' in about 55 miles.  Quite a stiff climb, complete with a chain-up area (which we luckily didn't need today).

I was surprised at how very many Washington state license plates I was seeing in AZ.  

Back in Flagstaff, I took the dogs back to Bushmaster Park for a walk, then stopped by the Safeway, where I was surprised to find their selection was much better than it'd been at Fry's.  And then back to the campground.

I took a close look at the map and decided when I go south to the Phoenix area in a few days I'll try to find the south end of Red Rock Scenic Byway and take it north to Sedona and figure out where I went wrong, besides seeing the scenery I missed today.  I learned way back in Utah that I'm just a sucker for red rocks and it'd be a shame to miss these.