Mingus Mountain Jeep Trail

19 miles of the roughest, bumpiest road! The trail winds up and around the entire mountain. The views are amazing from the top, so that helped I guess. Talk about 'shake, rattle and roll'!
And if that were not enough, we decided to revisit Smiley Rock. See that 'ROAD' in the picture below.

Needless to say, I was glad to be back on asphalt after today!

Sycamore Wilderness

Henry, 'on the edge'

It was so quiet....

At the end of the road

click images to enlarge

The little blue jeep can tackle all the difficult spots now! We drove deep into the Sycamore Wilderness. I think we saw only two people early on....from the top we could see Courthouse Butte, Cathedral, and miles and miles of pure beauty. It was amazingly quiet, but not eery...just beautiful.

We spent Friday rebuilding the transfer case (Henry did the work, I helped), yesterday the tow bar went on, and today the lights. (That mechanic stuff is actually pretty interesting).

Anyway, we are preparing for our departure from Sedona next month. On to Kansas, from there, South Carolina via Nashville (yea!)...then north to Ohio, and into Michigan. The time spent here has been fun, the country gorgeous, but we are both ready to move again. We love the traveling part!

Prickly Pear Cactus

The 'pears' of the cactus

the pulp of the 'pear' is made into
drinks and preserves
the 'pads' can be cooked and eaten


Sycamore Wilderness

Rainbow over Cathedral Rock

click on images to enlarge



Gorgeous rainbow over Cathedral.

Always Something!

I-17

click on images to enlarge

Last Sunday, the rains caused 3 landslides in Oak Creek Canyon which closed Hwy. 89A for two days. The fire we had in June left no vegetation on the mountain to prevent erosion, so....those landslides brought boulders, rocks, trees and about 4 feet of mud onto portions of the Hwy. I was on my way home that night and as soon as we hit the traffic at a standstill, we knew what had likely happened, so decided on a quick u-turn and headed north through Flagstaff.
Today, the authorities didn't want to be faced with another landslide, with traffic on the highway, so when the rains brought 1/4 inch, they evacuated and shut the highway down.....which in turn diverted traffic back up through the canyon and onto the Interstate.
We, of course, were right in the middle....again.
I've never seen so much water in such a short period of time! Traffic was down to one lane, as the other lane had about 2 feet of water on it.
Needless to say, we headed home. Maybe a movie and some popcorn tonight...from the comfort of our own living room.