We made it to Sedona!

Well, were actually past Sedona in Cottonwood, AZ at Dead Horse Ranch SP.  Its a beautiful park, with lots of trails for walkers, bikers, and horses.  We got here this afternoon, unloaded, set up shop, ate some lunch and had a little time left for a short bike ride through the park.  The weather is awesome AND we decided to stay here a week instead of 5 days.  I'm ready to get out and do some hiking and biking!

We took the Oak Creek Canyon trail down to Sedona from Flagstaff, which is easily one of the most gorgeous drives I have ever been on. It starts off of a nice road running through the middle of the Coconino National Forest, which quickly turned into a series of twists and turns snaking down the side of a mountain into a beautiful canyon.  Around the first curve the tree line breaks open to breathtaking views of plummeting tree covered cliff sides speckled with patches of melting snow.  If your the lucky passenger you get to enjoy the view a little more.  I read on the internet, before we left, that if you were taking the drive after a good rain you could see waterfalls running down over the cliffs, and I was hoping since the snow was melting that we would have the same luxury, but no such luck. We quickly found ourselves on a gently sloping scenic drive through the canyon, with a crystal clear river running parallel to the road. As you begin to get near Sedona the scenery changes from gray, tree covered mountains and cliffs, to red brick colored rock formations.  It didn't take long to realize where the term Red Rock Country came from =)   Along the way were several camping spots and hiking trails leading off into the forest.  Since we were trying to get to the campground we didn't make any pit stops, but we plan on taking a day or 2 and getting out on the motorcycle to explore the trail a little more.  Also, the trail continues on past Sedona through the larger "familiar" Red Rock Formations, typically seen on the HELLO! from Arizona postcards, but since we are staying in Cottonwood we didn't get to explore the southern portion of the trail.  I'm excited to go back and get to know the area, I can tell before ever even getting out of the car, its definitely an area that i'm going to enjoy.  I've gathered a small list of trails to hike, and spots to check out along the way, but anyone with suggestions, feel free to post them in my comments, I'm always open to new options!

As I said in my previous post I am going to Review the RV park we recently stayed at.  We were in Williams,   AZ at the Railside Ranch RV Park.  We made it our choice, because it was the most affordable park in the area ($188+tax for 1 week), which was centrally located beneath the grand canyon and just outside Flagstaff, and we originally planned on taking the motorcycle up to the Grand Canyon for a day.  WELL, if we would have read the weather forecast we would have realized it was going to be way to cold to take the motorcycle anywhere.  As a matter of fact, the 2nd day we were in Williams, there was a snow storm that covered the bike with a layer of ice and snow that was still present when we rolled it in the camper to leave.  So our 2nd thought was, lets take the train! After all, that is what Williams is know for, the Grand Canyon train, AND it just so happened to be a stones throw from our camp spot.  After further investigation of the train situation we realized it was going to cost us (at the cheapest) nearly $150 to take it up and back, and it departs GC to return to Williams BEFORE sunset, which was something we definitely wanted to see, so we decided against the train as well.  We did decide that it would have been a gorgeous motorcycle ride, had the weather been working with us.  OK so the campground is literally as close as you can possibly get to the train tracks, I was worried it would be an issue because of noise.  To some people it may have been an issue, but to me, I barely noticed it.  The train departed around 9:30am, I was usually still sleeping, and it never woke me up.  It returned around 6pm, and I was usually working, and never heard it. A few days I was sitting in the camper looking out the window and actually seen the train returning and that was the only time I ever noticed the Horn, and it wasn't that loud.  The park owners were friendly and helpful, and gave us information about the train, as well as some ideas of stuff to do at the Grand Canyon.  The park was fairly empty, so we were able to park close to the main building which held bathrooms, showers, laundry rooms, and main office.  In the main office is a very small "general store" area that had a few shelves of items and is where they had free breakfast available every morning.  The only day we were up in time for breakfast was the day we were leaving and there was Cheerios and frosted flakes, they also had make your own waffles, and granola bars and packages of oatmeal, typical continental breakfast, nothing to get excited about.  There was Orange Juice and hot coffee as well.  The bathrooms were clean for the most part, and obviously well maintained.  There were 4 washers and dryers but only 2 of each were working.  It was around $2.00 to wash and dry a load of laundry.  There was also free wi-fi.  We were in one of the closer spots to the main building, and the connection was usually weak, and we ended up using our Verizon mifi card most of the time anyways,  Overall, a neutral experience, nothing to negative to say, nothing outstandingly positive.  I would say a 7 on a 1-10 scale.

SO I hope that was somewhat helpful to someone =)  Now, its getting late, and I want to get to bed, so I can get up and explore some more tomorrow, and maybe get a little work done too ;)  I'll post more about our grand canyon trip tomorrow as well but until then here is one of the pictures Kiley took from Watchtower Point, at sunset.

f.y.i.  these pictures appear small in the blog, but if you CLICK on the picture, it will open enlarged, in a new window, so you get the full view =)  Kiley will be posting the full folder of grand canyon pictures on her facebook soon, so be sure to check it out.  She is also going to be adding a few new pendants to our etsy tomorrow, so be sure to check it out as well!!

Enjoy your day!! --JR and Kiley