Wonders of the world
Lisa, William and I just returned from a terrific vacation to Arizona. We visited our friends, Jeff, Tina and Tristan Kipp in Phoenix and used that as our launchpad for a trip to Sedona and on to the Grand Canyon. It was a marvelous experience all around.
Phoenix was wonderful, and in spite of 115 degree temperatures, it really is a “dry heat” and we found it quite tolerable. The Kipps have a nice pool and we all enjoyed the refreshing dips. While in Phoenix we went tubing on the Salt River, which was a lot of fun and nice and cool.
Sedona is a beautiful place, surrounded by and filled with rock formations from ages of mother nature’s work. We took a “Pink Jeep” tour of the Dry River Gulch and it was a blast, rough enough to be exciting, but not too scary for the average person. The downtown shopping area was also cool. While we didn’t visit any of the so-called vortexes, the natural “spirituality” of the beauty that surrounds you is something that you cannot escape.
Finally on to the true wonder of the world, The Grand Canyon. The road from Sedona to Flagstaff is not to be missed for any driving enthusiast. Fantastic switchbacks on a climb to a 6500′ summit with an incredible overlook. From Flagstaff we took a slightly longer route to the canyon that brought us in from the east, along the rim. We made a stop at the Little Colorado Gorge along the way and bought some Navajo jewelry. We stopped at an eastern overlook, and at my first real view of the canyon I admit to getting quite misty-eyed. No photograph or video, hi def or otherwise, can do it justice, it simply must be seen. Absolutely magnificent. I got myself up at 4:00 to catch the sunrise. From Grandview point, I was in solitude for much of the morning, climbing my way out as far as I dared, I set up and started shooting, losing myself in the beauty of the morning. Eventually I was joined by a couple of other shutterbugs, but everyone was silent, just watching it unfold. Truly unforgettable. We spent the morning at the canyon, and went back for the sunset. low clouds spoiled the view a bit, but it was still fantastic. Before heading back the next morning, we got one more view of the canyon, this time from a helicopter!
Off we headed back to Phoenix, with a stop along historic Route 66 for lunch at “Cruiser’s Diner”. What could be better? Back in Phoenix we had another full day to spend with our friends, relax, and enjoy some superb meals before heading home.
Where was Meagan in all this? She was in Ireland, Wales and England, but that’s another story…
Tags: Arizona, Grand Canyon, Sedona, vacation
July 12th, 2010 at 2:29 pm
89A is a great piece of roadway. You went to the GC via route 64. Nice trip. Next time take 89 to Page AZ, another great little town next to Utah.
Another great trip from Flag would take 89A down through Sedona again, but this time follow it into Jerome down into Prescott Valley. 66 through Williams, another great little AZ town.
GC North Rim is a breath taking trip as well, South Ri
is also visited by the masses but the West Rim is the stunner. Less people, less traffic and they have the Canyon Sky Walk.
Several areas of great interest would be route 260 to Payson & onto Show Low, he you can take 60 into Phoenix. 10 into Tucson to Tombstone. Or you could have gone from Flag to Lake Havasau into Parker to 95 to 10 to Phoenix.
Monument Valley, 4 Corners, the Painted Desert, Petrified Forest, Meteor Crater, just North East of Flag off 89 is Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument. One needs about 2-4 weeks just to take in all of the AZ beautiful sites.
Too many people believe that AZ is all desert, to many surprises there is much more than desert.
July 12th, 2010 at 2:37 pm
TOO MUCH TO DO! Would love to get up to Page and photograph the slot canyons, and see every vista of the GC. The country is filled with beauty wherever you look, it’s just hard to make time to see all of it.
I’m happy I got my wife and son to see what we saw, there is always more. Next “must do” will be Yellowstone.