Fool Hollow Lake Recreation Area, Show Low, AZ
This is our second time thru Sedona. Everyone has always raved about how cool Sedona is, and after our first visit I didn't get it. (That time we stuck mainly to the town of Sedona). This time I got it. The rocks, geology, ancient ruins, vortex, and one awesome guy changed that.
Because wine got the better of us last night we decided to take another crack at the bike ride this morning. Good choice. We were really able to appreciate the early morning light and the warming rays of the sun.
I'm still getting used to my new bike. Unlike my ol Gary Fisher, this one doesn't do single track very well. Let's just say I found that out the hard way.
That big smile on my face is because I eventually found the flat, wide packed down surface that my old age has come to love...while riding in flip flops.
Our first outing of the day was visiting Tuzigoot National Montument. So interesting to tour the dwellings of the Southern Sinagua circa 1300.
Kudos to the them for building this settlement on the top of a hill. The view was spectacular. We also enjoyed that you're able to just walk, climb and explore on your own. It made it for a very intimate experience.
The little museum and visitor center also had some awesome pottery pieces. (Patti Clark you were along this expedition with me. I just kept thinking how much you'd love this!)
Next we were in search of a vortex. (Bucket list item for me). Ned was a little worried that my energy field and the vortex energy field might cause a warp in the universe. Nevertheless she persisted...
We chose the Boynton Vortex because a) it was supposed to be a beautiful hike and b) it was free. I didn't want to pay for the vortex experience, it had to be organic.
On our way up a hiker coming down gave Ned and I some heart shaped rocks. He said, "This is a gift from Mother Earth it will retain all the good energy gathered here." Apparently, we were in the right place.
That's me standing at the center of the vortex. It was incredibly windy at the top of the mountain and I was holding on. I put out to the universe all my good energy. Let's see how this works out.
Having lunch in downtown Sedona where we made the best decision of the day. Looks like that good energy thing was working for me.
We were in search of a bike shop where Ned could pick up a spoke wrench to keep working on my bike. It was still a little wobbly and needed more fine tuning.
By sheer luck we walked into The Fat Tire bike shop and met Dave. We spent the next hour or so chatting while he worked on my bike. What an awesome guy! We talked about Apple and IBM (both of our former professions), marketing, bikes, and best of all chocolate. He's a true foodie and has an amazing palate. Just so happened we had some Cello Chocolate with us and ended up doing a tasting with him. We ended up trading him chocolate for his services. He also gave us an amazing beer from Quebec. (Marc we're holding onto this until we connect with you in Missouri).
We actually liked old town Cottonwood more than the town of Sedona. It's much more laid back, very tiny and not so full of itself.
We stopped at the Hippie Emporium and Ned found this cool VW straw hat. He dons it well.
Leaving Sedona we decided to explore another ancient ruin, Montezuma Castle. It's built into the side of a cliff and unlike the one this morning, you're not able to actually climb into it.
When early settlers first discovered this they assumed it was built by the Aztec, hence the name Montezuma's Castle.
The picture in the upper left corner is a diorama of what daily life in the dwelling might have been like. To get a perspective on the picture on the right side, the dwelling is 100 ft. above the valley and contains about 20 rooms. The lower picture is a close up of the dwelling. Really cool!
We had an early evening drive across Arizona on highway 260. It's one of the most gorgeous scenic routes we've experienced in Arizona. Lots of mountains and trees that go on forever. It felt like the Sierras. What a change from the last few days of desert.
We pulled into the campground at around 7. It's completely full. Oops. We talked to the campground host and she said that this is Arizona's 5 Star premier campground and sites book a year in advance. Guess the event planner on this trip missed that one. Mmm. They took pity on us and are allowing us to camp in the overflow parking lot for the night. $15 and glad to take it! Hot showers in the morning to boot. Life is good.
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