Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Cottonwood, Arizona
When justice is done, it brings joy to the righteous but terror to evildoers. ~ Proverbs 21:15
Happy Spring, everyone!
Today is the reason we bought a Jeep!
It all began about seven years ago when we visited Sedona, Arizona on vacation and met up with Michelle, Jen and their dad and stepmom. Michelle and Jen told us about how you could rent a Jeep for the day in Sedona, or hire a Jeep Tour, but they said driving yourself was more fun. So we splurged and did it! We were already considering buying a jeep, and this would be the ultimate test drive. Barlow Jeep Tours rented us a brand new Jeep Wrangler for the day and provided us with maps and simple instructions about gears to use and things to watch out for. We had a blast! And when we returned the Jeep and the girl at the desk asked us how it was, we told her, “We’re buying a Jeep!!” She jokingly said, “We lose more customers that way!” They let you keep the maps, so we’ve been hanging on to them for seven years just waiting to get back out there!
As we drove into town, we were reminded of how gorgeous this area of the US is! Beyond description! Once you get to the edge of town, there’s a sign that says, “Entering Red Rock Country”.
Warning.
In the next days, you’re going to be exposed to more red rock than you ever imagined possible, or wanted to see. Sorry! But this area of the country – here in Sedona – is more than mere words can describe. And it’s all about the red rocks. Really, really big red rocks. And some are topped with a layer of white, which I think really enhances the look. God certainly outdid Himself here! But then, we think that about almost everywhere we’ve gone and everything we’ve seen. 😊
Here’s a picture of the overall map they gave us, and there’ll be one of ‘Soldier Pass’ when we get there today, just so you can see what we were using. (They provide you with individual detailed maps of each road they recommend.) Not that you particularly care, but it might prompt someone into becoming interested in giving Barlow Jeep Rentals some business – once they’re allowed to open back up again. But I must say, having the roads almost all to ourselves wasn’t a bad experience. 😊
We decided to tackle the “Dry Creek Basin” first. It’s rated easy-moderate and the map says it should take 2 hours, and to add 1 ½ hours if you hike to Devil Bridge. We were definitely going there! The trail head was about 1 ¼ miles down the road, and when we arrived, we were the only car in the parking lot.
So fun!
Once on the bridge, two friendly ladies showed up and we chatted (a good distance apart) about several things, discovering that ones boyfriend’s family owns Marie’s Pizza in Barberton. Small world! They also told us that they’d heard from a relative, that the powers that be will be closing all the trails tomorrow! Bad news for us! But once we got home, Blaine checked and there were no announcements that he could find. Let’s hope she was wrong!
Pretty!
There were quite a few people coming up the trail as we were leaving, but they also had to walk up the road to get to the trail for Devil’s Bridge. Evidently none had a high clearance vehicle, because there were no other vehicles joining our Jeep in the parking lot, and there were quite a few people. Good thing we left so early this morning! We wouldn’t have liked having to pass all those people on this narrow trail, even before the potential for virus carriers.
There were several other stopping places along this road, but one was closed and the other, Vultee Arch was too long of a hike for today. This was an out and back road, so we turned around at Vultee and headed back, completing the trip in about 3 1/2 hours, just like Barlow said. 😊 And we encountered even more people walking the road to the Devil’s Bridge trail. I’m telling. Once you hit that trail, there is zero opportunity for social distancing. It’s too narrow and too rocky. There are many places you’d have a hard time just getting passed someone, let alone allowing space between you, as you no doubt noticed in the pictures.
but I was too busy holding on to take very many. : )
How it managed to get here is anyone’s guess!
It was a middle-aged single guy who took off down the trail we opted to skip.
We took the top off here, because that’s what real Jeepers do!
Which means there are even less pictures.
Great place for a snack!
running around chasing and wrestling with each other on the dirt road. : )
Moving on to Soldier Pass (rated moderate-adventurous), we had to drive on regular roads for a bit to the entrance. This is the trail that Blaine secured the pass for yesterday. There’s a locked gate there with a bunch of padlocks and one combination lock, to which the Park Service provided the entrance code. There were people milling about and a completely full parking lot, but fortunately, we didn’t have any problems with people on our road. They evidently have their own trail to walk.
Do those rock formations look like soldiers to you??
There were, however, a lot of people picnicing here.
And a guy playing a recorder. He’s the one in the cowboy hat.
We’re wondering if that’s one of the reasons they cut back on
the motorized vehicles – too much noise for them.
The trail goes up this rock, and you can drive around
and then make your way back down to the road to continue on.
The only way down, is down over rocks sticking up in the road.
Easy does it!
Another great time! And again, it took us about 2 hours to complete.
Next, we were planning on driving the Broken Arrow Trail, but when we arrived, there were tons of people everywhere! And a lot of drivers coming back out on the trail, so you’d have to pull over or back up a lot in order to share the road. We decided the best thing to do was to leave this one until first thing tomorrow morning.
Instead, we headed over to some iconic rocks with a long walking trail (about 4 miles) we were familiar with from previous visits – Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock. By the time we finished those, we were tired and skipped the climb up Bell Rock. Maybe we’ll do that another time.
Mushroom or spaceship? : )
We remember how wonderful that hike was!
Then we remembered it’s also a bike trail. : )
As we were driving around today, we encountered a couple of bicycles and dirt bikes on the trails, and quite a few people boondocking along the side of some of the roads. Sometimes, we wondered how in the world they got their cars or trailers or even the occasional motorhome to the places they set up camp. By the way, boondocking is a term used when you just park out in the open and have no amenities whatsoever – no water, no sewer, no electric. No reservation. You have a spot if you can find a spot. Usually it only occurs on government BLM land (which is free). What that means is its land that’s overseen by the Bureau of Land Management – an agency within the United State Department of the Interior that’s responsible for administering public lands. They oversee over 247.3 million acres, which is one-eighth of our landmass, and most of it is out west.
We like glamping too much to take advantage of it. Although if this coronavirus stuff continues, we might be in a pickle and have to look for a spot for ourselves.
We arrived back home to discover there was a large group of 20 or so adults and kids, all camping in our campground, and all visiting with our neighbor, and having a rip-roaring time together. And definitely NOT practicing social distancing, or taking any other precautions. Glad they had a good time, but pray everyone’s okay.