Dead Horse Ranch State Park, Cottonwood, Arizona
Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him. ~ Proverbs 22:15
Good morning, Cottonwood!
Nice deep bark, but he also whines if the adults aren’t out there with him.
Big baby! : )
You take the good, you take the bad, you take the rest, and there you have the Facts of Life . . .
Remember that TV show? I think those introduction lyrics are pretty appropriate these days. It just popped into my head today as we were driving around. 😊
Spoiler alert – – when I pulled up my pictures to organize them, my screen was filled with a sea of rust, aka Sedona Red Rock brown. And the Jeep’s practically the same color. Hopefully, you can look beyond the color and not be hypnotized by it. 😊
We left early this morning in the hopes of avoiding traffic on the Broken Arrow Jeep Trail. We only saw about a half dozen other vehicles during the two hours it took us. What a terrific ride!! In fact, the Jeep Trail Association (or whoever/whatever they’re called), will give you a “Badge of Honor” if you complete it. I did not drive this one at all, just took pictures whenever I could.
There was better lighting in the afternoon, but also a lot more vehicles.
if your vehicle will not go over these rocks, then you have no business on the rest of the trail.
we made it with no problem.
We knew exactly what that was, since we drove to it in Barlow’s Jeep a few years ago.
Who knows where these names come from . . . : )
This one’s called the Devil’s Dining Room.
Why???
outside their Jeep right at the top of this hill waiting for us so they could descend.
Blaine heard them say, “Nice job”, as we drove passed them.
Validation from the ‘experts’ is always a confidence booster! : )
When we were here before, there were Pink Jeeps and tourists walking around everywhere.
(that’s a tour company, currently shut down due to the coronavirus)
Today, it’s just us.
Are you surprised? : )
Looks pretty tiny!
Pretty cool, huh?
I can’t take cool pictures and ride along.
Sometimes you just have to make sacrifices for the greater good. : )
But it slid right down into it once he started moving. : )
Pretty awesome!
Certainly the scenic highlight of today!
Oh! And the bicyclist showed up and chatted (from a distance) for a bit. Nice guy!
I’ll bet this place has better views than where we end up for lunch!
We’re headed for the orange rock sticking up!
It’s called ‘Mushroom Rock’ aka ‘The Traffic Circle’.
You go up there and drive around it in a circle – – as many times as you want. : )
It seemed like one was filming the other at various locations.
On the right is Mushroom Rock.
He put his front bumper right up against the rock, and 1,2,3 . . . he was up and over!
Besides the large rocks that can rip out your undersides,
the moment you get to the bottom, you have to make a sharp left,
or you tumble over the edge.
There’s no recovering from that!
That was the most worrisome part for me. . .
I’ve sat myself down beside the slide in order to capture the high tension action!
It’s only a few seconds long, but it’s enough to give you an idea.
In case you’re wondering, the reason the rocks are gray is transfer from rubber tires.
Oh, what fun!!
He had a ‘thumbs up’ for us! Thanks!
Doesn’t do it justice though.
Now we just drive back to the entrance. : )
They’re probably loving that hardly no one else is around. : )
We left Broken Arrow and drove to Schnebly Trail,
but we were stopped in the street and turned away by a woman wearing official-looking garb. She told us all the trails and even Jeep trails, were now closed until further notice. When asked why, she told us because people refuse to honor the social distancing, and are creating masses of people on the trails and it’s not safe. She said ‘they’ have a picture of the “Devils Bridge” trail that we visited yesterday morning and it showed about 100 people (their count, not mine) all walking single file up and down on the narrow trail. So now all the trails are closed.
Except they aren’t.
They can’t possibly close everything, it’s just not feasible. We drove on to other Jeep trails we had maps for and discovered that there’s no way they could close, simply because there’s no way to gate everything off, or the road actually goes somewhere. Besides, if you’re in your vehicle, why close the road?
Since Schnebly was closed, and so was the hiking trail we were planning on for today (Cathedral Rock), we opted to take on another Jeep Trail – the Outlaw. The road to get to it, took us passed the parking lot for one of our anticipated hikes, Doe Mountain. The good sized parking lot was packed to overflowing! Guess someone shoulda closed that one? It seems there’s no stopping these Arizonians from congregating outdoors in large numbers.
Anyway, we took on the Outlaw (rated as moderate and 2 hours long), and saw no one. Probably because the two ruins sites you can visit along the way (Palatki and Honanki) are closed.
We did a little exploring along the way . . .
Pretty bumpy if you ask us!
Nope. Not yet.
They weren’t much. But at the end of the road, we ran into a “hippie comune”.
We got a few stares, as we had to turn around within the area they’d claimed. : )
But now we’re about to actually enter the Trail!
If you look closely though, you’ll see one lonely purple wildflower in the midst. : )
We stopped for a few minutes to stretch our legs and then switched drivers again.
It was still a little early to go home, we were in the right area of town, it was sorta on the way home, so we decided to take on the remaining Barlow Jeep trail map – Diamondback Gulch. This one’s rated adventurous and a 2-hour drive, but we thought it was more ‘jeepy’ than any of the other roads we’d been on. There were even a couple of places that seemed like we wouldn’t be able to continue, but we did! Although Blaine had to get out a couple of times to check out blind drop offs – meaning, you can’t see where you’re going from inside the Jeep, so you have to get out and check where to go first.
Maybe so they don’t get lost??? Hmmmm . . . .
See the orange path above Blaine’s head?
That’s where our road goes.
You just couldn’t see the road.
Blind drop off. . . .
Just be careful!
Here, it’s to keep you from going over the side of the cliff. : )
We are very disappointed that the trails we’ve been anticipating in Sedona are inaccessible now. ☹ But we’ll find something to do. We always do! And we had a terrific time today, although three technical Jeep trails are our limit. We were tired!
Came home and as I was putting things away inside, I noticed my countertops felt dirty, but I didn’t really pay much attention, until I went to use the table and noticed it again. I swiped my hand across it and came away with a hand full of what appeared to be pollen! We’d left the windows open and it was breezy! Ugh! I initially decided we’d live with it until tomorrow, but fairly quickly decided that I just wanted to get the cleaning over with. Procrastination would just cause us to become sniffly or stuffy or sneezy (sounds like the makings of an animated movie about miners . . . ) and make our eyes water and swell. No more leaving all the windows open on a breezy day!
Confession time.
I get a little ouchy when I can’t get/do what I want, so as soon as I recognize it, which becomes sooner the older I get, I start counting blessings. Here are a few I came up with this evening.
Coronavirus prevents me from using the campground showers, but we have our own.
Beauty shops aren’t open so I can’t get a haircut and neither can Blaine, but my hair is long and I can pull it back into a ponytail and Blaine can wear a hat.
Favorite trails are now closed, but we can go in search of new favorites, and we still have the Jeep.
I’m missing museum stops and the occasional restaurants, but we have the ability to hike and I’m a pretty good cook. 😊
Thank You, Father! For all of life’s ups and downs, for without the downs, we’d never appreciate the ups!