dare2go

Sedona


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On Saturday we drove south of the town where the rocks end and the desert starts - this is the Great Sonoran Desert and Sedona is in the north of this desert which stretches down far into Mexico and also west into California.
We attempted to visit Crescent Moon Recreation Area and Red Rock Crossing, but found ourselves in a queue several cars back from the gate with a full sign at the gate and long waits for a car to exit so that another could enter. We gave that idea away and continued driving the Red Rock Loop and checked out some of the interesting houses built there in the foreground against the background of the ever-present red rocks. Property prices here are the highest in Arizona - another similarity with Byron Bay, although the property prices may no longer be so startling, I guess they are still among the highest in NSW. After completing this loop on a rather rough dirt road, we drove out of town in another direction to look at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which is perched on the side of one of these large outcrops, and set between 2 smaller ones.
On Sunday we decided to drive back up the Oak Creek Canyon to have a real look at it this time, rather than being preoccupied with finding and checking out campsites. First we had to drive through the uptown area and joined a traffic jam to get out of town - another similarity with Byron Bay. We eventually got out of town and the traffic thinned a little, but there were still cars parked along the edge of the road in every available space and people walking down the narrow road edges where there really wasn't room. Everyone was trying to get to their bit of paradise by Oak Creek to fish, swim or just sit in the sun. We drove by Slide Rock State Park and once again found a queue of hopefuls waiting for someone to leave so that they could enter. There was one area of rock by the creek that looked like a European beach; it had so many people crowded onto it. After a few miles we decided to turn around and head back to town - and then we were able to join the traffic jam driving into town, just like the one going out of town.
We stopped at a fairly new shopping centre for coffee and cake and wandered through reading about the history of Sedona, posted around the shops. It seems that Sedona was an important part of the Hollywood film industry, as many famous people (John Wayne, Elvis Presley, Joan Crawford etc.) came here to make movies with a specifically western flavour. I can see that I'm going to have to take up watching old westerns to see how much of the countryside I can recognise.
Eventually arriving back at the RV Park was like driving into a quiet oasis, where the entire outside bustle just melted away. I can imagine that living in Sedona is quite a wonderful experience, if you have a home that touches the beautiful nature and quiet places to relax and unwind. But as a visitor, especially on this very hectic American holiday, it was not really an uplifting experience. The Rancho Sedona RV Park made it possible to be here and rest, for which we are very grateful.