There Are Not Enough Adjectives To Describe Sedona

(Sedona, AZ) 64 degrees, clear blue skies

Cathedral Rock (Red Rock Crossing National Forest)

Breathtaking, beautiful, magnificent, spectacular, awe-inspiring...these are just a few words that come to mind as you drive into Sedona and see the red rock mountains.  They suddenly rise out of a rather bleak desert and are so amazing to behold. 

Coffee Pot (near sunset)

We have been here before but exciting to have an opportunity to stop again in our RV.  Before we were full timers we had visited  here on vacation.   We have done many of the touristy things such as the Pink Jeep Tours, Verde Canyon Railroad, and even a spectacular hot air balloon ride.  Now we are more budget minded and actually enjoy hiking the many trails in the area most of all. 

 

We are staying at the Elks Lodge and it is very convenient and reasonable.  ($20/night with water and electric).  There are seven sites that are on a first come, first served basis.  Right now we are boondocking as we wait for someone to pull out. 

View from the back of our coach

We arrived in the late afternoon and quickly drove up to the top of Airport Road to see the sunset.  It is a great place to watch the red rocks light up. There is a big parking lot and you cross the street to see the "show". Be sure to go early.  It's crowded and you need to stack out a place for your tripod.

Jimmy and John relaxed and enjoyed all the action.  Jimmy had his picture taken a bunch of times.  He tried to steel the show. 

Someone told me to wait until 1/2 hour after sunset to get some pictures of the city and the lights below. It turned out pretty good but it sure get chilly fast. 

City lights

View from the road approaching Red Rock Crossing.

 

The next day we went out to Red Rock Crossing (Crescent Moon Ranch Picnic Area). It is a National Forest Park with pretty trails and the best views of the Cathedral Rock.  It costs $9/car with no discount to enter but its worth the price.  Cathedral Rock is the most photographed place in Arizona. 

We walked along a trail we had missed in prior visits.  It was an easy trail that traveled along the creek. 

Huge wash

 

This is an area where a vortex is located.  There are 15 in Sedona and  many people think a vortex can bring about healing and offers positive energy.   Some folks say they can feel a special energy in these areas. We've been out to a few of them and did not feel anything but a little positive energy never hurts.   Here are a few examples of prayer rocks left behind by others. 

Prayer Rock

 

 

At the other side of the park there is another path that leads back to the creek and spectacular views of Cathedral Rock.  This is another great place to watch the sunset.  We stayed here most of the afternoon and took way too many pictures trying to get the perfect photograph.  We had fun talking to the serious photographers that were here trying to do the same thing.   

 

I like the reflection in this one

 

 

 

We will be here for a few more days and are looking forward to hiking and returning to some of favorite places. 

Meandering Our Way Back East

Morristown, Arizona

Lake Pleasant Regional Park

It's time to leave the southwest and head back east. We'll be workamping in New York starting on May 1st and we are looking forward to seeing friends and family along the way. 

Our site

After the Gypsy Journal Rally we headed to Lake Pleasant Regional Park for a few days.  This lovely park is located about an hour north of Phoenix.  It was great to be camping in a more natural setting.  We been recently stayed in a church parking lot, casino parking lot, and even a fairground.  Too much concrete!

There are plenty of big rig friendly sites at this park in the Roadrunner Loop.  Be sure to get good directions to the campground.  We wandered around for quite awhile trying to find our site. The rate per night is $27 (water and electric).  We did make our reservations online a few days in advance due to this being a very popular time and close to spring break. 

This park surrounds a huge lake and is great for all types of boating.  There are several marinas and one day we saw a lot of sailboats.  It is a very pretty area. 

This was our favorite site overlooking the lake (#24). 

Site #24 (lake view)

Workampers site

We talked to a couple of volunteer camphosts and they seemed to enjoy working here very much.  Their sites have a covered roof and have full hook ups and free propane.  You work three days and have four days off. 

The campground has one hiking trail. They had an organized flower hike and an upcoming canoe scavenger hike that sounded like a lot of fun.  It is a very friendly place and most of the campers were local folks.  Our  neighbors even asked us over for a campfire one night.  Priceless!

Across the lake there is a full hook up snow bird campground called Pleasant Harbor RV Resort.  It was an attractive park with activities and a pool.  Sites were very close together but very tidy and neat.  Rate are $600-700/month including all utilities.  There are boondocking sites near the marina and some with water and electric only with a daily rate.  We really liked this boondocking site overlooking the marina.  We might have to return for a visit sometime in the future. 

Boondocking site

Pleasant Harbor Marina

It was great to see a few friends in the area too.  Our friends John and Cathie live in Phoenix and met us for lunch at a nearby outlet mall.  They recently visited us while we were workamping at Cripple Creek and we originally met many years ago in Ixtapa Mexico.  Our visit was short due to John recovering from knee surgery.  We hope he is back in action soon. This picture was from our train trip together last summer.

We also had lunch with Mary and Tom.  They have wintered in Casa Grande for many years.  We met at the Bowling Green Ohio FMCA rally several years before we started fulltiming. Mary has a great blog and has been so supportive of us as we started this journey.  They also have a Dutch Star and Mary gave me some great tips on how to organize our things in the rig after we first purchased it.     

Our site was not lake view site but it was a great place to enjoy the sunset.  We'd stay here again. It is a jewel of a campground.

Jimmy liked it too!

Jimmy sitting in his favorite lawn chair

Thanks for stopping by.  We'll be heading next to Sedona.  Check back soon for some great pictures of the beautiful red rocks.  It's one of our favorite places.