I sometimes forget that people love to do all sorts of shopping type things when they go on holiday. I, personally, look for bookstores. And stores with sparkley things (that would be shiny rocks or bits of silver...) for sale. And, occasionally, JUST occasionally, mind you, I actually go to a place just because it's so unique to walk around and see what's what.
Background story: In Mexico, a little south and east of Guadalajara (which is quite a way down the west coast of Mexico and up 1 mile: if you find Puerta Vallarta on the coast and look inland almost directly East, you'll find it) is an art colorny called Tlaquepaque.
In Arizona, in Sedona, is a shopping area also called Tlaquepaque. It's unique because of its format. Here are a couple of pictures:
Uh huh, that's a small part of Tlaquepaque (Tuh-lah-kay-PAH-kay, with the Tuh-lah actually together as one sound). It's right at the point where SR 89A splits. Just turn left and try to find parking and you're set! Wander at will, enjoy the trees and the sound of Oak Creek AND you can spend money if you really need to.
There are a ton of others stores throughout town. In the oldest section of Sedona, you'll find oldtimers like The Worm (book store) and a couple of the old rock shops (shiny things, remember!). Some of them have been there since the 1960s. That's the part of town I would want to shop in, were I a shopper.
Feeling a bit urban (you can laugh. Sedona is a small town. It is certainly NOT a city, but it's urban enough for me, thank you), we're going to head out down the road through Oak Creek Canyon and return to the bottom of the switchbacks. Because we need to get to the TOP of the switchbacks to get ot Flagstaff (and Mt. Humphreys if you want to ski and it's winter).
Before we leave Sedona, however, an interesting fact: Town water is now more available than it used to be, I understand. This is good, since, becuase bedrock is clearly visible all around, the only way to create a leachfield for a septic system is to blast. Yup, as in dynomite (very small charge). How do I know? Hmmm...well...I worked for a few months for one of the companies that installed septic systems at the time. Ain't it a kick?
Oak Creek Canyon: Here are a couple of pictures (well, several)
This is part of the hike along the west branch of the creek. It's sometime in spring, I think...hard to say.
Another pretty view inside the canyon
On the floor of the canyon, near Slide Rock Park (way cool!), is this apple orchard. Before the state created Slide Rock park , long before, actually, people did live on the flat lands (they are not large) in the floor of the canyon. They planted these trees, which are still busy producing apples (for which the deer and other critters are thankful). The boarded up homes of the folks who dwell here also remain.
There are also private homes all along the edge of the creek as one drives toward the switchbacks.
Oak Creek in the middle of winter - this is NOT average because the ice is actually remaining for awhile, but it does freeze.
This is the major bridge that crosses Oak Creek just as you leave Sedona to go up canyon to ascend the switchbacks. Unlike its predecessor, this bridge actually will support a couple of lanes of traffic without much danger of anyone going into the drink.
You will notice that the bridge is fairly high off the ground. In part, that's because there is a drop to the floor of the canyon from the current level of 89A in Sedona. However, the road in Sedona (and the bridge) are located where they are because flash floods can fill the creek in a matter of minutes so that it becomes Oak Creek River, and a bad tempered one at that. When driving through Arizona, you'll see bridges that apparantly span either small streams or dry river beds. Please don't be fooled. A flash flood is exactly that, and it can do tremendous damage as it moves along. The buttresses on the bridge above are meant to stay intact even after collisions with boulders of a fair size.
(I've seen flash floods and been caught in one, although the one I was caught in was minor at best and only moved my car a few inches before I was able to get clear.).
Anyway, we're leaving flash flooding and icy pretty pictures behind and are now heading up the switchbacks. They are steep and very, very switchy, but they are also a tremendous way to get to the top of the Canyon and look back. And this is what you see:
This is what the first explorers may have seen. It looks like a lot of trees (and they are large pines), but the beauty of the creek and the red rocks (which are out of the picture past the mesa in the back ground) isn't visible.
Yet.
To see it, one would have had to somehow get down the canyon...that's one of the things that is the most intensely interesting to me, imagining how folks did these journeys before switchbacks and interstates...
So, we are at the rim of this small canyon, having climbed a couple of thousand feet in a few minutes.
And, if we turn around, the world around us has changed sharply.
We are above 7000 feet and on our way to Flagstaff. Average annual snowfall: 99.5 inches, with more at the Snowbowl, which is the ski area nearest to Flagstaff. And, yup, we're still in Arizona! (I love it - this state is so darn interesting!!!).
A picture of Mt. Humphreys after an early snowfall: Mt. Humphries is the tallest peak in Arizona at 12,637 feet above sea level.
And, rather than leave everyone on a snowy note, here's Mt. Humprheys in the autumn. The bright yellow trees are aspens, which lend much of the fall color not only to Arizona, but also Colorado and New Mexico:
MUCH PRETTIER! These are mature trees, so this shot is a fair distance away and probably has been done with a zoom lens.
Tomorrow? Who can say? Yup, the canyon is out there. I shall contemplate!!!! (So are St. Louis, San Xavier del Back, the Great Divide and a host of other things. Tombstone, Jerome...what's a girl to DO?
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