Arizona At Last!

After leaving Moab, we set our sites on hitting Arizona before we stopped for the night. We made it as far as Kayenta, AZ which is in the northwest corner of the state on the Navajo Nation. The warm stuff would have to wait another day. That night it dipped down to 22 degrees which was actually 4 degrees colder than It was back home in Madison, WI.

The next day we were tempted to visit Monument Valley before leaving town but we decided to hit the road so we could reach Mesa.

Before we arrived in Mesa we stopped in Flagstaff. We did not have a lot of time, but we did have tome to stop at Walnut Canyon National Monument. A very nice park and very accessible for Colleen. It was here that the Park Ranger told us about an access card Colleen qualifies for. The card offers her lifetime access to national parks and federal recreational lands. Since I’m her ride, I guess I can come along with.

Our friend Phil talked about the beauty of Sedona and how we need to make a point of going there when we get to Arizona. Since we were only 25 miles away when we were in Flagstaff, we decided to drive through before the sunset. We took the Oak Creek Canyon scenic drive which is a 14 mile stretch. The elevation drops from 6909 feet to 4350 feet. The drive is gorgeous, but I could only appreciate it with short glances because there are a number of hairpin turns and the F350 does not exactly handle like a BMW. We learned after the fact that this stretch of road is rated by Rand McNally as one of the top 5 most scenic drives in the US. Unfortunately we did not have time to stop to take pictures.

As we approached Sedona, we were blown away by the red rock buttes. We were so enamored with the area that we were going to put Mesa off for another day and stay here for the night. Unfortunately we could not find any hotels that would put up with our 2 monsters for the night. We definitely will be coming back to stay in this area.

As we continued south the elevation dropped and the temperature gauge rose. This was very welcoming after our cold wet start. About 10:30 pm we arrived at last hotel in Mesa before picking up our rig. Life is about to get interesting!