Exploring Sedona
Tuesday, March 8th, 2011 – After couple days of work we decided to get out again today. It turned out good as this last couple days (Sunday and Monday) were colder and rainy. I think I should not say it out loud that I want to go exploring. Seems like my customers are listening… As soon as I got up this morning I faced some urgent requests from customers that got to be done immediately. I think they heard I want to get out so they called … 
By the time I was done dealing with urgencies it was already noon. Never mind – I told Patti, we still have good 6 hours of light and we can do something. So here is the plan – let’s go to the grasshopper park and at the evening catch a nice sunset at the airport. I heard that there is a good views from there. Sedona is only 15 miles from Cottonwood (where we are), so that should not take us too long to get there.
We stopped at the visitor center on the east side of town to get a parking permit and some information. Turns out we don’t need a permit since we have our National Parks Annual Pass. 
That is great! Found a nice book about hikes in Sedona (There are quite a few of those), and asked about the best sunset point. They confirmed what I already heard - the the airport is THE place. The lady also pointed out that the Grasshopper park is more of a summer place since people are swimming and jumping of the rock, but the Cathedral rock is a nice hike we could take.That was a great advice as it turns out. The trail climbs up the Cathedral rock to the base of the big pillars (The Saddle) and exposes magnificent views of all the area. It is a short but strenuous trail with some slippery smooth rocks to climb, but it sure worth the effort. The picture below is a composition of 16 pictures (Not covering everything as you can see) of the south views from the top of the saddle.
Stayed at the top and explored a little while. Not only the views were amazing but also the feeling of being there – overlooking the endless beauty almost taken from a fairytale book.
I picked some of the photos for your enjoyment, so take a look at the slide show (Start it from the beginning) – Hope you would like it, or better yet – come and take this hike.
It was around 5:00pm when we started heading down just enough to get to the car and drive to the airport overlook for the sunset. It must be a known place for sunset since it was sooo crowded when got there. Seems like people just heard of this fire ball that was discovered yesterday and orbits around our planet (or so it seems) leaving strange bright colors as it disappears, a phenomena known by the name sunset. The crowd that gathered in this place has every equipment you can think about, from a sophisticated Nokia flip phone with a camera, to a simple Canon D1 with huge lenses and tripods.
Stereotyping States
The views were not so thrilling or maybe we set our expectations too high. But there is one thing I want to share with you. There were hundreds of cars in the parking lot, and people went all the way to the back to park in an empty spot. There was enough parking for everybody. Except from one car. They didn’t feel like driving all the way to the back and they parked in a place that blocked someone else’s car. 
When we walked back to our car, we noticed the blocked car owner standing puzzled by his car waiting for the blocking car owners to come and let him out, but they were not so much in a rush. People that walked by made some comments to the guy – like “They blocked you in huh? What a consideration, but on the other hand what can you expect – it is a car from CA”… We heard this reference to the western neighbor state from more than one person. It might be a stereotype, but it sure was a CA plate, and it was the only car which did not park in an empty spot like everybody else. Hmm something to think about.
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 – I really wanted to post this blog yesterday, but had so many obstacles – first – my laptop started beeping when it starts up, and when I ran memory tests it crashes repeatedly on one of the tests. No idea what is wrong, but that worries me. Second – Patti did not feel good. I am not sure if we over-did yesterday or it is the remains of her last flu attack, either way I wanted to comfort her and help her.
After dealing with the normal urgencies of the mornings, I found some time and sat down to post the blog. BTW – the new camera is awesome! There is still so much to learn about it, and there are so many options and settings… The only thing is – the new camera is much heavier than the D70, and I can feel it on the neck strap. I may need a different strap for it.What’s next? Maybe Tomorrow we will find time for another hike in the area, and Friday we are moving towards CA. It will probably take us couple days to get there, so we will be there by Sunday, close to Lake Elsinore, the closest campground I could find to my kids.
Hope you like the pictures this time, I think they are cool (most of them) and some credit for those pictures is for Patti who is getting more and more into photography, and now she is a
“Nikon person” too. Let me know what you think, leave a comment, rate this blog or click on one of those “Cool-interesting-boring” buttons. and before I forget – we have couple new followers to the blog, slowly we are growing
Welcome! Thank you for joining and bigger than you for staying and following!So until next time…
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