November 13, 2013

• Epic Road Trip, days 13 and 14

  Day 13 of our road trip wasn't a road trip kind of day, but a day we stayed at "home", playing with the rocks we'd collected the day before, which involved cutting some, polishing some with a sander, and tossing some in the tumbler. The kids enjoyed cutting the rocks up in my Dad's shop, especially Quin who spent several hours at it.

  

  

  The next day was another out-n-about day. We decided to visit Montezuma's Well and then continue on to see some weird things in Sedona. We had hardly even got out of town before we stopped for a geocache near this funny frog rock.

  

  Then we stopped to photograph what is supposed to be the world's largest kokopelli. The roads made it too complicated to get close so this was the best I could do. I cropped out the Starbucks sign that seemed to tower over it, because the kokopelli really was huge. Unless you had that to compare it to.

  

  After that we found our way to the Well. It was blistering hot but we made the trek to the Well and most of the way around it in order to get the information we needed to claim the earthcache there. It's a fascinating place. The well is the only water around and over 1.6 million gallons of water flows through it daily, but no one, even scuba divers, have been able to determine where the water is coming from. Ancient Indians created irrigation systems from the well for their crops.

  

  They also build homes between the water and the ground.

  

  And maybe they had better success at catching lizards than Kendrah did.

  

  Remember that frog rock we stopped at earlier? We saw this one -- even without paint it reminded us all of a giant bullfrog. Can you see it?

  

  The kids and I needed our pictures taken as part of the cache requirements. It was hot and they weren't too agreeable but we managed to get a few shots. This is us trying to look like we're having fun.

  

  We actually were, it was just too hot for them.

  

  The paddle cactus struck my fancy, the way it grew in a line along the top of the rock, without touching it.

  

  Here's another view of the underground structures.

  

  And a shot of the irrigation ditch.

  

  Then it was time to move on to other sites and sights.

  

  Sedona is pretty famous for the red rocks all over the place. It was also pretty green!

  

  We stopped at a Ranger Station / Visitor's Center and killed some time in the A/C building, watching a movie and doing a scavenger hunt.

  

  And letting Ribbert go for a ride on some statues.

  

  One of the rocks we were searching for was the coffeepot --

  

  And, closer:

  

  We stopped by a viewpoint near the airport that gave us a lovely panoramic view of the town and surrounding rocks.

  

  Quin found some green rocks and needed to pose by them.

  

  By then, it was seriously time for a special treat for our mouths instead of just having them for our eyes. We stopped at the Red Planet Diner and placed an order for root beer floats and milkshakes.

  

  

  

  Then, time to hit the road again! We took this trail to a huge sinkhole that had collasped. There were caches to find and amazing things to look at!

  

  

  

  

  Sedona is home to the only McDonalds in the world that does not have golden arches. Here, they are teal blue and we just had to stop and get a picture of it.

  

  

  On the way back home, we stopped at a roadside shop that was a rambling conglomeration of interesting things. I think this is a place you shop when you want something that no one else has, or for something as a gift for someone that has everything. It was a fun, eclectic assortment of decorative items, mostly displayed outside. My camera had a great time, so I will show you a tiny bit of what I saw there.

  

  

  Don't act surprised at this next photo. You know he couldn't resist.

  

  

  The inside of the pots was almost as interesting as the outside. There were stacks of these pots all over the place.

  

  

  

  

  

  Funny thing about this buffalo horns marked $10 each. There was another basket nearby with buffalo horns that were polished and trimmed and beautiful that were marked $9 each. Huh.

  

  

  

  

  After spending a lot of time there it was time to head back home, catching a couple more shots before leaving Sedona.

  

  

  Time to go swimming!

  • 12:51 pm
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