Tom has upgraded to the expander pack version of the National Park pass and good thing because my basic version’s Western Region was pretty much full by the end of the day! Breakfast and a stroll through the Kolb Studio this morning and then we bid the big canyon good-bye. It was wonderful to see it in the winter with the touches of snow and very light attendance but we will have to return to visit the North Rim one of these days.
We headed for the Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monuments. There’s a beautiful scenic road connecting them that has a few outlooks and pueblo ruins to visit. On that road and the main road drive to Wupatki the wide expanse of open land with desert grasses and brush with the San Francisco peaks in the background was gorgeous. The grasses are a very light yellow and the brush had soft gray and blue tones.
Great ruin at Wupatki and the temperature was in the 60s so we were peeling off the sweaters! We did the short walk as we both admitted to being rather “ruined out” at this point.
Gorgeous and mostly peaceful drive to Sunset Crater. There was just that red Camero that went blowing by us on the park road – we saw the car at Sunset but didn’t figure out who the driver was. Strange to be hot rodding in a National Park. Had to bundle up again at Sunset Crater as the temperature dropped 15 degrees as we climbed.
We took 89A, the scenic route, from Flagstaff to Sedona. Crazy descent with lots of insane hairpin turns. Glad I was not driving that minivan! The road condition was abysmal, not a complete surprise as the Arizona roads are generally in terrible repair. Back in Sedona now. Red Rocks still looking marvelous and tomorrow should be a good day to take Pearl out for a ride.