Monday, October 20, 2008

A scenic drive

On Sunday me and D decided to go for a bit of a drive. The direction? Northward, by way of Sedona and the scenic road up the Oak Creek Canyon.

 

For those who are unfamiliar with Sedona it is a bit of an odd place. On one hand you have the tourist aspect, which means that parking on weekends is nearly impossible, everything is expensive, and the traffic round-abouts end up causing mayhem. On the other hand you have a very beautiful background of red sandstone, with some awesome hiking trails where you can get some breathing room. On the third hand you have the Energy Vortexes. Yeah, it's a New Age thing....

 

Our destination was a quick lunch (which ended up not being all we had hoped), a stop by Rollies camera shop (which ended up not being all we had hoped), and a beautiful drive up the canyon (which is always more than we could hope for).

 

We did make a few stops. One was at the large bridge on Highway 89A:

(go to the big picture to see Shaggy Christmas's progress)

 

From there we drove the winding road up to the scenic overlook that peers down the entire canyon:

 

After talking to the park ranger I learned that this is about as colorful as it will get in these parts (due to the high volume of evergreens):

 

From there we continued up Highway 89A to Flagstaff, where we stopped at a Village Inn restaurant for a slice of pie.

 

Not too shabby for a Sunday! :)

See all 15 photos here.

8 comments:

Granny J said...

Neat pix -- but on that route, how could they be anything but??? BTW, where is the bridge on 89A that you are showing? I don't remember it & haven't been that way for far too many years.

TomboCheck said...

GrannyJ - Glad you liked the pics. :)

After a little investigation it looks like it is the Wilmont W. Midgley Bridge, located here

Also sometimes referred to as the Wilson Canyon Bridge, it was built in 1939, though my guess is that it has seen some changes since then. :)

Kitty said...

Those are STUNNING shots. Nice work! x

TomboCheck said...

Well thank you Kitty! It's a pretty stunning area, and I happened to have luck on my side when taking the shots. :)

Melissa said...

The whole set is outstanding. Not that I'm surprised.

Thanks for continuing to make me rethink Arizona.

TomboCheck said...

Melissa - Glad you enjoyed! Now you just have to come see the real deal for yourself. :)

Chickenbells said...

Tom! The pictures are just gorgeous...

TomboCheck said...

Thanks Sadira!