Day Four – May 2012

Looks as though I in fact didn’t fall over the edge at the Grand Canyon!

A long and scenic drive north yesterday morning up to the top of the Oak Creek Canyon lookout where we followed in tradition and supported the Native American tribes in the region. I found a nicely inlaid money clip, Tink found herself a cedar bead bracelet to replace the one she had previously and another nice ceramic piece for the mantle at home. The girls found a couple trinkets for themselves as well. A few photos later and we were back on the road.

Continuing the drive up towards Flagstaff where we were pretty certain there was still snow up on Snow Bowl (major ski resort in the area). Took in some good scenery along the drive over to Williams and then on up towards the canyon.

Stopped in Grand Canyon village for a visitor pass and found the gentleman at the store had either just gotten out of bed or recently moved to AZ from some sort of surfing gig in CA. Totally laid back and moved at a snails pace as well. After what seemed like a couple hours we were back on the road. The pass allowed us to bypass the lines and lines of traffic waiting to pay at the gate. Silly people.

We no sooner found ourselves a place to park and stuffed some food in our mouths (after all, it’s the Grand Canyon, we weren’t there to eat) and literally bee-lined down the path towards the big hole.

The views were spectacular as always. Not a cloud in the sky and nothing but little edge portions of the canyon where I could walk out, look down in awe of Mother Nature’s creation. This of course did not sit very well with the spousal unit but hey, you have to get to the edge in order to see the bottom!

We walked a few hundred miles yesterday, saw tons of great views, took lots of wonderful pictures of the scenery and decided we needed to head back down the hill to Sedona.

That was an interesting drive. Coming down Oak Creek Canyon from Flagstaff starts out as one lane switchbacks coming down the mountain side, then it turns into a one lane roadway meandering through the Coconino National Forest back to Sedona. Once at the bottom of the hill, you come into the town and are immediately greeted with spectacular views and all of the pedestrians uptown searching for the next great treasure (or future garage sale items). So here we are, heading down the one-lane roadway into the scenic views and shoppers on a holidayu weekend from one of the most visited places in all of Arizona – you do the math. It was gridlock at it’s finest.

What should have taken about 30-35 minutes ended up taking well over 2 hours. Interesting ride down the hill to say the least. At a minimum the view made it all worthwhile. This is the life you choose when you choose to live here I kept telling myself.

Back home with little time to spare to get ready for our anniversary dinner. The girls went their separate ways uptown for Bri’s golden birthday dinner and my wonderful wife and I spent the rest of the evening at our favorite creekside restaurant – Ken’s Creekside. When you come to Sedona, you need to eat at Ken’s Creekside, their chef’s make the most awesome creations.

A perfect way to top off a wonderful day.