Arizona Highways

"Arizona Highways" is the name of a tourism magazine put out by the state of Arizona. It is full of beautiful photographs from scenic places all over the state, with special interest articles that describe specific places to see in a given month.

Today's post includes photos from northern Arizona, Sedona and Oak Creek Canyon, and further south and west as we head into California.

We missed our chance to go over the mountains from Holbrook to Phoenix, so decided to go down I-17 to Phoenix to get on I-10 west. Our smart phones and Google maps conspired to take us further west on I-17, but we resisted their directions, and went south towards Sedona. Ron had read that this was "the most beautiful place on earth" and for Mari, it was a return to her old "stomping grounds" where she first learned about dispersed camping on public lands. Back in those days, you could pull into the Coconino National Forest and find a rudimentary campsite where you would camp for free. Apparently you can no longer do this in Oak Creek Canyon.

The town of Sedona is a cutesy tourist town with homes of wealthy people, boutique shops full of unusual gifts, and lots of souvenir clothing, and plenty of restaurants, coffee shops, wine shops, art shops, etc. But it is in one of the most beautiful settings of red rocks, canyons, and aspen and pine trees, with panoramic vistas from practically anywhere you are.

Here are some photos from the morning:

On the t.v. this morning during breakfast...Snowbowl is open for skiing!

View of Mt. Humphrey's from the east on I-40

A drive through Oak Creek Canyon

A View from Sedona

Panoramic view from a restaurant patio in Sedona

After leaving Sedona, we again defied the smart phone and google maps, and took the scenic route to Jerome. Here's an overlook view:

After Jerome, a drive through the mountains and out on the other side to Prescott.

Pretty views on the way to Prescott

...And there are even nice views heading west from Prescott...can we see California from here????

Surprise! The saguaro cactus let us know that we were in the Sonoran Desert....

It was nice to see some fall color along the way - mostly a very bright yellow - some of them were cottonwoods, but not sure of the others.

Here's some video I (Ron) took of the amazing drive down Oak Creek Canyon into Sedona:

We are in Quartzsite, AZ. This is the RV winter camping capitol of the world! There is free space in the desert all around Quartzsite. We have free camping in a large space. Most campers are spread out at least 100 yards apart.

The town of Quartzsite has a resident population of less then 4000 people, but they have all the services RV campers could possibly want:  The Verizon signal is 4G and 5 bars. We filled our Fresh Water tank up with Reverse Osmosis water for 20 cents/gal at a local gas station. There are RV repair shops. One such is named "The RV Proctologist". There are restaurants galore. Local interest groups abound. Apparently there are music jams available.

We're not going to seek these out. We're headed on to Joshua Tree National Monument. We will drive right over the Colorado River right on the AZ/CA border. A woman at a gas station we stopped at yesterday noted our Kayaks and told me she Kayaked on that river just last week. Perhaps we'll come back to that after we return from Hawaii.

Time to start folding up Dora and head on......

All the best,

Ron and Mari.