From the mountains to the desert floor

Our drive from Lake Powell to the Sedona area was another beautiful road trip. 55 miles down a two lane highway with only a dozen cars.  We took the inland route and never had to go over the the mountain with the incredible grade down to Black Springs.  We then moved into Navajo territory at The Gap.  Through Cameron and Gray Mountain into Flagstaff. We stopped for a moment so Jack could stretch his legs and he and I saw a whole family of wood chucks running in and out of their tunnels. We passed Wupatki National Monument and Sunset Crater Volcano National Monument.  Although we didn't have time to stop, we hope to do so on our way east.

Next on to 17 and up past Wilson mountain at 7,122 feet. You haven't lived until you are in an RV and you see a sign that says, "6% downgrade next 18 miles." 18 miles-we had never seen anything like it. Signs kept appearing saying, "Save your brakes! 12 miles to go".  We saw one tractor trailer on the side of the road with his brakes smoking. We sort of figured out how to take our RV and tow dolly down mountains and didn't have any problems.

We reached Distant Drums RV park in Camp Verde in the middle of the Verde Valley.  Warmer than the high mountains we came from and cooler than Phoenix down the road.  Mountains, deserts, ghost towns, and five national parks or monuments within 1 hour drive. We wanted to stay in Sedona but apparently snow birds come to Arizona as well as Florida. Even a month in advance we could only get a reservation from the 16th to the 22nd. Not a day early or a day later. Our son Scott, his wife Leigh and our 9 year old granddaughter, Julia, flew into Phoenix today and are driving to Sedona.  It's Julia's spring break and we met them last year in Santa Barbara. So, we ended up in Camp Verde, but even here things are busy. There are 157 spaces at this camp and they are full. We are finding that more and more whenever we want to stay near a national park or a destination city.  So many people on the road. 

The day after getting set up, we went over to Costco and Trader Joe's for basics and fun.  Just like home, except the closest one is in Prescott, 35 miles away. I love driving the road here. Big open spaces, good roads, beautiful wild flowers and more open space.

Next we headed to Tuzigoot National Monument just beyond Cottonwood.  More about Cottonwood next time, but for now, it was a cowboy town and home to bootleggers during prohibition. Tuzigoot is the remnant of a Southern Sinagua village built between 1000 and 1400.  It was a multiple family pueblo high atop a long ridge rising 120' above the Verde valley. The original pueblo was two stories high in some places and 87 rooms. At it's height, over 200 people lived here. No one knows why they left but by the early 1400's, they were gone.  

 And look, my favorite person at the top.