Sedona: Steep grades, skinny-dipping, and eating worms

We are now in Sedona, also known as Red Rock Country, one of the prettiest areas in the entire United States. After leaving Winslow on I-40, we drove across the southern edge of the Painted Desert (very windy), then to Flagstaff (another beautiful area, lots of pine trees and even elk in the woods) and dropped down south on I-17 through some steep canyons. 

As  you may know, we are driving a 40 foot long, diesel pusher motor coach (we call it “The Bus”, although long time RV’ers would cringe at that appellation), with our small Honda CR-V mini-SUV towing behind, loaded with kayaks and mountain bikes (two each). Total length of this “big rig” is about 55 feet; total weight is about 40,000 lbs (twenty tons). 

Needless to say, when you’re on a long downhill, you build up a lot of momentum. Big coaches, like semis (tractor trailers) have engine brakes as well as air brakes on their wheels. When you see signs like this, you start to make preparations, because if you do things right, you hopefully won’t have to use the runaway truck ramp...  

A runaway truck ramp is an interesting engineering solution to a potential nightmare; it is an area that’s been designed to slow the runaway on a steep downhill by letting the driver steer the truck/bus/RV onto a slight uphill grade (if available) followed by a gravel/sand stopping area at the end. If his brakes can stop him on the first part, he might not need the gravel and sand at the end. If the truck goes into the gravel/sand, it buries itself up to the axles, and it’s not an easy task getting it out. (Can you say “Humongous Tow Truck”?)

Suzanne was driving this stretch of road (I like to give her the hardest parts of the journey; I tell her it builds character....). As we passed the 6% grade sign (the one with the truck doing a swan dive) and started down the mountain, I awoke from a pleasant dream and tightened my seat belt just a bit. I felt her downshifting from 6^th gear to 4^th and engaging the engine brake (it’s a little red rocker switch right by the driver’s left elbow). The Bus started slowing down from 60 to 45 mph, even though we were descending. She was doing everything right, just like a seasoned semi driver, even though we only got our motor home in March of 2011. She got plenty of practice doing hills and mountains last summer when we went up to Canada; the steepest we saw was a 12% grade in Quebec... let me tell you, that was a sobering sign, twice the grade you normally see on Interstates. It is truly attention-getting how quickly all that mass builds up momentum going down hill.  Again, I let her do that stretch of road... “But Honey, I didn’t know this was going to be that steep a highway....”.

Anyway, we made it into Sedona for a couple of nights’ R&R. We drove out to Bell Rock, a famous vortex site, and climbed up a couple of hundred feet for a sunset meditation session. Yes, I also find places like Bell Rock sacred and worthy of a “time out” to think, admire the beauty of nature, and thank God for all my blessings.

We were up early for a three hour hike in Oak Creek Canyon on the West Branch trail. The trail follows Oak Creek, and actually crosses the creek a dozen times or more, but with it being mid-summer, water levels were down and we didn’t have to get our feet wet. The only negative part of the hike was a noisy group of 10-12 year old Boy Scouts; having been a Cub Scout, Boy Scout and Explorer Scout as a youngster, I did have to volunteer a comment to the Scoutmaster; I was taught to try to move as quietly as an Indian in the forest, not to let everyone within a half mile know that I was there. One of the benefits of being older now is that I can impart my sage wisdom to the younger generation. I am sure they appreciated it...

We are pretty sure our daughter Susan was with us on this hike, because we saw this flock of beautiful yellow butterflies on the trail.


















Suzanne enjoyed this hike immensely with her new hiking boots; she says it's the first time ever that she has hiked for over 3 hours without any pain in her feet...

We passed this father teaching his young baby about the wilderness and the joys of skinny-dipping... and you thought it was going to be me and Suzanne, didn't you? Naughty, naughty!

At the turnaround point of the hike is a very narrow canyon that you can wade through for another quarter mile, but we had not taken sandals with us, so we had an energy bar and headed back down. With another mile to go, I was famished, and decided that being in the wilderness, I should find something natural to eat, like on the Survivor TV show.... if you’ve never tried them, worms are actually quite tasty...