Today's excursion turned in to a six-hour trip. We headed for the beautiful red rock country known as Sedona. We have not been to Sedona since June 2006 and boy, how it has grown in five years. This beautiful town has gone upscale big time. No matter how big or upscale Sedona gets, the beauty of the area remains exquisite. I don't know if it is the combination of green, blue, and red but no camera can show the beauty the way our eyes see it.
After our visit to Sedona, we decided to take a different route home and head south towards Prescott as we have heard about it but have never been there. Our travel took us back through Cottonwood (was surprised at how close Cottonwood is to Sedona) and Jerome. As we climbed to the top of Cleopatra Hill, we noticed the Jerome Hotel sitting all regal at the top. Must be some great views from those rooms.
As mentioned in yesterday's post, the road through Jerome is steep, narrow and winding. Not the road to take if you are pulling a trailer or driving a mid-to large sized motorhome. The views going up to the summit are beautiful and the ecosystem is rather strange. You get a mixture of cactus, aloe, grass, and pine trees at the 6,000 foot elevation. Once you reach 7,000 feet, then it is nothing but pine trees. There was one section that we commented reminded us of the Sierra mountain range.
Once you reach the summit, you descend in to this large valley called Prescott Valley. You could tell by the roads and freeway exits, that they were planning on an expanded community until the economy bust hit. We continued on until we reached the outskirts of Prescott. Very nice community with all the amenities one could want. We stopped at the Elks Lodge in Prescott Valley where they have about 18 sites with full hook-ups in a gravel parking lot for $17 a night. A decent deal if you wanted to hangout near Prescott for a while and were an Elk.
We stopped to fill the truck up with diesel and get us something cold to drink. Score! We paid $4.069 for a gallon of diesel in Prescott Valley as compared to $4.259 that we paid for diesel Sunday here in Camp Verde.
Before we knew it, our road trip came to an end and we were back home. It was another good day.
We stopped to fill the truck up with diesel and get us something cold to drink. Score! We paid $4.069 for a gallon of diesel in Prescott Valley as compared to $4.259 that we paid for diesel Sunday here in Camp Verde.
Before we knew it, our road trip came to an end and we were back home. It was another good day.
