The Red Rocks at Sedona

We hauled it outta Tucson fairly early and Sedona was only about four hours off so we had some time to explore along the way. Little known fact; Arizona has the most national parks and monuments out of any state in the union. We stopped at Casa Grande about an hour north of Tucson. It means great house and was only one building out of the many ruins at the complex but it was the largest and best preserved. It's impressive how well preserved it is considering the area was abandoned by the Hohokam Indians during the 1300's! 

 Next stop was Montezumas Castle, also just a short drive off the I-10. Montezuma never made it this far north but the name stuck and whats in a name anyway? This structure is probably about thirty feet up the wall and consists of 18 rooms. The archeologists believed 45 some odd people lived up in this dwelling. Imagine the rickety ladder these people had to climb up and down with all their worldly possessions. What's Ivys favorite tree?

The Camo Tree!

These ruins are of the same style about 60 feet from the castle. It is believed these were roughly twice these size and housed 100 people. I guess it didn't fair as well as the castle without the abundance of cover from the outcroppings. They were a community much like the Hohokam at Casa Grande. Strangely enough these people also disappeared in the 1300's.

The drive into Sedona on it's own is pretty rad the way the landscape changes as you creep into the high desert. From cactus and sand gradually into juniper and red rock. The temperature stayed pretty consistent the whole way and was about 77F when we arrived at 5pm.I love the way new scenery jumps out from behind what is around us when we're on a winding road. The mountain appearing beyond these ridges for instance.



Nuff said.



We went out for a hike despite the forecast calling for bad weather. It had barely broken 20F by 10am a drastic change from the desert weather we've become accustomed to. Unintentionally we ended up on the Soldier's Pass trail and i couldn't complain. What could be have more majestic beauty than this?

Ivy of course!!

This is what they call the Teacup along the same trail head as Soldier's pass. I think it is interesting to see both sides of geological formations in such close proximity. The caved in empty space the size of a four bedroom house crowned by a much larger, spiring mountain. About here we ran put of time as the clouds rolled over and down the mountainside and the rain began. We've been excited to get to Utah since we started the trip so no one was broken hearted to get there finally! 



When you get lemons you gotta make lemonade.  Who cares if its dumping snow as we are driving up a wild, winding mountain road. We threw on the Christmas carols, drove like old people and jingled all the way:)