Grand Canyon & Sedona, AZ

Sunday, 7/17/11

Typical scenery of Sedona. The town is surrounded by a canyon of these beautiful rock formations.

Look towards the top to see Christian and Ethan after hiking up to the natural bridge.

This is the jeep we rented to get to the trails. I felt like we were in a Jeep commercial navigating through real mountain terrain.

Christian, Ethan, and me, hiking up to the natural bridge.

Christian & Ethan investigating the Van Deren Cabin.

Christian and Ethan reading the history about this historical cabin.

Ethan was always trying to find something to balance on. He ran in and out and all around things exploring and climbing.

PaPere and Ethan checking out the collapsed chimney.

Ethan standing by the carving of a Koshari Clown Dancer Kachina Doll. Their actions are humorous and are often shown with watermelons to show they are gluttons.

Ethan loved the bronze sculptures, which were prevalent throughout the southwest. This is a Native American Indian titled The Changing Woman.

The three of us having dinner at The Cowboy Club in Sedona. We dined outside on the sidewalk.

We struggled getting up and moving this morning. But we managed to get our breakfast before heading out to Sedona, Arizona. I love to say that.

The trip down to Sedona took longer than we anticipated. It seems to have doubled in size since we had been there and the traffic getting through that two lane highway was wild. By the time we reached the city we were all ready for lunch. We lunched at a brewery and grill called Oak Creek Brewery and Grill. There was a lot of action going on, many patrons were watching the World Cup.

After lunch we head to Barlow Jeep Rentals. Christian had reserved a Jeep for us to take literally to the top of a mountain. (A mountain with only trails no real roads.)

The Jeep we rented was terrific, much nicer than the one we took to the bottom of the canyon. The only problem I had was getting my leg high enough to climb in.

We had to acquire a permit in order to drive down the off-road trail that a lot of people hiked from. The jeep could only take us so far and then we had to hike the rest of the way to the natural bridge called the Devil's Bridge. At first Ethan struggled up the steep grade, but his second wind kicked in and he persevered.

I on the other hand did quite well about half way up, then suddenly struggled and succombed to the fact that I wasn't up to the grades. Miles stayed behind with me. We were at least rewarded with the picture of Christian and Ethan at the top of the trail.

As they came back down it began to rain. We hiked back to the Jeep in the rain and it felt good, nice and cool in contrast with the high temperature of earlier.

Our next stop was the Van Deren Cabin. Christian did a great job of negotiating around and over bolders and streams. There were a couple of spots that he stopped to get out to inspect the best way to tackle the obstacles. It got a little hair-raising, but he got us there.

Van Deren was the second to own the cabin. He purchased it from the original homesteader, Bill Fredericks, known locally for his good whiskey. You may notice in the picture that the cabin had two distinctive rooms. In 1930 Van Deren decided to get married and built the south cabin which was dubbed the "honeymoon cabin". The other side, in the picture Ethan looks like he is standing on a pile of rocks, was the kitchen and living area. The rocks were the original chimney. This cabin was used in a couple of movies in the 1940's. I couldn't image bringing up a camera crew this terrain.

After that trek we only had time on our rental to drive back down the mountain to return the Jeep.
Now it was time for a little shopping. Christian wanted to bring something special back to Kelley and Logan. We searched for a while, then fortuitously happened upon a great shop displaying some of the local artists items. We all bought something their. I found a great little teapot. (Can you believe I bought another one?) We found that place just in time, because Christian needed to get back to the Phoenix airport. He was flying out at midnight.

We said our good-byes and watched him drive off literally into the sunset.

Ethan, Miles and I then walked around the community looking at the various arts and crafts. I was trying to find a Kachina, Crow Mother. It seems that this one is difficult to find, one that is made by a Hopi artist. There are many made by Navajo artists.

Once we realized how late it was getting we made a bee-line for The Cowboy Club restaurant. We sat on the sidewalk in front and had a great time at dinner.

Ethan fell asleep in the car driving back to our hotel in the Grand Canyon. It took us a while to get back because our crazy GPS gave us a couple of conflicting routes. Thank goodness for iphones. After comparing the two different routes we managed to negotiate our way back to the Squire Inn.