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Disclaimer: The views expressed in this web log are the personal opinions of Ian D Smith, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the staff or members of the Official Lord of the Rings fan club. Sedona and Flagstaff |
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After a slight delay (note to self: don't pack a battery charger for your camera and then an hour out realise you've left the
adapter behind), Pip (Lesley) and I set off for Sedona a.k.a. Red Rock City, which is about two and a half hours away from the
Grand Canyon. Our plan was to stay overnight in Flagstaff (about an hour's drive between Sedona and the Grand Canyon) since
it doesn't suffer from the "marked up" hotel prices of The Grand Canyon The roads are pretty quiet. We pass through the classic Arizona cactus plants, known as the Saguaro cactus (photo's in camera unable to be downloaded because of laptop software problems) and then reach more flat countryside. The weather is not as hot as I'd been lead to believe, mainly because there is a fair amount of cloud overhead. We eventually pass through downtown Sedona which features the only MacDonalds in the world to have green, and not yellow, arches. Sedona is very proud of its red and green look and refused to let MacDonalds spoil this with bright yellow arches. When we get to Sedona we decide to take one of the Pink Jeep tours (so-called because you're transported by pink jeep). We choose the "Broken Arrow" tour which lasts two hours, and is named after the 1950's film of the same name starring James Stewart. We are taken to the area that used to be owned by Paramount and other film companies during the boom time for the Western (1920-1970). The roads are extremely narrow and dangerous - and it soon becomes clear why the tour brochure shows us a jeep almost on its back end. This isn't a tour - it's a roller-coaster ride! I get some great pictures (I wish I could show them but thanks to a full disk and the inability of Canon's software to do anything other than loop saying "Corrupt picture database. Please create a new database " before closing itself down, I can't!) which will have to be uploaded when I get back to the UK. After the tour we head for Flagstaff and find a great economy hotel. $58 buys a room with two big double-beds, separate shower and sink rooms, a fridge, a microwave, a colour TV, a swimming pool and "complimentary continental breakfast". Click here for Grand Canyon pictures/report |