SEDONA
We land in Phoenix,
rent a big SUV and head towards the red, sandstone city of Sedona,
116 miles north; named after Sedona A.M. Schnebly, wife of the city’s first
post master, celebrated for her warmth and diligence. For some distance, our
eyes ride the Camelback Mountain
and almost the whole distance is marked with the big, aged and blossomed
Saguaro cactus and the sparingly green patched red earth on both sides of the
road.
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| Glowing Gold |
We reach
panoramic Sedona early in the evening, just to fall in love at first sight as
we have beautiful views of the glowing gold, prominent mammoth red rocks
bathing in the soothing, setting sun; just in front of our inn! We relax for
some time and go to the lightly crowded, frolicky main street; slowly adjusting
itself with dusk and then darkness with well lit aesthetically sculptured
statues and artifacts on the roadside; and restaurants beaming live music. The
cool evening is refreshing as we walk and come across people with children
playing a variety of xylophones; we also try our skills and Poonam, my better half,
enjoys it a lot. Finally we dine in a spacious, Mexican restaurant and return
to our hotel for a good night’s sleep.
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| Men r men..... |
Next morning, we
have a hearty breakfast at a spread of boiled eggs, toasts and bagels with
cream cheese, marmalade, butter, cinnamon rolls and yoghurts blended with
strawberries, peach and orange juice; of course with plenty of hot coffee and
tea to stimulate us for a romance with warm red Sedona, an unusually beautiful
place with a number of vortexes supposed to give one, special energizing and
spiritual effects! Let me tell you, to begin with, that much before it changed
into a full fledged tourist spot since 1980s, it has been a destination for the
slow but potent Western Movies of Hollywood! Well, we head for the Bell Rock
(elevation 1470 meters), one of the vortexes, and reach its base in half an
hour. This enormous, historical red butte with horizontally bedded sedimentary rock
looks like a combination of tops of Buddhist Stupas at the lower levels
and a couple of minuscule Pagodas at the peak.
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The Bell Rock,combination of Stupas n Pagodas
We follow the trail for a
considerable distance, able to view other magnificent red rock formations like
the Courthouse Butte (elevation 1660 meters).But as the sun, high in the blue,
unpolluted skies, is very inclement, we shall be doing a jeep tour of the
rugged terrain later.
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We return to our car and proceed to the Oak
Creek Canyon, a
thirteen miles picturesque route with Ponderosa pines and hairpin bends, next
only to the Grand Canyon in popularity as a tourist attraction.
We end up in the Slide Rock State Park seven miles after; this is the three
miles essence of the Oak Creek with a rim of red and white rocks all the way,
mainly carved by a tributary of the Verde River, beginning with the remnants of
an apple orchard developed by late Frank L. Pendley in 1912 with an indigenous
irrigation system, in use even today!
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| A part of the Apple Orchard with old irrigation equipement |
We walk further towards the main park and
then in the opposite direction of the gentle stream with a large number of holydayers young
and old, bathing, swimming, fishing, sunbathing and playing games. Buoyed by
the lively atmosphere, we also prepare ourselves to have a go as we reach the
stretch of the water flowing over harmlessly bumpy and slippery red rocks and
finally splashing one into a comfortable, cool pool to stand up in the water
again and have fun in breathfuls. Hmm….., getting out is not so easy without help, but
surely more fun as the tourists get friendly pulling out each other and you can
redo the slide as many times as you want!
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| Slide water splash |
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| Slide water area |
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| A panoramic View from Apple Orchard, Oak Creek Canyon |
Energized and back to Sedona
Main Street by early evening, we decide to take
the slow motion roller coaster Jeep trip in the mountainous terrain of the Broken
Arrow trail to have an overall view of scenic Sedona.
The pretty, stylish but rugged Pink jeep, takes us through the zigzag, uneven
paths smoothly and stealthily, as if it does not want to disturb the various
red rock personalities existing around since ages! We reach the stocky and
slippery Chicken Point, with pert comments from the expert driver-cum-guide of
the vehicle, who also takes our family pictures with beautiful backdrops of the
unusual mountains all around. Then we move on to the Submarine Rock Point from
where we get a 360degrees view of the whole territory consisting of the fantasy
in white amidst red: The Wilson Mountain, The Munds Mountain, The Twin Buttes, The
Bell Rock, The Cathedral Complex, Courthouse, you-name-it-we-see-it, with
positive vortices, trod by Indians and people of different cultures in the
course of the American History and a perennial inspiration for writers and
movie makers!
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| The Wilson Mountain |
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| The Twin Buttes |
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| Courthouse Butte from the city |
In the evening we go to the interesting vortex point near the Airport Mesa where a large number of people gather, may be, to absorb the positive energies from the Vortex point. But, definitely the sunset time gives the most beautiful and peaceful views of all the red rock natural structures around Sedona, on the other side, resembling monoliths of exquisite shapes, from red to orange to gold as we stand awestruck in the dreamy, cool breeze encompassing us.
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| Sunset time View from Airport Mesa View point with Sedona in the fore |
MORE PICTURES FROM JEEP TOUR
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| From the Submarine Point |
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| The Hawk Point |
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| Happy at the SubMrne Point |
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| Yea...The Hawk is There, spot it! |
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| Cactus Flowers With LOVE @Chicken Pt |
COLORADO MAGIC
Next morning,
after an early breakfast, our next promising destination is The Grand Canyon; a
nature’s Wonder and everyone’s dream! Yea…our journey begins with a delightful
drive through the curving route in the lush Coconino Forests passing the Oak
Creek Canyon
region once again and it takes about three hours to reach the spacious, well
planned and buzzing with people South Rim of the Grand
Canyon National Park.
We directly go to the Visitor Center
and as our daughter Niti is completing the formalities, we peruse the huge,
with natural colors plan of the Canyon and then sit watching the ‘Science on a
Sphere’ 360-degree global imagery speaking about the legendary landmark. We
happily discover that names of Bramha, Rama, and Vishnu are associated
with the foremost schist at the base of the Canyon with the mighty, satiated Colorado,
after flowing through 277(446 km) miles for billions of years, patiently carved
one of the greatest sculptures of the world, dividing the compatible Kaibab
Plateau!
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| A view from Mather Point |
We proceed to
the Mather Point, the starting point of the trail, to have the stunning first
view of the Great Gorge, with a range of huge hills against the backdrop of the
rim, spotted with greenery, popping up with different formations and strata of
colors varying from almost black at the base thru grey, mud, red, orange, green
and white ending up in flat or pointed tops creating ultimate impressions for
us to soar high on a Magic Carpet of imagination and glide high and low amidst
them and perch on any one of them for a bird’s eye view! Trying to gobble the
canyon wide eyed, we slowly move on to the Yavapai point from where we see the
beautiful Isis temple formation along with
the distinct massive Shiva Temple
and the Cheops Pyramid formations. Well, to understand it simply, I
think all the civilizations gather in the unique, natural, mystique canyon with
grandiose representation for peoples from all over the world to have thrill,
sense of belonging and fulfillments.
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| O'Neil Butte(red) in the fore from Mather point |
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| Bright Angel Canyon from Yavapai Point |
As we move on,
the intricacies and colors of the canyon unfold and the treats for the eyes
and, of course for the camera, multiply; the Maricopa point from where we get
nice, unobstructed views of the canyon with the gaping Bright Angel and Garden
creeks; several miles of the snaking and alluring Tonto Trail taking us into
the treasures of the canyon also begins from here, a case of sour grapes in our
case as it is not in our program!
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Powell Point as we proceed from Maricopa Point
We move on to the massive, white and beautiful Powell
Point, named after late John Wesley Powell, a brilliant scholar, Geologist, teacher, soldier, explorer and discoverer of the canyon with two extensive expeditions; the Big Canyon till then, was called the Grand Canyon by him first! This spacious view
point is the most crowded with the people enjoying the views, relaxing, having
lunch and also, the children, playing around. The sight of a big squirrel,
trying to eat a big plastic
container being saved from doing so by an agile tourist by actually reaching it
in a flash and knocking away the container from its hands was quite laudable.
As
the light is at the peak, the views of the buttes, creeks and also the water in
the river are distinct with different colorations and when we view them amidst
the white rocks of the present point, the contrast is just dramatic. We move on to the nearby Hopi point and get a
feeling that we are more in the air with more views, both of east and west deep
down the gorge! Then we move along the rim curving inside to reach the scenic
Mohave Point; again a promontory giving the views of deeper and far off
sections as if taking us into an abyss and I again think of the magic carpet
which will glide me into it! But it turns out to be the time for us to return
and stick to the excellent schedule planned by our otherwise busy daughter, for
a great holiday.
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| Mohave Point |
We have a grub
of turkey and cheese sandwiches, salads and yoghurts and we start for the
distant points on the southern rim, reaching Lipan point over a fairly straighter
route of twenty two miles. This beautiful point at an elevation of 7400ft with
the fresh, 270 million year old( get the joke?) white Kaibab formation gives a
treat of a maze of peaks, lovely green Colorado waters at the Vishnu
stratum(1.8 billion years old!) and the prominent, Escalante butte. We spend
good lot of time with lots of people around and pleasant sunshine in the
evening.
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| From Lipan Point, Escalante Butte n the River |
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Lipan Point, an array of peaks
The Desert View
is our final destination of the canyon, where we are welcomed by beautiful
cactus flowers to begin with and then the attractive, Pueblan style watchtower.
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| Cactus Flowers @Desert View |
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From the Desert View Point
We move around the tower to see exciting views of the rim and the green Kaibab
forests above them leading into desert regions; a cluster of buttes overlooking
the Colorado and the Palisades.
I request a strikingly beautiful, very tall, wearing a cute small nose ring, perhaps
European lady, with a shorter gentleman to take our picture and we are
delighted that she gracefully clicks for us with the full advantage of her
height for the best backdrop; “she may be an actress or a model”, I think after
thanking her; finding her in a great holiday mood, sipping wine discreetly from
a small bottle, once in a way from her hand bag.
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| The Watch Tower |
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| A Verdant View of the Rim n Beyond |
Soon we enter the 70 foot watchtower designed
perfectly by the American architect Mary Colter and the enthralling, out of the
world murals by the Hopi artiste late Fred Kabotie,
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| The Enthralling Mural |
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| Another angle |
to give us a feel of the
Native American culture with stone and Adobe (sand, clay, water and some
fibrous material of sticks, straw or manure) structures in their times as we
climb the spiral stairs for each of the four floors, enjoying the curious
Indian paintings and petroglyph style artifacts by late Fred Greer. By the time we reach the top for the views, I
start getting a feeling of Indians, birds and animals moving around in the valleys
before me! Well, to explore them is a marathon job of months together where as
we just have a total of eight days to do the Four Corners of Arizona, Utah,
Colorado and New Mexico at their meeting point.
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| At Hopi Point |
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| From Powell Point |
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| LIPAN POINT |
RAJA RAM ATRE
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