Friday, April 5, 2024

Moving on up to Sedona

I'm a little behind on my posts.  This post is for April 3rd.

This morning, I was up early, and we had a little breakfast, took Teddy over so Annie could give him a hug and wish him a happy new life.  Then we were off to the Pet Smart to buy Teddy a collar, harness and a leash, all black.

Traveling across Phoenix for the last time wasn't too bad.  The traffic was heavy but moving right along.  When we hit I-17 we knew we were heading north and soon we were heading up and down, slowly reaching around 5000 feet.






There was one uphill run that went for over 6 miles up.  I just put my hazard lights on and stayed with the long line of trucks.  At times, I would drop to 2nd and hover around 20 mph, but we made it fine with no overheating.  I was happy!

We turned on to hwy 260 at Camp Verde heading to Cottonwood.  Dolly and I stayed at the Dead Horse Ranch State Park many years ago.  It was going to be my back-up plan if I couldn't find a suitable dispersed camping site near Sedona near the red cliffs.

In Cottonwood, I turned north on hwy 89A and traveled about 6 miles to Forest Road 525 into the Coconino National Forest.  There are not very many campsites anymore since most of the sites were closed down and everyone is squeezed into the few that are left.

The road is the normal Arizona desert dirt roads.  Rough, but no problem at a slow pace.  I passed four or five full designated areas and by the time I was 10 miles in, I finally found one with a beautiful view of the red cliffs.


Here are a few pictures as the sun was setting.
Sunset



Tired now.  I didn't get parked until around 3 o'clock, much longer than the 2 1/2 hours Google said.  Tonight, we all rest and tomorrow, I will unhook the Jeep and explore the area.  

Thanks for stopping by. 

6 comments:

  1. I love the views! I dislike the long climbs though.
    Glad to hear you intend to keep Teddy on a leash for this adventure.
    Safe travels.

    Deb

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  2. Check out Jerome ... it's a fun little town.

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  3. Beautiful photos of the trip and the cliffs. That was a long hill you had to traverse. Glad there were no problems. I hope you boys see more wonderful sights.

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  4. Doug, I think you have the same V-10 engine we had in our Class C. Driving over 90,000 miles in 10 years and the thing NEVER even got close to over-heating! When that secondary fan kicked in the first time it startled me, but my BIL assured me it was to cool the transmission fluid. I agree with Nancy, Jerome is the place to see...but in Jeep, not the motorhome which I am sure she would agree with me in saying that! Love the new doggie...

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  5. You will love Jerome, worth a look.
    The scenery is gorgeous. We stayed in the Page Springs Rv Park near Cottonwood, no phone service down in the park but i loved it there.

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  6. Cottonwood...Camp Verde ...one of our very favorite areas. Lots of beautiful scenery. We stayed at the Thousand Trails outside Cottonwood. Enjoy!

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