Sedona again....

This time we had Loyce's sister along and decided to change it up a little with a tour out in the desert on a Pink Jeep...

We headed out on the highway that goes thru West Sedona like we were headed to Cottonwood....

But before we hit the end of town he turned North up into the desert.... The first part of the roads were blacktop... But that ended rather abruptly...

We were buzzing right along and I had to hang on once we were on the hard pack roads of the Forrest Service...  Rocks stuck up everywhere...

I had the camera in Sports mode and took shots as we were bouncing along..

Eventually we stopped and this was looking back toward Sedona from on top of a really large dirt knob....

This area is called Bear Mountain and is quite a ways away from what you can see from the usual highway pictures....

There is a hike that is listed as very strenuous, that climbs 2000 feet to the top of the mountain...  People have to be rescued from this activity and sometimes even the rescuers have lost their lives....  We stuck on the Jeeps with known roads and trails...

This is looking across the valley toward Cottonwood which is down in the draw..  At the very right side you can see the mine tailings from the Jerome mines...

These Jeeps aren't just a simple stock vehicle, but rather are completely customized to carry much larger loads over heavy desert settings...  Look at that back spring set up...

Our guide for the tour was Paul..  He has lived in the area for over 20 years and said he had been guiding for Pink Jeep for the last 5 years..

Up front they had stabilizer bars and long travel shocks and springs...  This thing is a serious piece of equipment....

This is a dammed up creek bed where the cattle around this area come to drink.....  You had to watch your step around the water hole as there was cow plops all over the place...

The trip was to last two hours, and it was all of that, out in the quiet of the sand stone rocks and desert.....  Paul kind of talks all the time but otherwise it was nice out there...

We are on the beginning of a big storm coming in and the wind picked up as we were completing the tour...  It was only in the upper 50s anyway so we were glad that the fun was over as we were back in town..

The girls browsed the shops for a while and I just hung out on the main street...  But when we left, I headed out towards Jerome...

By now the skies went overcast so I didn't get any more pictures..  Its about 15 miles from Sedona thru the town of Cottonwood.....

In Jerome, its all about the old and really old shops and buildings on the side of the cliffs....  This is an old copper mine town that has been closed for years...  The mines filled with water and ended their fun...

We stopped for some supper in a Cracker Barrel over in the West end of Mesa as we arrived back in town...

It was a long day, but we always enjoy a trip to Sedona...  And our first time on the Pink Jeeps was a success...  The actual rock climbing tour is called the Broken Arrow, and is another more strenuous jeep outing....  I didn't schedule that for Loyce and her sister as I didn't know how they would take to it for a first time thing...

Maybe the next time when we are by ourselves........

Retired Rod