Day 5--Playing in and around Sedona

Sedona, Arizona, is just amazingly beautiful.  The rock formations are outstanding and are in surprising shades of orange, the vegetation is a deep green, and the sky is a stunning blue.  There's a perfect photo op around every bend.  So, we went around every every bend we could find.

                                           

  

                                                                                                       
Early this morning, we drove up to the nearby mountain town of Jerome.  The streets are very narrow and very steep, and there are many, little shops and galleries to wander in.  We were there very early, before the shops were open, which was fine with us, because we aren't really shoppers.

 From there, we drove down a very twisty mountain road to a community called Arcosanti.  It isn't exactly a town--my GPS couldn't find it, but Google Maps did.  Arcosanti is an experimental "arcology," meaning a combination of archaeology and ecology.  It's founder, Paulo Soleri, envisioned a perfect and densely populated city, as opposed to the typical urban sprawl.  He began construction in 1970, and the construction continues today.  It's hard to describe in a few words, but you can check it out at arcosanti.org.  Besides the construction, the community also makes beautiful and artsy bronze bells.

North of Sedona, between Sedona and Flagstaff, is a drive through Oak Creek Canyon.  I highly recommend it.  We drove it today from north to south; tomorrow, we'll see it as we drive south to north.  It might surprise people to learn that the Flagstaff area is very green; in fact, it reminds me of northern Michigan, and has Ponderosa pine trees everywhere.  The Oak Creek Canyon drive is twisty and green and orange and rocky and very beautiful.  In the middle of it is Slide Rock State Park, so named because of the natural water slide formed from the slippery bed of Oak Creek.  People love to go swimming and sliding there.

Slide Rock State Park