Today = Driving. We leave Lost Dutchman State Park headed toward the Grand Canyon and the drive looks to be about 4 hrs but we have to stop for groceries and gas. It will take longer than 4 hours (foreshadowing).
We start off well at about 9:00am and the traffic around Phoenix is light and then we get to I-17N towards Flagstaff. Lots of weekend traffic, it feels like everyone is heading North at 75-80mph. The road is not flat either but climbs quite considerably in places causing trucks to put on their flashers while everyone tries to jump into the left lane and not loose any speed. All in all it translates into quite a stressful hour or so.
We pull off of I-17N and head towards Sedona, AZ. No plans to stop other than for a quick picnic lunch, just as well. First, the Sedona valley is beautiful. The town feels like a ski resort that’s been jammed between the red rock faces of the valley. Clearly a nice place to come and visit if you’re staying at a lodge or hotel but not in a campervan. We pull through 3 separate picnic areas before we finally find one North of the village where there is enough room for our rig and so we stop and enjoy lunch.
Leaving the Sedona valley requires you drive out through the Oak Creek Canyon on route 89A. This entails driving up a series of switchback curves to reach the top where we see snow along the roadside amongst the pine trees. A beautiful drive but it had Barb not wanting to get too close to the window in the van due to the drop offs.
The remaining drive to Flagstaff was easy and before we knew it we were shopping at Walmart and Bashras (local chain) for groceries. Dinner was courtesy of Pizza Hut as Barb did not want to cook tonight and pizza was to be a treat. Fuel acquired at a Pilot service stop just West of Flagstaff and then we continued toward the Grand Canyon.
We turned North at Williams, AZ onto route 64 which leads directly to the South Rim entrance to the Grand Canyon National Park. However, our plans were not to go all the way tonight. Instead we were copying what our friends the Milddogs did last year and that is stay just South of the park on BLM land, driving into the park tomorrow.
We find the dirt road off of the highway near a place called Red Butte. It’s bumpy and rutted from vehicles driving along it in recent rains. It’s easy to see that some folks were getting stuck in the soft muddy soil. We pass a few camping areas but they are taken so we keep going. We then turn down a bumpier road (not wide enough for two vehicles) and drive about half a kilometre before realizing that we’re in over our heads. I find a place where I think I can turn around without getting stuck and proceed to complete a 1000-point turn. Success. We drive out along the same bumpy, rutted road and decide to pull into an area where someone is already setup to see if there enough room for another vehicle. There is and we hide behind some shrubbery (nod to Monty Python fans) so as not to be intrusive.
It is quiet. We enjoy our pizza and a well earned drink. It is close to 6:00pm meaning that it has taken about 9 hours to get here. Phew. Oh well, tomorrow is only about an hour of driving, so it was worthwhile.
