Sedona is a small town in central Arizona with a landscape of arresting red-rock formations amidst a desert-like backdrop. It is also world-renowned as being one of four major pockets of energy, called vortexes, in the United States. Apparently just being around these vortexes is enough to raise one's mood, so Dan and I decided we wanted to get all up in one. We were told that a major one was at the top of a rock-mass called Bell Rock, so we set off to get up to it. After a fun climb on a beautiful day, we were rewarded with lovely view of the landscape. I'm not sure if we ever entered the vortex, but it was certainly relaxing up there, surrounded by intoxicating beauty. We lingered for about an hour, soaking in the sun and sights, before climbing back down, momentarily getting lost in the thick, particularly spiny brush at the foot of Bell Rock. We returned to Appa a bit scratched up but content.
We decided to head into town and see what made Sedona tick. We parked the car and began walking around an area of town that would be charming if not for the fact that it was made up entirely of touristy gift shops, with some bars and restaurants peppered in to refuel the shopping sightseers. We found a small bar to watch some Thursday Night Football, got a couple drinks and after settling our tab with our waitress who was a dead ringer for Jo from Scrubs, we left to find a place to camp for the night.
We were told by Jackie that there was a free camping around a bit of a ways outside of the town, so we began heading that way. She had warned that the road was bumpy, but she was able to make it in her old Jeep. However, part of the way up the road, which at that point would have given some Baghdad streets a run for their money, it became clear that Appa did not want to go any farther so we carefully maneuvered a U-turn and made our way to a trailhead parking lot, settling in the car for a night's sleep.
We awoke with the sun the next morning, quite warm for a change. We went through our rudimentary bathing routine, which included washing our faces with a wet-nap, brushing our teeth and reapplying deodorant, before heading out to do a bit of hiking before continuing on our trek. We had heard that Bear Mountain was an excellent tramp, so we embarked on the five mile traipse up the rocky terrain.
Neither Dan or I are expert trackers, to say the least. We are certainly not Bear Grylls. We have, however, accrued a bit of wilderness experience on this trip, to be sure. We can generally make our way from start to finish with little difficulty. In fact, I am proud to report that we had not yet gotten so lost that we had to be rescued by park rangers. However, this trail certainly tried to end that streak. The path was marked by little rock piles that signified that you were still en route to your intended destination. The problem was that they were few and far between and other travelers had taken to making their own, identical rock piles to mark the routes they had taken. So paths spawned off in all directions, making it quite difficult to stay on the tried and true trail.
Long story short, we found ourselves scaling the ways of this rock face, trying to make it to the top by way of a path that had since clearly proved to be the wrong way. We fought through cacti and bramble up this mountain until we at last made it to the top, rewarding us with an amazing panoramic view of Sedona and the outlying area.
On the way back down, I was viscously attacked by a cactus that lodged a spine into my ankle. I have officially withdrawn my friendship from all cacti, except those Saguaros, because they look particularly genial, as though they are inviting me over for a drink and possibly a high-five. So we climbed (I hobbled, mostly jumping on one foot) back down to 1000 foot climb, cursing ourselves as we passed the real trail along the way, and after having a quick lunch, we set off on the road again - our next destination the Four Corners.
The drive to the Four Corners is long and barren; even the cacti seemed smaller and gloomier on this leg of the trip. We arrived around quarter to five and were immediately enraged that we would have to pay five dollars each to view the meeting of arbitrarily drawn state lines. However, the Native American proprietor's of this site brightened our day by granting us entry gratis, seeing as it would be closing in less than 15 minutes. We hurried along and parked, walking up with baited breath to see the meeting of four American states. Had we had any expectations of grandeur, they would have been monumentally let down, but seeing as we knew it would going to be a trumped up intersection of lines, we then frolicked from state to state and did some pushups with one extremity in each state before jumping back on the open road, with Texas in our sights and the setting sun nipping playfully at our heels.
This post has been brought to you by vortexes, enso circles and the abundance of cacti in the southwest.
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