Breakfast at the hotel and off to the Pink Jeep tour. At this time on the morning of 25 May, there is not a lot of traffic, so the views are unobstructed. The fact that the light is flashing yellow warning lights before we mount up and head for the country side might have been a sign, but we are lucking out at every stop. Another beautiful day, this one less windy and warmer than the previous few days.
We and the others taking tours this morning are gathering in the parking lot where our jeeps are parked. There are folks sliding under the vehicles on dollies inspecting chassis while we wait. Nice touch if you are establishing a certain sense among the tourists (not that we could be certain ;-).
We found out later from talking to Josh, our guide for the day, that they have a pretty rigorous maintenance and inspection system. There are specific locations they watch for crack development based on their experience and manufacturer's warnings. While we're waiting, Ann points out Snoopy rock. Kathy Schillreff pointed this out the previous evening, but its very easy to pick out this morning (and easier to photograph with camera in hand ;-).
Each tour group gets their own vehicle and driver this morning. We've got the Ancient Ruins / Diamond Back Combo tour. Turns out Josh is a great guide. He's a biologist who picked up a lot of botany and geology along the way and made his way to Sedona a few years back. He's full of interesting information and chatter -- I don't think we ever posed a question he could not answer.
Well, this brings out the gift in Sharon who asks about vortexes (not vortices, I'm told). We had heard the Sedona area is rich in these subtle energy fields. Ever the showman, Josh inquires about our thoughts on vortexes. We all express doubts and Josh is forever a non-believer. Hard to say if he would have had a conversion if we'd expressed eternal belief ;-).
Either way, in addition to the scenery, near and far, the banter between Sharon and Josh is part of the show for the rest of the tour. Josh tells about the vortexes, one of which is located at the airport. Sharon uses her sales skills to help Josh in case his next group has true believers. She suggests a compelling dialogue weaving in Roswell, the Meteor Crater located near Flagstaff, Area 51 . . . you get the drift. Not sure what Josh made of these suggestions, but he should have been taking notes if he ever decides on standup comedy.
Meanwhile, the landscape is rolling by. Josh pulls to the side of the road or trail and adds details whenever he sees us pulling lens caps. Can you see the three camels below.
The main thing to take from the tour is that, although sparse (it does not compare to PA in the summertime for shear volume of growth and greenery), the landscape has rugged beauty showcasing the tenacity, adaptability and durability of life against a backdrop of vivid geological features. I don't know about vortexes, but this is truly an amazing and beautiful area.
What you see in the pic below is a home, and a particularly well appointed home at that. They have satellite TV and some other nice amenities, and there is a geodesic dome off to the right which we assume is part of this complex.
The area was working range land many years ago. As we make our way around the trails we find abandoned cattle loading stations. Although overgrown with cactus and shrubbery, you can still see where the wagons or trucks would have backed up to the pens and cattle herded up the ramps.
Josh tells us there is a distinct Hollywood presence in the area. Robert Deniro and others have large homes which Josh suspects were at least partially as much places to park cash as homes. Almost inevitably, this influences the locals. For example, as we drove along we noticed this lizard offering a left profile.
While we watched, he turned and gave us a right profile. Very sophisticated and market savvy.
Eventually we made it to Diamond Back Gulch, a particularly rugged stretch where it's wise to tighten your seat belt. Josh suggested imagining how in some seasons this area would be filled with a wall of water. This is not hard to imagine as I'd seen sleet followed by rain in Colorado Springs a few years back. The sudden rush of water was passing under I-25 through a storm drain, hitting the 45 degree beveled edges and flying high before falling back into the torrent.
The rest of the tour to the Ancient Ruins was over somewhat better roads, though the scenery was just as inspiring. We have to park and walk a short distance to see a small town located at the foot of a rock wall.
If you can imagine three stories of dwellings against this sheer cliff, you can also visualize the wooden beams that would have served as floors. It's physically cool here at mid-day.
Josh says there would have been running streams nearby back when this site was inhabited, making it a popular stopover on the trail to larger cities and markets. We crossed a dry one on the way back to the Jeep. The evidence was a particularly old tree that grows along river banks.
The evidence this was a waypoint on a trade route are the symbols painted on the rock below. Josh says they would have been clearly visible from a ridge just to the west of this site, welcoming travelers and traders to stop.
Eventually, the tour comes to an end. We say goodbye to Josh, grab some lunch at the Cowboy Club (good food, by the way) and tour the uptown area, finally making our way back to the airport. The flight plan home is very simple as the terrain is mainly lower. I'm going to contact Albequerque Center for VFR flight following.
After a long day in the back country, we load and fire up the engine for a short flight. Little did we know . . .
No, we did not have a three hour tour. We're doing a runup on the ramp while listening to an Embraer Phenom 100 charter jet approaching for a landing. The pilot is asking if his passengers' rental car is ready and if they can bring it out to the aircraft when they get on the ground.
We complete the runup, taxi to runway 21, make sure the Phenom is not in the pattern or on final, and get rolling. Shortly after departure and contacting Albequerque, we start hearing someone's emergency locator transmitter (ELT) going off on the standby frequency.
We let Albequerque know, but they initially suspect this is just someone testing their ELT, something which frequently happens at the top of each hour. He asks us to wait a few minutes to see if it goes off. I turn down the volume, but 10 minutes later its still going strong so another call to Albequerque. Shortly after this call, other pilots in the area report the same signal.
The mystery is solved a few moments later when Albequerque learns the Phenom ran off the end of the runway at Sedona. The photo below is from the Red Rock News.
That's the end of runway 21 up at the top of the picture. Fortunately, everyone aboard was all right, so this met the technical definition of a good landing (everyone walks away), but they really messed up a nice aircraft. There is no indication they brought the rental car to the aircraft.
The rest of the flight home was uneventful. Phoenix approach routed us right over Phoenix Sky Harbor. We asked if Jim and Sharon knew their gate for their flight back to Oshkosh tomorrow, but that was not on their mind. Eventually approach sends us south to Chandler. Another bag drag and back to the Valley Ho for one last night, in exactly the same room as it turns out, with a patio overlooking the pool, as for the wedding.
Deb and Dave Boehm are now substantially less occupied with Kate and Jared off to Hawaii, her Mom Diamond off to Bloomington IN, and all others having departed the fix. We join them for a nice Mexican dinner at one of their favorite local restaurants, The TeePee. After good food and company, we head back to the Valley Ho to get ready for another early departure the next morning.
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