OTB Trip #2

In an effort to maximize my time off the bike, I flew back from Boston only to turn straight around and catch a flight to Phoenix. Destination: Sedona.

Sedona is believed by some to be a vortex meditation site. While I have never bought into the new agey, crystal worshipping mumbo jumbo, I was determined to hit a few of the vortex "hot spots" on the trip and make my own assessment.

The trip from Phoenix to Sedona included a stop in Prescott, a drive thorough Jerome, a brief visit to a cactus farm, which had all sorts of cool varietals of catcus

and a stop at Mingus Lake. It took a bit of coaxing to convince my travel companion to drive the rental car up the boulder ridden, unpaved road. You can only imagine our surprise when we arrived at Mingus Lake to find this

Despite the beautiful brown hue, we were amazed to discover that people fish for trout AND go scuba diving in the lake! I tell you, you could not pay me enough to dive in that lake. NO WAY!

As we drove into Sedona we collided with a deer! Clearly, the positive vortex energy was not flowing in our direction. The deer slammed into the side of the rental car, up across the window and over the car. We were lucky the glass did not break. The driver's side view mirror took the brunt of the damage.
A lovely piece of deer fur wedged in the door.
A passing rain shower resulted in the most spectacular colors and sunset.
Day two was overcast and so we made a joint decision to drive north to Flagstaff. Flagstaff sits at 7,000 feet, runs by Route 66 and is MUCH more charming than Prescott. Highlights in Flagstaff included lunch downtown, touring various neighborhoods and driving up to the Lowell Observatory. I don't think I drank enough coffee that day as my navigational skills were terribly impaired. I definitely FAILED as a co-pilot.

Driving back from Flagstaff we pulled into a driveway to snap photos of this silly house
Our next stop was Cathedral Rock, one of the four major vortex sites. Cathedral Rock rises sharply above the desert floor and is topped by twin spires and a large saddle in between that offers spectacular views.

With the sun starting to set we raced to the top in the hopes of catching the sunset. The vortex is a conical pile of black lava rocks just below the saddle
We stopped at Margs Draw on our way back to town where we encountered a group of people huddled in a circle deep in prayer
Day three we decided to hike Soldier Pass. This hike winds and weaves over red rock washes and passes Devil's Kitchen, a huge sinkhole.
Everything went to hell after Devil's Kitchen. I accidentally left the trail map in the car and so all we had for directions was some information printed off the Internet. Let's just say we ended up charting our own course straight up and down this giant hillside, through bushes, bramble, sand and dry washes and up and over red rock ledges.
Next stop: Bell Rock. This is one of Sedona's electric or positive vortexes. To get to the top we had to climb, scoot and scramble our way up a giant wall with narrow footholds.
The views from the top were amazing.

Last stop: Airport Mesa, another electric or positive vortex that is supposed to have the best sunset. While the view and sunset were great, we were much more interested in the group on one of the lower ledges that was engaged in some sort of spiritual cermony 
and the man who arrived with his own gong
On our last day we killed some time driving around the greater Phoenix neighborhoods. We could not believe our eyes when we saw this dude take off his bullet belt!
All in all, it was a fun trip.