13 - UNPLANNED JEEP TRIP AND OAK CREEK CANYON

Our destination today is to the to the V Bar V Ranch east of Sedona, Arizona. It is known to have some of the most amazing petroglyphs in the area.

As we got close, we could see snow topped mountains up around Flagstaff in the distance.


So we drove an hour and a half north of Phoenix to visit the site. 


The directions we have to find petroglyphs always seem to leave out one small part of the directions and it was no different today. After a short "discussion" we turned in the direction that I assumed we were to go and, of course, it was wrong.


We then stopped at Red Rock State Park and asked questions. Yes, they knew about the site and even where it was (the opposite direction that we had turned).  However, they told us, it was closed today. What a bummer!! 

 So from there we drove on toward Sedona.

 The red rocks in the area were impressive.

The drive into Sedona was beautiful with all the red rock formations on the horizon and on all sides.

We decided, since we were there with no petroglyphs to see, we would take one of the famous Jeep rides into the back country.

We were fortunate to be the only two on the Jeep ride. Sometimes there are six or more people jammed into the back of the open-air Jeep. The driver was good about filling us in on all the geology that we were seeing.

After leaving a paved road, we started onto a "Jeep Road." 

The entrance to the Jeep road had big rocks across the entrance to keep regular cars from trying to drive back there. They would have never made it but without the barrier, someone for sure would have tried it.

However, the Jeep had no problem climbing over them.

After that it got pretty rocky and very bumpy, not a good thing if you are in a passenger car, but again, no problem for the Jeep.

 It had rained several days previously and there was still a lot of water flowing down off the mountains and filling up formerly dry creeks and low areas. We splashed right through this...

...and then climbed right up these boulders like they weren't even there...well, sort of, anyway. Yeaaa, Jeeps!

After climbing up those rocks we found ourselves up on a huge rock slab where there were already two other Jeep companies and their passengers overlooking the scenery.

A little later we hiked a short distance to the Van Deren Cabin. This 43 acre parcel was originally owned by Bill Fredericks, known as a local moonshiner.

In 1924 he sold it to Earl VanDeren. Earl moved the left side of this cabin from it's original location (a significant number of miles away) sometime between 1924 and 1929. 

Then in 1930 Van Duren married and constructed the other half of the cabin, connecting the two parts with a breezeway. The left cabin was the kitchen and the right was known as the "honeymoon cabin."

During the 1940's the cabin was used for at least two movies, "Riders of the Purple Sage" and "Blood on the Moon."

Surprisingly, just a few yards behind the cabin was a very fancy Golf Club...

...views from the fairways were pretty impressive.

These were the Jeep riders.

After the Jeep ride, we stopped by the Sedona Chamber of Commerce who told us about another location that would have ruins and petroglyphs. It was a way back out of town, but off we went. 

After we left the highway, it was about another 10 miles back on a rough gravel road, but with great scenery. 

We arrived at about 3:00. The volunteer at the Ranger station was in the process of locking the gate. She told us it was a 3/4 mile hike to see the ruins and petroglyphs and she would give us 15 minutes. (How fast does she think old people move?)

We were disappointed because that was too short a period of time to take the entire hike, much less stop to look and take a few pictures, so we just went to the first overlook and headed back out to the road.

There were no petroglyphs we could see from the distance, only the overhang of the rock wall where ancient peoples once lived inside the cave-like opening.

Since we were already in Sedona, we decided to drive up Oak Creek Canyon in hopes of seeing the Native Marketplace where Indians sell their art work.

Oak Creek Canyon is a beautiful drive from Sedona to Flagstaff.

 It is a narrow, two-lane road with lots of tight S-turns. A stream runs next to the road. There are also quite a number of vacation cabins next to the creek.

 As we traveled further up the canyon we found snow, first just a little..

...then more as we quickly climbed to higher elevations.

When we finally got to the place where the Native American Marketplace is held...and it was closed. Hmmm.

Oak Creek Canyon is a really beautiful drive...unless you are fresh from Kansas having never before seen terrain like this. That day, for me, it was anything but beautiful. I was scared to death.

Yes, that was me some 30 years ago. My 16 year old daughter, Darcy, our toy poodle and my good friend Linda Smith and I traveled from Kansas heading to California, not really knowing where we were going...and we certainly didn't intend to be on a road like this one!

We had never before driven much out of the flat-lands of Kansas and certainly not head-first down hill at 90-plus miles per hour in a steep winding canyon. 

OK, maybe we weren't going that fast, but it felt like it to us. We were terrified and there was no way out of there except to keep on going. 

Somehow we managed to survive this part of the trip only to find ourselves up in Jerome, Arizona shortly after this. More about that in the next blog posting along with actually finding the V Bar V Ranch.