Camp Verde, AZ

The first week in October we arrived in Camp Verde, Arizona.  Follow Highway 17 down the right side of the map.  We had originally planned to only stay a week to see the tourist attractions noted on the map, but within three days decided a month here would be great!  It is such a pleasant community!

We settled into Trails End R.V. Park.  It is just outside the business district of Camp Verde, and so conveniently close to everything!  We highly recommend that if you are coming to this area that you choose Camp Verde for your stay!  Trails End R.V. Park is a small, quiet, dog friendly park, with nice people, great Internet, cable t.v., and reasonable rates!  Here is a link to their website:  Trails End R.V. Park

This is looking toward Camp Verde from the r.v. park, which is on the main street of town.

Across the street from the r.v. park is a Dollar General.  It is within walking distance and soooo convenient!

Across the street from the r.v. park and next to the Dollar General is a dirt road that is perfect for turning the dogs loose for a run!

The dogs love it and we do too!  Prin and Sugar generally like to do loops out through a field but whatever the scrub is it must be pretty prickly, as they are confining their runs to the road.  I haven't seen any cacti to be concerned about, but the scrub looks pretty dry and scratchy. 

The buildings you see off in the distance are all the fast food chains by the Camp Verde exit off of Highway 17. They are only about 3 miles from the r.v. park.  We may try walking to them sometime down this dirt road!

When you cross the street from the r.v. park and look towards the community of Camp Verde you can see that the main business district is only about a half mile away!

The newer section of town consists of this nice strip mall with almost everything a person needs in it! Basha's is a nice grocery store.  It has a deli with hot foods at such low prices you couldn't buy the ingredients and make it yourself for less!  Roy and I are learning the joy of purchasing prepared meals at eat at home prices!  If you are in Camp Verde, stop by Crusty's Pizza!  Roy and I have eaten 4 large pizzas in our 3 weeks here!  Need I say more!!!  We also discovered a great beer at Crusty's called Alaskan Amber.  We chuckle that it took coming to Arizona to discover a beer brewed in Juneau, Alaska! It's available in Basha's Grocery and possibly in your area, too!  Yum!   

If you continue along the main road, you'll come into old Camp Verde. It's businesses are still active and the area looks good!  There is a large casino nearby.

Check out this cement sidewalk stamped and stained to look like wood!  It is part of the ambiance of having historic Fort Verde in town.

Here is a nice Internet picture of Fort Verde.  The parade grounds are to the forefront.  The building on the right is the commanding officer's quarters, the white building near it is the unmarried officer's quarters and the next building to the left within the fenced area is the doctor's quarters.  Fort Verde at its peak consisted of 22 buildings and was never enclosed by a stockade. Battles never took place on the fort premises.  The fort was built between 1871 and 1873 during the Apache war era.  The fort was abandoned in 1891.  The buildings today houses a nice museum.  

Sedona and Trip Planning

When researching an area we're going to I like to scroll through Google Images for an advance look and to help with planning for things to see while there.  When researching Sedona, AZ you'll get lots of beautiful red rock formations and if you are an outdoorsy person they'll entice you to them.  The pictures posted are from the Internet except the one from downtown Sedona which I took.

When I saw pictures of "The Wave" it was at the top of my list of things to see.  I'd love to hike out through this beautiful striped red rock formation!  Beyond it's beauty and the desire to experience it I didn't put any indepth research into it assuming it was a tourist attraction and easily accessible.  I have since learned that "The Wave" is located near the Arizona-Utah border around 204 miles north of Sedona in the Paria Canyon-Vermilion Cliffs Wilderness Area! It is a 3 mile trek through open desert with a rise in altitude of 350 feet.  Round trip is a minimum of 6 miles and people are advised to be prepared for harsh desert conditions which include fierce winds, blowing sand, little shade, and temperatures that typically can exceed 100 degrees in the summer!  Marked trails and water are not provided! The Wave is located by GPS. Getting lost has been deadly for some!  Only 20 permits are issued daily.  Ten of the twenty permits are obtained through applying a minimum of four months in advance! There is a daily lottery for the other 10 passes which are good for the next day.  There are guided tours out of the communities of Kanab and Page for hikers with permits. This beautiful formation is a serious undertaking not to be taken lightly! We'll pass for now!  

The Navajo Bridge is located 152 miles north of Sedona on Highway 89A in a desolate location.  One bridge was built in 1927, but was deemed inadequate by 1995 due to its width and load bearing capacity.  It has since been turned into a foot bridge.  A matching bridge was built that can handle today's truck traffic.  The bridge is 834 feet long and is 467 feet above the river.  We'll catch the crossing when we are closer to it.       

While staying in Flagstaff, we decided to make a day trip down to Sedona which is just 30 miles away.  The drive down the two lane winding mountain road 89A was a treat with just our truck, but we both quickly realized that it wasn't a road we would have wanted to be traveling on with the camper in tow.  Our original intent for the area was to stay in Sedona a couple of months.  We learned almost immediately upon entering town what a mistake that would have been for us.  The streets were narrow and congested with traffic. The town itself literally had tourist shops on top of tourist shops and was tightly pushed together.  Everything seemed to be done in the natural red of the area.  I love red, but there is a point where it becomes too much!  Roy and I quickly realized we could get our fill of being in town in a couple of hours!  Thank goodness for our policy of not making reservations ahead for r.v. parks!  Even with our intention of returning another day for a closer look we didn't! 

Slide Rock State Park is located 7 miles north of Sedona on 89A. You'll want to watch the park's website to be sure the waterway is open, as it may be closed due to local fires!  A waterway being closed due to fires isn't something a person would typically think of, but is what kept us from being able to enjoy the slide.  The waterway was closed all of September while we were in Flagstaff! You may want to strategically plan to be at the park during a weekday, as the park will close to further visitors on a day when the parking lot reaches maximum capacity!  We will catch the park on another trip into the area now that we know how to plan!

Devil's Bridge is located about 7 miles south of Sedona on Highway 179.  I thought hiking up to it would be great although I doubted that I could make myself walk across it!  I also didn't really take Roy and my fitness levels into consideration either.  I think the spirit was willing, but we really don't physically want to! That's something to think about in your planning.  Planning out the details of the location and trail ahead of time would definitely be an encouragement!  There is a 2 wheel drive parking area that is 1.9 mile hike to the bridge or a 4 wheel drive access that is only a .8 mile hike. Keep in mind doubling the distance for the hike back and do we really want to use our camper tow vehicle to go down 4 wheel drive roads!  The first half of the trail is said to be fairly flat, but then turns into a steep 300 feet in elevation trek!  We'll pass!

Bell Rock is located about 7 miles south of Sedona.  It can be seen from town which makes one question the need to hike to it!  Bell Rock is considered a magnetic vortex hot spot.  The trail is a gentle flat walk of a mile to the base of Bell Rock and then will climb half way up.  Don't forget to double your walk to the base and back to the parking lot to 2 miles!  That's enough for me and you have to carry your own water, as none is provided along the trail.  Be sure to pay close attention to the trail markers that are said to be a bit confusing, as there is a trail that makes a 5 mile loop around Courthouse Butte and Spaceship Rock!  Remember you have to make sure you have enough water and don't get lost!!!  We're good with the view from town!

Cathedral Rock is 4 miles south of Sedona and is said to have the strongest magnetic vortexes in Sedona!  It is a 1.5 mile round trip walk with the first half of the trail being quite steep.  The path gains 600 feet in elevation, so it is a little more strenuous than its short distance suggests!  It's said that fewer than half that start the trek make it to the end!  The trail leads to the base of the sheer sided butte giving spectacular views all around.  We hope this overview of some of Arizona's popular natural attractions gives you a jump start to your planning.  Although our trip to the Sedona area didn't turn out quite like we imagined we enjoyed our look around!    

Flagstaff And Strange Anomalies!

In this post I'm going to speak of anomalies I never knew existed, but feel we experienced in Flagstaff. You're going to be asking yourself what kind of drugs we may have taken!  We questioned the sensations we felt during our months stay in Flagstaff, but love that those sensations have been validated by scientific research! While there were normal life things that we liked and disliked about Flagstaff, the odd sensation we felt while there kept us in a constant state of wanting to get out of the area as quickly as possible!   

It's hard to capture a community in a few pictures, but we got a couple great shots from the Lowell Observatory hilltop located near the old downtown area of Flagstaff. Flagstaff is the first dark skies community in the nation and Lowell Observatory is where Pluto was discovered.  We didn't take part in the observatory programs.

This is looking to the southeast across Flagstaff.  The large white dome on the right is the Skydome of Northern Arizona University.

The left side of the picture at a distance is to the northeast of Flagstaff.  The mountain on the left side of the picture I believe would be the volcano Mt. Elden. Greer Pine Shadows R.V. Park, where we stayed, is beside Mt. Elden.  The lava fields of Sunset Crater, as well as other volcanos, are in the distance across the back of the picture. Sunset Crater is a hot spot for magnetic vortexes. What!!! What's a magnetic vortex? There is a lot of information on the Internet about the influence of volcanos on the earth's magnetic field. They create an erratic energy rather than the north-south magnetic alignment that we are use to.  Roy and I could feel this scattered energy and didn't like it! Before we even knew of such things and were trying to figure out this odd sensation, I commented to Roy one day how it felt like the air was buzzing with erratic energy and the normal north-south flow of magnetic energy in my body was somehow affected.  What a weird thing to even think of and propose!  That's when I decided to research the magnetic field readings for Flagstaff! Wow! We couldn't believe what is documented about the area in regards to the effects of magnetic energy! Sedona in particular has been documented for the affects of magnetic vortexes. Here is one particularly good website about the effects they have on a person: http://sedonanomalies.com/.  Be sure to check out the altered brainwaves!

There are lots of books out in regards to magnetic vortexes.  In Sedona there are tours to some of the known vortex hot spots such as Castle Rock and Bell Rock.  The vortexes are touted by some  to be mystical and healing.  My gut feeling is that anything that can warp your brainwaves and alter the normal energy flow through your body probably isn't good for you!  Within the first few days that we were in Flagstaff we half jokingly commented about some of the people walking around in what appeared to be stupors!  In general we found something in our interaction with people as somehow off kilter.  We couldn't identify what is was, but just knew something was abnormal. We noticed that time on the clock seemed to nearly stand still and that the camper although leveled from a lean away from the mountain appeared visually to lean toward Mt. Elden! As Roy stated, we found ourselves being aware of things a person shouldn't really even think about! In regards to the clock, Roy brought up the concept of time dilation, as affected by magnetic energy! It's another concept I'd never heard of, but seems to fit in regards to an area with an altered magnetic field!  Here is a link to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation.  There is a section referencing the affect of magnetic energy.

This is a parking area for trails going to and up Mt. Elden.  This is on the northern edge of  Flagstaff in a business district and shows how nature is so closely tied to the community.

Check out the slope of the wide bike path on the right side of the picture.  From our r.v. park we could have coasted nearly all the way to downtown Flagstaff! Flagstaff has 50 miles of urban bike paths of which about 25 miles are currently paved.  They hope to increase their trails both in and out of the city by an additional 80 miles for a total 130 miles of bike trails! Flagstaff is a community that really entices a person to become physically active!

Check out the bike rack on the front of the public transit bus!!!  After bicycling around town a person can then catch a bus to transport them and their bike home!

As far as the strange anomalies we felt, there is a curiosity that makes us want to explore it further, but knowing how it made us feel, we just as equally don't want to experience it again!  We may feed our curiosity by reading a few books about the Sedona Vortexes.  The picture of the people jumping and nearly floating is a representation of the strange sensation I felt as my body returned to the normalcy of a north-south energy flow!  There was a light feeling as if I jumped a few inches I might float 3 feet into the air!  Maybe there are youthful health benefits to the Flagstaff-Sedona magnetic fields!  The sensation felt good for the short time it lasted!  A few weeks later I was reading about the Sedona Effect and read where a woman described a sensation of being in an elevator that drops a foot and then bounces up a few inches!  Wow, more confirmation! On the other hand there is information on the Internet regarding the negative effects of exposure to magnetic fields!  Very interesting, as Roy and I have been sick for two weeks now with what I've finally come to realize is the same feeling I get when being spun excessively!