Throughout my travels, I have stayed in a variety of hotels, motels, homes, and inns. I've stayed at places that I lock the door as soon as I'm in the room, and I've stayed in places where I order room service. The Bell Rock Inn in Sedona was one of the nicer places I've stayed in. For actually a decent price, I stayed in the following layout:
Walk in through the front door, everything looks normal. Bathroom to the right, normal. Keep walking....
What's this? A kitchen? Ok, nothing, I haven't had before after a minor upgrade in Wisconsin. Moving on into the.... living room? Wait, what is happening?
Wait a second. A bar complete with a flat screen TV? Am I entertaining guests and no one told me? Where is the bed?! Do I have to sleep on the couch?
Hmm, I wonder what these stairs go to....
Well, hello king sized bed. And hey! If I'm feeling a little romantic (or chilly in the 95 degree heat),
why don't I light a fire in my fireplace....
And, last but not least, another bathroom. Also, this poster. I was so close to stealing this poster. I love it!
Now, some people would call this bragging. I use hotel rooms to sleep in and to watch Netflix in. I went upstairs twice, once to put my leftovers away, and again the next morning to eat them cold as breakfast as I watched 30 Rock. What has two thumbs and is a classy broad? This kid!
After a delightful, corny breakfast, I headed South about 20 miles to the Montezuma Castle. I had no idea what to expect, but as I was driving and getting closer to my destination, I was really confused because I did not see a castle. Silly, Tay Tay.
Built between 1100 and 1400, Montezuma Castle is a neighborhood of alcoves and rooms carved out of a cliff face. At one time, there could be as many as 35 people living in this home.
To construct the cliff home, residents made use of a naturally eroded alcove and fit 20 rooms into the shape of its contours. Archeologists have offered many possibilities as to why these inhabitants would build their home into a cliff face: proximity to water and farmland, to stay above floods, for protection, and many others.
This is Castle A, separate, but similar to Montezuma. Castle A had a pueblo with about 45 rooms in multiple levels that stood against the cliff face. The exterior has since crumbled, but you can still see the different levels, some windows and doorways, and support beams.
I've always wanted to go to Petra, Jordan and this is like one in our very own country. If you don't know what Petra is, I suggest looking it up. It's so cool! Archeology!
Driving back into Sedona, I got wonderful views of the Red Rock Mountains, which just recently were declared national landmarks! There are tons of mountains all with different names, but unfortunately they all look the same to me, so I can't tell you exactly which ones are which. There's Bell Rock, Snoopy Rock, Camel's Caravan, Coffee Pot Rock, Bear Mountain, Doe Mountain, and Thunder Mountain. Yes, like the Disney Ride. We'll come back to that in a bit.
Sedona is a very spiritual village. There are crystal shops all up and down the main part of town. There are psychics and tarot card readers, and aura translators. I hope you see where I'm going with this. I had a tarot card reading done. When in Rome, right? Alex, my guide, was super down to earth. She explained that I would pick a subject I wanted to talk about, choose as many cards as I felt I needed to out of a pile, and she would interpret them. The card choosing she said is about intuition. She was very clear to say that there aren't ghosts leading me to the cards or angels guiding my hand. "That shit doesn't exist, ok?" Yes, ma'am. She was not there to bring people back from the other side or to relay one last message, she was there to help me understand what I was choosing.
She was awesome. The reading was interesting, moral boosting, and- shocker- made me cry. As she was telling me what the cards meant, she would write it down so any time I have doubts about the things we talked about, I should look at the papers she gave me. I don't know if it was all bullshit or whatever, but it made me think. Thinking is the first step to doing. That's a saying, I think?
After my reading, I had time to kill before my last activity of the day. I walked up and down the main street (what I would later hear is just tourist traps) and poked my head into all the stores. Jewelry shops, restaurants, clothing shops, crystal shops, the works!
My last activity of the night was a Jeep tour through the desert. It was actually meant to be a sunset tour, but it was overcast and spitting rain mist on an off. Fa la la. Since I was the first to arrive, I got to choose any seat I wanted. I chose the way back because it's the bumpiest! I'm a child at heart, what can I say!
As the tour guide drove across town to pick up the rest of the group, I got a little 4-1-1 on the mountains before everyone else. Do you see that cloud coming out of the mountain in the picture on the left. That mountain is Thunder Mountain, the inspiration of the Disney ride. Thunder Mountain has a very high peak. The peak is so high, it happens to become a natural lightning conductor. The peak gets struck by lightning about 4,000 times a year. One such occurrence happened about a week before I arrived. It started a forest fire. Remember that wonderful smokey smell I smelled on my way up to the Grand Canyon? The smokey smell I smelled 40 away from the Grand Canyon and about two hours from Sedona. Ya, that's how far the forest fire has spread. Apparently, the guide said it's contained and under control, but that seems a little bit of an oxymoron to me. Contained wildfire. He said it's good for the vegetation of the area that's burning to have a fresh start. I do remember learning that Native Americans would set "contained wildfires" every couple of years to burn of the leaves, making it easier and quieter to hunt and track. Maybe it's the same thing....
Anyway. We picked up the rest of the group and headed out into the desert. Like I said, I chose the sunset tour. What I didn't mention is that this tour has the roughest terrain. Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy! Not only was everyone bouncing around the Jeep, but we also got amazing views of the desert. The red rocks in Sedona are actually white if you make a scratch in them. The rock has .01% iron in them, so the red color you see if actually rust. Fun fact for you.
This was the rest of my group. They were a family from Southern California. They also happened to be Mexican. They kept calling me "girl from Connecticut" and "gringa". They were a blast.
These are the roads we were driving on. My back hurts just thinking about it!
Sedona was amazing! I did so much and saw so many things. I would definitely consider coming back here. Not to live, but definitely as a vacation. There is no end to the list of activities to do around this area. Unfortunately, my time is up here and I'll be moving on. Stay tuned for more adventures in the next blog!
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