Sedona Bound

We headed out early to Sedona on Tuesday with a planned stop at the Montezuma Castle National Monument. Built deep into a limestone cliff is a 20 room pueblo occupied from about 1250 AD to the 1400s (first picture). Nearby is castle A that originally had 45-50 rooms. All that is left is the cave like rooms. It is thought the outer side of the structure burned at some point and slid off the cliff face (2nd pic).

We hop back on the interstate and proceed to miss our exit and drive an extra 15 miles toward Flagstaff. Stupid on the navigator's part (mama). Returning to our exit was pretty much all down hill and I had to stay on Big Daddy to keep him from going 90, crazy fast. No matter, in short order we got back to our exit and quickly cruised into Sedona. We haven't been back to Sedona in several years and wow has it changed. The most notable is the heavy traffic and series of roundabout circles up 179 and 89A. It's not heavy traffic like Branson but a lot more activity than we were last here. 

We've stayed at some fancy smacy hotels in Sedona in the past but this time we stayed at a Best Western that had big rooms with a jacuzzi, fireplace and walkout wrap around balcony three stories up. Great views from the balcony. 

We spent the afternoon setting up base camp (in our hotel, LOL), browsing a few shops and getting some snacks for hiking on Wednesday. Then grabbed some take out to eat on the hotel balcony. 

Our plan is to hike Broken Arrow trail (named for the Broken Arrow movie filmed in the area in 1950) to Chicken Point right after breakfast. This trail has great red rock views including a big sink hole and the submarine rock. Then we have reservations to ride the Verde Canyon Railroad tour in the afternoon.