Tlaquepaque | Oak Creek Brewery | El Rincon

Friday - 31 May 2002: Sedona, Arizona - Another hot day in Arizona. Just a beautiful day though, so we decided to take a drive, see the sights and familiarize ourselves with the area. First, we headed north on 89A - the road you do NOT want to take in a 38' RV, towing a car! Luckily, we learned this yesterday BEFORE setting out on this road, as we had planned to take 89A - it is designated a "scenic route". (When I phoned the RV Park, she warned us!) A twisty, steep road from Sedona to Flagstaff - great in the Honda though. The drive, called Oak Creek Canyon Drive was indeed scenic. The creek flows down between red rock canyons. The foliage is fairly lush considering the arid surroundings. Sadly, Arizona (and most of the South West) is in a drought. Fire danger is extremely high. Nearly every hiking trail is closed. Many access roads are closed. You are not even allowed to park in a turn-out on the road - they are closed-off with police tape to prevent stopping for photo shoots or a rest. We drove to the top of the canyon first and then stopped to look at things that interested us on the way back to Sedona.

The top of Oak Creek Canyon

On the way back we stopped at Slide Rock State Park. The park was originally the Pendley Homestead, a 43-acre apple farm located in Oak Creek Canyon. Frank Pendley acquired the land under the Homestead Act in 1910 and was able to establish a unique irrigation system - still used in the park today. The irrigation system allowed Pendley to plant his first apple orchard in 1912. His home and fruit-packing barn are still intact. There are still apple orchards on the property and fruit is harvested annually. Beyond the house is the famous Slide Rock - a stretch of slippery creek bottoms - where swimmers with tough bottoms can slide down the slippery rocks. Many Hollywood movies were filmed at Slide Rock.

The Pendley Homestead


Swimmers enjoy Slide Rock

We stopped for a soft-serve and looked through a few craft booths at another stop. Many Native Americans have permits to sell their handicrafts at several locations along Oak Creek Canyon. DT noticed most of the Indians were from New Mexican tribes. At a government information booth, we learned which trails are still accessible to hikers: none in the canyon, and a few south of town because of high fire danger.

 
Two views of Oak Creek Canyon

We drove back through the town of Sedona, and then took a drive along Red Rock Loop. This dusty circle gave us a beautiful view of Cathedral Rock, which I will post below for your viewing pleasure.

Cathedral Rock

After all this - 5 hours in total - we had to come back to the camper and clean-up! It is hotter than Ghana again today and DUSTY! My feet and legs were covered in red-rock dirt. After a little rest we will head out again - shopping.

Added later: DT tried to go on a run, but even the road above the campground is closed due to fire danger. He continued on his run, assuming the road was closed to CARS, but later learned he had just broken the law and could be fined $500 and receive a 6-month jail sentence! He will drive over to the local high school for his run tomorrow - at $45 night, I would not want to wait 6 months for him here. Lisa called and, since we are in Sedona, put in her order for turquoise jewelry. Who knew? It is popular again!

After a rest and de-dusting - we went over to Tlaquepaque, an up-scale shopping and dining area a few blocks from our campground. Tlaquepaque is a very pretty "mall", made to look like an old pueblo, with many open courtyards - complete with fountains - and lots of flowers blooming in pots and hanging baskets. We looked through a few shops in Tlaquepaque and somehow ended up at the Oak Creek Brewery. DT sampled a few of their made-on-premises ales and I tried their Oak Creek Brewery iced tea - rum, Absolut Citron and orange liquor. One was enough! We noticed other patrons at the bar happily noshing on tasty-looking snacks, so we had a look at the bar menu. It was your usual bar menu: buffalo wings, etc., but they also offered fondue and something quite peculiar (to us) - fried pickles. We were chatting with people in the bar, as it was a very friendly place and the Nets v. Celtics game was on TV, so we asked the locals about the fried pickles. They came highly recommended and we ordered up a batch on the promise everyone would share. The dish was made from dill spears, beer-and-black-pepper-battered and deep fried. They were served with a ranch dip. Sounds strange, but I can assure you fried pickles are wonderful! We talked to a brother and sister, Kim and Donnie. Kim worked in management at a local resort and Donnie was a computer programmer looking to relocate to Portland, Oregon (of all places!). Donnie lives in Flagstaff and told us they had no snow this year and the ski resorts never opened. His sister, Kim gave us a local version of the space ship incident we had read about in our guide books: In 1987 thousands of New Agers were lured to Sedona to witness a "Harmonic Convergence", when it was said Bell Rock would depart for the galaxy of Andromeda. Kim told us about locals who ran their businesses into the ground and ran their charge cards up to the limit and spent the night on top of Bell Rock - naked - waiting to be lifted-off to outer space. In the morning, the folks had to return to Sedona and get real. Visiting the four vortexes in Sedona is still big business and there are crystal and New Age shops all over town.

DT had a more interesting bar mate to his right - The Crocodile Hunter. Okay, okay, so it wasn't the real Crocodile Hunter, but he looked and dressed the part. He was from Albuquerque and came to Sedona for hiking. (He said it is so dry in Santa Fe and Taos, the hiking trails are also closed.) The C. H. said he likes to hike the Cathedral Rock trail and feels good from the energy level from the vortex there after his hike. He avoids Bell Rock because he just feels "off" for two weeks after hiking in the Bell Rock vortex. Alrighty then.

I am thinking maybe we should avoid hiking all together and just stay in the vortex at the Oak Creek Brewery, because we felt pretty good when we left.

We didn't go far - we walked down stairs and over a few adorable courtyards for dinner at El Rincon Restaurante Mexicano - a local Mexican joint, recommended by Mary. Rincon was very good. Rincon specializes in chimichangas, so I tried one and it was delicious - but as usual with a Mexican restaurant - it was just too much food! DT had a chicken taco and said it was really good, but misses his 24-hour-drive-through taco stand in Las Vegas.

So, after our early evening of entertainment, we walked back to our RV at the Rancho Sedona RV Park in time to light candles and participate in usual Shabbat activity: watching the Lakers on TV.

RV Park: Rancho Sedona RV Park