Day 9: Marks and Recreation

Did you know when you try to take a panoramic photo of a busy street in Sedona with cars zipping by, the effect is…odd? Everything is disjointed and strange.

A couple of weeks ago, a friend of mine (who is ironically also my chiropractor) recommended we add a stop in Sedona, AZ, to our trip. She raved about Pink Jeep Tours and how wonderful they were, so I tweaked our itinerary and here we are.

I’m pretty sure when my chiropractor friend recommended Pink Jeep, she was thinking one of their nice, relatively gentle photographer’s rides around Coconino National Forest.

I don’t think she intended us to take a bumpy, steep, crazy off-road jeep tour followed by a 90 minute horseback ride.

Or maybe that’s exactly what she intended. Maybe she’s drumming up business! I kid. It was an excellent rec! Just book me in for the moment I pull back into town, ‘kay?

That being said….

Ow.

That last pic up there? That was a totally tame hill. Most of the time, I couldn’t let go of the grab bars long enough to snap a shot, and when I could, this immediately happened:

She was like glue, but she had such a good time. We laughed and squealed and talked up our fantastic tour guide, Mark. The Diamondback Gulch trail is insane, but it’s made tolerable when you have a driver who knows the trail backwards and forwards. He knew when to pump the speed, when to let us bump, and when to ease the Jeep up or down obstacles.

Dry river beds are the best. I grinned like an idiot through most of the ride. I think Earl was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. Truly, it was a blast.

We stopped at one of the peaks of the trail to snap a few photos before hopping back on paved roads (boo!) and heading toward the vineyard for our horseback riding excursion.

So if I didn’t already feel beat up enough after the Jeep tour, we saddled up and headed out around one of Sedona’s vineyards.

To absolutely no one’s surprise, my horse groaned from the first moment. She also gave me wicked side-eye through the entire ride.

I felt for her, and told her often.

The first half of the ride was this nice, relaxing trail ride, even if I was already saddle sore after 5 minutes. Midway, though, we heard gunshots. The horses weren’t spooked, but it became obvious that our trail guide was…not concerned so much as curious. Apparently they don’t hear many gunshots out there, especially in the amounts we were hearing.

Turned out some guy on an ATV had slipped through one of the vineyard gates and set up targets against a cliff. At least we weren’t the targets. Gunfire adds a certain level of excitement to anything, though.

When we got back into town, Earl and I headed to a restaurant recommended by the horseback trail guide, Cafe Jose. Incredible authentic Mexican food with shredded beef, and the sopapillas were yum.

By then, we were nearing sunset. Mark had mentioned the Sedona Vortexes to me during a lull in the Jeep tour. It only made sense, then, to kill two birds with one stone. To Airport Mesa, we went! Aching everything be damned!

We reached the summit and gasped. Not just out of exhaustion, but on one side, there was an electrical storm raging. On the other, sunset was in full splendor with the lights of Sedona surrounding us all around.

Our car is that speck furthest away just under the sun’s colors. Mark didn’t tell me we had to hike up the mesa.

We perched on the rocks for a long time, meditating, praying, watching the lightning, taking in 360 of masterpiece. After a few minutes, I heard a scratching sound, rock against rock, and looked down.

“I’m drawing what I see. See? I can rub some of the dirt on it and it goes away. Is that okay?”

It was more than okay.

I’m continually floored by the little moments on this trip. Earl’s simple drawing on top of a mesa was one of those. It was a child’s capstone on a great day.

I didn’t make her erase it before we left. The weather and feet of other visitors will take care of that. Instead, I snapped a couple of photos, took her hand, and started back down the steep, uneven path. When we got back in the car, she grinned: “I left history up there, didn’t I?”

I don’t know kid, but you’re certainly making your mark.