charismatic megafauna since 1985

Arizona: Sedona and Dead Horse Ranch State Park

We’d heard good things about Sedona, but didn’t have any idea what it was known for. With a bit of time to kill, we took a side trip there. It was another scenic, windy drive through the Oak Creek Canyon on the way there. Instead of just having canyon walls around us, there were also lots and lots of trees. It was a gorgeous drive, but nearly impossible to do justice to with pictures from a moving vehicle.

Sedona turned out to be a little touristy town, but we think that it’s a ski town in the winter. There are several mountains around it that have skiiing. Since we were already stopped, we grabbed a drink at the Oak Creek Brewing Company. I recommend the Amber Ale if you’re ever in town.

By the time we left the brewery, the sunset was only a couple hours away and we wanted to get to camp before sunset for once. The original plan for the day was to drive to the Sonoran Desert National Monument and camp there. That was nearly 200 miles away from where we were, so we cut the day short and stayed about 20 miles outside of Sedona at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. Despite the crazy name, it’s a pretty run-of-the-mill campground, with RV and tent campsites. We drove to the back end of it and were pretty much alone.

We had our first fire of the trip, although it took a ton of wood to keep going since the wood available burned incredibly quickly. There was a nice bathroom, though, and we all got to take showers. Not that we really needed to take them then, since we were going to be in La Jolla the next day.