For our last week in Camp Verde we made another trip to Sedona and Oak Creek through the Red Rock area. We drove into some housing areas and could see why people chose this area to live. The views of the Red Rock are incredible. We made a stop at the Chapel of the Holy Cross and sat inside for a while and meditated, then headed into Sedona to walk the town again.

The rest of the week we finished organizing the new camper, made another trip to Goodwill to drop off my bike. I don’t feel comfortable riding alone as I tend to get light headed so it is a safety thing. We are walking together and trying to get in 8 to 10,000 steps a day on our Fitbits.

Chapel of the Holy Cross

These formations are named, on the right, Two Sisters and in the center Madonna and Child

This past week We did a lot of walking on a trail through a wooded area and along Clear Creek. The trail is a little over 1 mile and we will do it several times a day going in different directions and stopping at the creek/river to listen and watch the small rapids/waterfalls.

We visited three National Monuments, Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well and Tuzigoot as well as a walk-through Jerome where we purchased a throw and pillow for our sofa.

Our favorite stop along our daily walk.

Montezuma Castle National Monument was occupied by the Southern Sinagua about 1125. It was a five- story apartment building with 20 rooms 100 feet above the valley.

Montezuma Well National Monument is a limestone sink still being fed by continually flowing springs It is somewhere between 55 and 65 plus feet deep.

We loved this little cactus growing on top of the ruin

Tuziggoot National Monument (Apache for “crooked water”) Rising 120 feet above the valley two stories in places and 87 ground floor rooms.

All three of these were small compared to places like Mesa Verde National Park but well worth the visit and it did not take long to walk the short trails and read the trail-side exhibits.

Jerome is an old historic town built on the side of a mountain. The narrow road switchbacks its way up the mountain and through the town. It is an artist community which made for an interesting walk.

Jerome across the valley from Tuziggoot

We bought this throw and pillow at one of the Jerome shops

This is the rug Karen bought in Waco, forgot to post earlier

This was a very interesting week as we visited the area around Sedona and Camp Verde. The temperatures during the day would be between 80 and 90 and nights 45 to 50. Arizona does not use daylight savings time so it starts to cool down about 5:30 and dusk at 6:00. We have been sitting outside before dinner, Karen with a glass of wine and me with a bottle of NA beer or a cup of coffee.

This is what retirement is all about for us.

Today was our first day of sightseeing since we arrived in Camp Verde. We decided to head for Sedona and stop for breakfast at Miley’s in Oak Creek, it was recommended by our friend Gretchan and it was a very nice restaurant with friendly staff, great food at a good price. The road to Oak Creek and Sedona is the Red Rock Scenic Byway and red rock it is!  The difficult part of these towns is narrow roads and limited parking for a large dually truck but we managed. After walking and window shopping in Sedona we headed North through Oak Creek Canyon, WOW what a nice drive. We reached the top of the canyon to a vista point then headed back through the canyon and of course seeing it going the opposite direction we saw the beauty from a different perspective. This road is like the others, narrow and few of the pullouts were not large enough for our truck and that is OK we enjoyed the ride.

Here are a few pictures we got along the way, some were taken by Karen as we drove.

Our Breakfast Place

The view all around Sedona 

We stopped at this Wendy's for lunch