I was standing on a corner in Flagstaff Arizona?

June 13 - June 24, 2013

The Eagles' classic tune "Take it Easy" was written by Jackson Browne after he found himself "standing on a corner in Flagstaff Arizona" while traveling on Route 66 on the way to California. Winslow Arizona was much easier to sing, so it made the final cut for those iconic lyrics. And although we didn't make it to Winslow, my AAA guidebook tells me that there is a huge mural there with "a girl, my lord, in a flatbed Ford, slowing down to take a look at me."

We've been holed up in Flagstaff for 10 days. With much of Arizona posting triple digit temps, we chose Flagstaff because it's at 7,000' elevation. We've had beautiful weather with highs in the mid 80's and lows in the 40's. Flagstaff is also centrally located to quite a few interesting attractions. Aside from sightseeing, we had some minor work done to the RV (the doors needed adjusting), SiSi got groomed, and the Elantra got an oil change and tire rotation.

Virtually everyone to whom we have ever mentioned  our intention to spend some time in Arizona during this trip has said "you're going to Sedona, aren't you?" So we did. It's a pretty little town surrounded by beautiful rock formations. While the rocks appear to be mainly red and pink, they seem to change colors at  different times of day depending on the sunlight and shadows. We spent a nice afternoon there, seeing the sights, having lunch at a Mexican restaurant, and shopping at the many new-agey boutiques. The area is purported to be the site of several "vortexes," or places that emit energy up from the earth. Whatever. It's very pretty!

We've seen a lot of Indian ruins in Arizona. In fact you might say that we're all ruined out. They were interesting, but we've had enough. I'll share the highlights:

Wupatki Pueblo

Wupatki National Monument contains more than 2,600 archeological sites, including about 1,000 structures. It was inhabited from about 1100-1225 by people from whom the Hopi tribe are believed to be descended. The structure pictured above had a community room and ball court and may have housed up to 100 people. Nearby is the three story Wukoki.

Wukoki

We visited two more nearby pueblo ruins. Montezuma's castle is 5 stories tall and sits 46 feet above ground. It contains 20 rooms and was accessible only by ladders.

Montezuma's Castle National Monument

Tuzigoot was occupied by the Sinagua Indians from about 1000 to 1425 AD.

SiSi enjoyed Tuzigoot National Monument

Tuzigoot

Having had our fill of ruins, we visited several interesting geological sites. Sunset Crater National Monument contains the 1000 foot high Sunset Crater Volcano, which is surrounded by fields of cinders, lava flows, and spatter cones. It's kind of eerie looking, but pretty in its own way.

Sunset Crater National Monument 

We also enjoyed visiting the privately owned Meteor Crater. The crater was formed nearly 50,000 years ago after a meteor impact. It is 550 feet deep, about a mile across, and has a circumference of about 2 and a half miles. We saw an interesting film there, made by a group called the B-6-12 foundation which is dedicated to monitoring large asteroids that have the potential to hit earth, and researching what can be done to stop them. If you're interested in what they're doing, you can learn more at: http://b612foundation.org/.

This is the largest piece of the meteorite recovered, the rest having been blown apart on impact.

My photo really doesn't capture the size of this hole in the ground!

Next stop, Tucson.