Sunday, October 17, 2010

Jeeping and Hiking in Sedona

As I mentioned in my last post, we went on a Pink Jeep tour yesterday to Broken Arrow Trail.  The trip combined great views of Chapel Rock, Submarine Rock and Chicken Point, the latter so named because the jeeps used to go around a rock on the edge of the cliff.  Here is the rock below.  The path is too narrow now for the jeeps so we just parked and looked at the views.

Chicken Point
The tour combines unbelievable scenery with a bumpy ride which the driver likened to a rollercoaster on the red rocks.  At one point we were in the jeep at 45 degrees.  Shortly thereafter we went down "Devil's Staircase.  Here are pictures of the jeeps behind us doing those two thrill rides.
Jeep at 45 degrees

On Devils Staircase



Today we hiked along Oak Creek to get views of the Cathedral Rock.  We were lucky to be ahead of the incoming thunderstorms and get a picture of the famous view of Cathedral Rock showing the reflection of the Rock in a waterpool.




Cathedral Rock




Later in the day, I managed to get a reservation to Palatki Ruins, right near Enchantment.  We have been coming here for years and never went to these ancient native American ruins, including pictographs from  four native cultures: the Archaic Indians of over 2000 years ago, the Sinagua of about 800 years ago, the Yavapai and the Tonto Apaches.  Here are examples of pictographs from each of these groups.
Yavapai animal drawing
Sinagua drawing of man on horse in center
Tonto Apache shaman markings
Archaic Indians (possibly mountains, sun, trees)



For an interesting discussion of one of the pictographs  (left), which the ranger pointed out as Asian looking and likely drawn by Archaic Indians, see this website.

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