I generally am averse to getting any sort of motion sickness, especially when I am the driver. But for whatever reason, the winding drive up plateaus and cliffs in Arizona's surprisingly forest-y National Forests got to me. The sights were beautiful on the drive out of Phoenix in teh direction of Sedona. The first part of the drive is through desert, with open sand and short mounds absolutely overrun with cacti. It is what you think of when you say 'drive through the Arizona wilderness.' Part two of the drive, to the Tonto Natural Bridge Park was not, as that was through lush forest that could've made Arizona be Utah or Ohio or something. There was still these moments in the drive through the hills that you could see a huge expanse in every direction, but again with green lush forest.
Tonto Natural Bridge Park is deep within a hole in the forest, a winding drive for two miles takes you down, down, down towards this little piece of magic. The main attraction is a giant open cave that you can hike down to - what is surprising is how tough what is in theory a short hike is. Granted, we probably went the tougher way doing a 1.5 mile loop instead of a 1 mile out and back (the end of our hike), but I think we got the more beautiful outcome. The first part of the hike goes down to Pine Creek and then you play a guessing game around, on, and through rocks winding down the creek, passing a mini waterfall, till you reach the Natural Bridge (really a cave with a open ceiling) that makes this place famous, and it is stunning. There's about six or so different viewpoints as you traverse through this cave, all equally beautiful.
This is also about where it starts getting mercilessly hard to hike. The rocks are wet, sloping and with very limited guideposts or clear paths. It's a guessing game for everyone involved. Even with the two of us helping each other we both nearly fell into the shallow water at the center of the hike countless times. It was all worth it though. What wasn't great is the very steep climb back up at the end (the other option is the more gradual, but more arduous and longer route back the way we came), but the whole experience was excellent and again a setting (and a temperature point, a clean 60) more apt for Utah.
After the sojourn in Tonto, I headed for Sedona in slightly better headspace. I refused to let my friend drive mainly because I figured it would be even worse in a passenger seat. Sedona itself is beautiful, surrounded by Wadi-Rum-Esque red rocks in every destination. It seemingly is a town that exist becuase of tourism and this being a Sunday it was packed. There's a series of traffic circles on the way into town and each were tremendously backed up. The trailhead for one of the main trails was overstuffed. Same with another. The only real sightseeing we couild do was go up the hill to the airport lookout which is better in the views it gives you of the expansive red rocks everywhere.
The town is cute, but a bit too toursity. What is nice is they had free parking everywhere, and a perfectly nice little brewpub that hit the spot. They had one of the better stouts I've had, trying to fashion it something like a white russian. Very sadly they didn't have this for take-out sale. We made an agreement then and there to come back and spend more time in Sedona on the way back on Tuesday. Ideally those two hikes are open and both are fairly short. It adds about 45 min of driving time but definitely worth it as I don't think we gave Sedona anywhere near its due.
The drive from Sedona to Flagstaff started out going through the Oak Creek Canyon this time from the ground, it was beautiful and imposing, including one of the more serious hairpin turns I've seen in America. By around seven we reached Flagstaff which is a both a bigger and smaller town than it seems. It has a vibrant town center we got familiar with at dinner and after, but also miles of quiet residential space, which is where our AirBNB was located. It's one of those towns you go from a dead quiet street (our AirBNB) to the city center in five minutes without really knowing how.
Due to it being the largest city anywhere close to teh Grand Canyon, it has a little bit of a nice appeal. The heart of the town actually reminded me of Winnipeg, oddly, with almost a show of old fashioned Western down in the store and restaurant design but hiding some really cool stuff. For dinner we went to Shift which fit in perfectly with that theme. The place is actually superb with a fairly small but excellent souding menu, and a great list of cocktails. I got a charred cauliflower starter that was divine with two competing spicy sauces, and then a colorado lamb loin in fig & pea purees which is actually a dish I may try to replicate.
After dinner, we walked a couple blocks (somewhat tiring, we had to get adjusted to Flagstaff being at an elevation of about 8,000 feet) to Hops on Birch, a really nice town brewpub. It was set-up in a similar way to those in Phoenix, albeit smaller. It really reminded of my go-to haunt when I was doing a solo project in The Woodlands, Hop Scholar Ale House. On this Sunday, it was open to 12 and we stayed till about 11:45, and it was fuller when we left than when we arrived, with most of the people locals that were on a first name basis with the bartender and each other. They were all probably between 28-40, it was an interesting mix. The beer to was great, with a real focus on IPAs (Hops as the name gives it away I guess...) and sadly zero stouts. They had a large can collection to which I may do some dent in tomorrow.
The final stop was The Museum Club, which is built like a saloon with a large dance floor/stage (they had live music, though it ended prior to our arrival around midnight), with pool tables. It was the right amount of empty (about 10-12 people), and allowed us to challenge a few locals to pool and generally have a good time. It wasn't a club, ti wasn't even crowded but it was different and new and fun for a post covid world. Also, pickings were fairly slim for post midnight in a sleepy little town called Flagstaff.
