{"id":721,"date":"2009-07-24T21:28:12","date_gmt":"2009-07-25T01:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/?p=721"},"modified":"2009-07-24T21:28:12","modified_gmt":"2009-07-25T01:28:12","slug":"a-sedona-vacation-junkie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/2009\/07\/24\/a-sedona-vacation-junkie\/","title":{"rendered":"A Sedona Vacation Junkie"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Slide

Slide Rock National Park<\/p><\/div>\n

There is no shortage of things to do in the Sedona Arizona area.\u00a0 If you love to over-indulge in your favorite guilty pleasure, Sedona is happy to be your co-dependant source.\u00a0 Shopaholics can choose from clothes to traditional Indian goods, jewelry to crystals and never get their fill of variety.\u00a0 Foodaholics will be satisfied with dishes that include Mexican, BBQ, fine dining and fast food.\u00a0 Chocaholics can sample fudge and other confectionaries at the many candy shops in the downtown area.\u00a0 Adventure junkies and backcountry hikers can tour the desert on foot or off road vehicle and flirt with the Diamondbacks.\u00a0 Sedona can even handle my addiction, the I-want-to-see-and-do-everything-possible-in-a-short-period-of-time-aholic, while minimizing our spend, of course.<\/p>\n

We were up and out early on desert morning two.\u00a0 Granted, after 2 \u00bd weeks of vacation, our early mornings have been pushed back from our original 5am start to the new\u00a08am rise and shine.\u00a0 Donning our bathing suits and towels, we headed about 10 miles north to Slide Rock National Park<\/a>.\u00a0 A consistent \u201cYou\u2019ve got to go there!\u201d from our friends put this on the top of our stops for the day.\u00a0 Our campground host recommended an early start because the parking lot fills up quickly and she was right.\u00a0 Fascinated by the rising red rock that surrounded our every perspective, we became more and more intrigued the closer we got to the swim area.\u00a0 The park was clean and well marked and starting to fill up with curious families like us ready to enjoy nature\u2019s playground.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Plotting

Plotting the strategy<\/p><\/div>\n

Finding the ideal stop near the mouth of the slide and semi-high up to see all the fun, Dennis and the boys watched, plotting their strategy.\u00a0 I was still on the fence about whether or not I was going to partake, but once my men hit the water, my decision was clear.<\/p>\n

The guys worked their way to the mouth of the slide to patiently wait their turn down the rocks.\u00a0 Luke was the first one to hit the water, literally.\u00a0 Slippery rocks were not limited to the slide!\u00a0 Down again and again he went, each time getting up in triumph that nothing was broken!\u00a0 It was actually Cam who was the first one down the slide.\u00a0 There was a slight look of pain on his face from the extremely cold water.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Luke

Luke hits the water<\/p><\/div>\n

Already wet from falling a couple times, Luke ventured down the slide but the water temperature still took him by surprise when he was fully immersed.\u00a0 Finally Dennis made his way down the slide, each new splash offered a continuous reminder of just how cold the water was against his flesh.\u00a0 Yeah, I didn\u2019t go in.\u00a0 In hind sight I regret the decision.\u00a0 I was assured by the boys that the cold dissipated quickly and only the fun remained.\u00a0\u00a0 The boys returned down the slide dozens of times, trying new angles each time \u2013 front, back, bum, belly \u2013 enjoying every inch of this unique mountain stream natural water park.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cam\u2019s adventurous side started to show through.\u00a0 He located an area where folks were cliff jumping into a deep area of the river.\u00a0 It was about 20 feet in the air and kids half his age and size emerged without a scratch so it must be safe.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cam's

Cam's jump<\/p><\/div>\n

On his third jump, he convinced Dennis to join him.\u00a0 Not one to back down from a challenge from his kids, Dennis jumped in perfectly straight like an old pro.\u00a0The kids teased him that he flapped his arms like a bird on the way down, but that\u2019s not how I saw it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Den's

Den's jump<\/p><\/div>\n

After a couple hours of sliding, laughing, swimming and picture taking, we headed back to the RV to change into dry clothes for a little hiking.<\/p>\n

With a tip from our campground friend Joanie, we took the back roads to Cathedral Rock after a quick stop at\u00a0the Chapel of the Holy Cross<\/a>.\u00a0 Cathedral Rock is a beautiful structure on the west side of Sedona.\u00a0 We parked only .8 miles from the heart of mountain.\u00a0 We geared up and grabbed the water bottles and headed up the path to climb Cathedral Rock.\u00a0 We were probably about .0001 miles away from the RV when it started\u2026\u201dIt\u2019s so hot!\u201d, \u201cdo we really need to hike?\u201d, \u201cwhy do we have to do this?\u00a0 It\u2019s 100 degrees!\u201d\u00a0 It was actually 116 degrees that day and quite honestly I didn\u2019t want to be all kinds of sweaty for the rest of our day sightseeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cathedral

Cathedral Rock<\/p><\/div>\n

We made it up .5 miles, right before the steep climbing was required, we waved hello to Arizona and turned back around for the RV.\u00a0 Semi-disappointing to cut it short but in the long run, it saved us lots of unpleasant odors to deal with as we made our way to Jerome AZ for a very late lunch.<\/p>\n

South of Sedona, Jerome was an old miners\u2019 town that, back in its hay day in the early 1900s, sold $1,000,000 of cooper per month.\u00a0 It was known as the toughest town in America, filled with miners, ladies of the evening, saloons and gun shops.\u00a0 In the 1940s, everything changed and with only 150 residents Jerome couldn\u2019t survive.\u00a0 Several decades later, local artists bought out much of the town, turning the historical buildings into galleries, restaurants and gift shops.\u00a0 It is widely believed that Jerome is haunted, a theory supported by most of the 400 plus residents of today.\u00a0 Four different people recommended the \u201cHaunted Hamburger\u201d for a delicious lunch with tasty beverages and it delivered.\u00a0 My Prickly Pear Margarita hit the spot! Perched on the highest of the mountain side roads, our outside table offered views clear across the state, ranging well into Flagstaff and beyond until our favorite black cloud rolled in again!\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jerome

Jerome Ghost Town<\/p><\/div>\n

We finished our yummy meals without any signs of the paranormal and decided to head out before the storm hit.\u00a0 It\u2019s more me than Den, but being\u00a0 in an over-sided beast on narrow, twisty-turning mountain road in down pouring rain with thunder and lightning is not how I wanted to end my day!\u00a0 As always (or most of the time, at least) Dennis obliged and we headed for the comforts of our campsite.<\/p>\n

North, south, east and west, we certainly did get a good sampling of this scenic Arizona setting in our three short days.\u00a0 Many people told us Sedona was the worth the stop and now we will tell you, too, Sedona is well worth the stop, no matter what type of vacation junkie you may be.<\/p>\n

To see all our photos from Slide Rock<\/a> or sightseeing in Sedona<\/a>, visit Snapfish.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There is no shortage of things to do in the Sedona Arizona area.\u00a0 If you love to over-indulge in your favorite guilty pleasure, Sedona is happy to be your co-dependant source.\u00a0 Shopaholics can choose from clothes to traditional Indian goods, jewelry to crystals and never get their fill of variety.\u00a0 Foodaholics will be satisfied with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[103,63,27,35],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":736,"href":"https:\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721\/revisions\/736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/\/snapshotchronicles.com\/roadtrip\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}