Wednesday, July 6th.
Check out was at noon so I took advantage and I spent the morning riding around the local roads and finding all the best viewpoints with the morning sun. What a gorgeous place this is. I didn’t do any hiking here, as it was just too hot and I had limited time as I’m heading for a booked tour of Monument Valley. I went back to the motel to have another swim in the refreshing pool. Then I rode north out of Sedona on a beautiful little hiway that followed a river through a narrow valley. At the end of it it rose 3000 feet up a series of switchbacks to the northern Arizona plateau and a great view of the valley. The temperature dropped a bit and the vegetation changed to forests of Ponderosa pines. Really different from below. I rode to Flagstaff, got my bearings at an information office and continued north. After a half hour the elevation dropped again, the temperature went up, and the trees disappeared to be replaced by grassland. Further along it became a totally arid desert. A while later scrubland. Really amazing how many changes of environment I rode through in a couple of hours. Just before I finally arrived at my destination I could see some cloud that looked suspicious, and I rode through an area of blowing red dust and then a small rain shower that really didn’t get me wet but stung on the knuckles and face. I arrived in Bluff, Utah where I had pre-booked a motel a few weeks ago. Somewhere, somehow the time changed again and instead of being three hours behind Toronto time, I have gained an hour. This town is very small and there was nowhere to eat except to buy a few things from a gas station. Then back to the room to rest up as it got dark. A total of 498 kilometres today.
Breathtaking!
ReplyDelete