Last week, while waiting for a bay at the local car wash, we met a couple from Manitoba, Jim and Carmen Koepke. He had a Ford 4WD with a winch, so we invited them to take a ride with us out in the outback. First we visited the ruins at Palatki. The site is actually off limits for visitors at the moment. One has to view the ruins from an area about 50 yds away. The docent gives the same spiel but you can't roam around the site at all. A couple of years ago, you could even go into one of the "homes". Last year, that was prohibited as the doorway was collapsing. This year they have heard some cracking noises and fear that there may be a boulder falling soon, so it is off limits.
From there we went to Honanki which has more ruins than Palatki anyway. So, our friends from Manitoba enjoyed that. We took an abbreviated trip through Lincoln Canyon as Jim was a little reluctant to do any damage to his vehicle. (BTW, we heard that scratches in the paint from branches along a trail are called Arizona Pinstripes.)
Our friends, Henry and Gigi, arrived on thurs and we did some of the same things with them. They were blown away by the scenery as you come into Sedona late in the day. The Red Rocks were in their full glory.We also brought them on a hike through Soldier's Pass, which has great sunlight in the morning.
The weather has been a bit of a problem for them, tho. One evening it was beautiful, like in this photo of Cathedral Rock at about 5:00 PM.
The next morning, we awoke to weather like this. It will melt quickly and the scenery will be beautiful again.
Our poor hummingbird had to chip away at the feeder for her breakfast. We really needed the rain/snow as it is very dry here. All the creek beds that I love to splash through are totally devoid of any water. I'm looking forward to getting a little red rock mud on the Jeep.
You'll be hard put to get any sympathy for your cool weather from those of us in the still frozen north.
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