Historic Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ on Old Route 66
At Flagstaff, AZ we took the highway south and down into the beautiful canyon leading to Sedona. We enjoyed the lovely sites of both Slide Rock State Park and Red Rock State Park. The canyon was closed for exploration due to recent forest fires but the State Parks were open for visitors.
We found the city of Sedona very rich and tourist-y and decided to keep going toward Red Rock S.P.
We watched a gorgeous desert lightening storm but amazingly, we didn't get any rain where we were.
Prickly Pear Cactus were everywhere! I made the mistake of picking one of the blossoms off of the top of this pretty one and literally got 50 very small needles imbedded into my fingers. Ouch!
Careful Ash! :-)
So breathtaking! We parked and meandered around this beautiful area for quite a while.
Mama and Mandy
Three weary travelers
We headed south to Cottonwood where we intended on staying at Dead Horse Ranch State Park. The clouds were ominous..
Upon our arrival, the park ranger warned us that a summer monsoon was coming in but assured us that he would place us in a loop that had more mature landscaping for hopes that the wind would be less forceful for us. That was comforting.. I guess.. :-) The storm only lasted for about an hour. It included very high winds and lightening so close that there wasn't even a pause between the lightening bold and crashing thunder! We went for a drive on the nearby desert roads and just about got forced off the road with the compression of the nearby strikes. Very impressive and scary! ;-)
While out scouting, the boys came across this little guy. They thought he was dead and started tossing rocks near him to make sure.. (they haven't been raised in the desert else they would have known that the guy was just cold and napping!) He scared them almost to death when he started rattling at them and slithered away!
We also came across this cute roadrunner while on a walk
Mama makes dinner. Since we were at a campground, the task was a bit easier since we had electricity and were hooked up to water.. dry camping is quite a bit harder than while being hooked up.. but both are enjoyable.
After leaving Dead Horse Ranch State Park, we stopped by a local dog park to let the dogs run free for a while! Needless to say, they had a blast!
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