Days on the road: 26.
Miles today: 135.
Miles to date: 5424.
Whilst in Sedona, I elected to lounge by the pool, explore the local colour, and venture into the surrounding area to discover rural Arizona. Sedona has lots of natural elements to take in as the topography and colours catch the eye of even the most cynical city boy. I'm sure a certain mountain biking enthusiast friend, JCR, would love it here. I also took the down time to take care of some laundry, learning that there is really little need for a clothes dryer in the desert.
After the chore of laundry, I decided to examine the uneasy fact that there are wineries in the desert. Now, I'm no KA or PS when it comes to oenophilia (sounds dirty), but let's just describe my creek-side tasting as a pleasant experience of rough product. They offered a really tasty tasting plate of cheese, fruit, bread, and roasted tomatoes though.
Jerome is a small, former mining town in the mountains about 25 miles South of Sedona. It still has a major Freeport Mcmoran presence (and they also own the mineral rights under the homes of current residents) despite the copper and gold operations ceasing some time ago.
Near Jerome is Cottonwood, which is more residential and came into existence due to the fact that it was NOT a company town and more people settled there away from the mining operation. Also driving relocation, was the nearby concrete plant on former smelting lands (Clarkdale) that provided the materials for a major dam project on the Colorado river.
My short voyages also took me to Red Rock to see the red rocks (they call this one Cathedral Rock):
