We left San Diego on the 10:15 flight to Phoenix and arrived around 11:30 for the drive north up the Interstate 17 to our next one night stopover in Sedona. We couldn't wait to get into Arizona and find out how different this will be to California. First impressions from the plane, it looked like a lot of dry desert until we flew near the city. On arrival at the car rental centre they had a mist spray to cool everyone, it was baking hot and when we selected our rental car (Mitsubishi Crossover), the temperature was showing 100 deg F on the dash gauge.
The drive up to Sedona was incredible with changes in scenery with cacti everywhere to begin with, then as we made our way closer to Sedona the desert and mountain rock in the distance changed to the distinctive bright reddish colour formed by tropical sea millions of years ago depositing sand in the sediment. We arrived at our hotel around 4pm after a brief stop to stock up on water and we found a McDonalds to have a late lunch. We had left SD without breakfast and by now we were both really hungry. We realised that since the temperature was over 100 degrees we had perhaps been a bit silly driving through dessert on the interstate with nothing more than half a bottle of water and a packet of mentos! Anyway, we checked in to the Best Western, a great view from our balcony and watched the sun set and the rock change colour with the light and shadows across the valley. Later, a walk up to find a great restaurant with outside tables. Wonderful day and evening in a great setting.
First glimpse of Arizona and Phoenix.
Different types of Cacti everywhere.
The new hire car - red one on the right.
Our hotel balcony view. Amazing vista, with red coloured rock that changed hue as the sun set casting shadows across the valleys.
