While Sedona and Lake Mead are “repeats” of stops in the past, there are some places that are so beautiful that they cannot be resisted. I could happily visit Sedona every year and never tire of its awesome views in every direction. It is such a extraordinary combination of spectacular scenery, fantastic hiking, smallish-town charm, good restaurants and bars, unique artistic shops and who could forget the ever present “vortex” to cure all ills. Who could ask for anything more? On our last visit there, we ran into a snow storm that left 18 inches of snow on the ground which made our hiking very muddy but with unique and picturesque landscapes. This year we had sunny, warm weather, and dry hiking. However, the very best part was that our good friends Marv and Laurie Baker joined us in both places.
Masking and social distancing were pretty prevalent everywhere, so we felt comfortable having a breakfast at the Coffee Pot Diner (home of Sedona’s 101 omelets). What a treat to eat out and visit with friends after months of homemade meals and interactions pretty much limited to just the two of us! No trip to Sedona would be complete without a trip to Jerome with lunch at the Haunted Hamburger. It was delicious as ever with lovely views of the valley below. I was able to score some gifts for all of the grandchildren in a don’t-forget-about-us package sent to CT. Coincidentally, Bill and I were able to pick up a few items for ourselves. A last minute stop down a side alley in Jerome, led us to a glass-blowers shop where he was demonstrating his art! Very cool!
We parted from the Bakers for a couple of days as we travelled to Lake Mead. We had reserved one of the “front row seats” in the RV park within the National Recreation Area and it was as wonderful as we remembered. We stayed in the same campground as our previous visit but reserved a special site so we could look out over the lake and surrounding mountains right from within our RV. Bill and I had a couple of memorable happy hours drinking some good wine, listening to music, gazing at the view, and solving world problems. I have no memory of those solutions but I am sure that they were spot-on.
Marvin and Laurie joined back up with us after a few days and we spent some time hiking in the park, visiting Boulder City (with a great outdoor lunch), and a surprisingly fun trip to The Henderson Bird Sanctuary. We also spent a day in Red Rock Canyon National Conservation area just west of Vegas. It has become so popular that timed visit reservations are required. There are a total of 26 hikes off of the 13 mile scenic loop, and while we did not take all of them, we did walk several of them. We finished the day with a magnificent dinner at an excellent Italian restaurant in Lake Las Vegas … our first restaurant fine dining experience in over a year. It had the best homemade ravioli in truffle sauce that I have ever had! We left the next day to head out to Monument Valley with great memories with the Bakers in Sedona and Lake Mead.
Great pic!
It was a great trip! Always better with great friends ❤
As always !