SATURDAY - Exploring the 35 mile unpaved road of mystery

Saturday morning Marc and I ate breakfast at the Airport Restaurant® (now, sadly, closed). Afterwards, we picked up Adele and her dog Happy and drove to Jerome to explore the legendary 35 mile unpaved road. We started down it with abandon. Adele recognized the road from a previous trip as well. After a while we passed a jeep. A couple of miles later we got confused at a fork in the road. The guy in the jeep pulled alongside us and offered to guide us to Perkinsville, which we gratefully accepted. So we got a guided tour of the unpaved road all the way to Perkinsville. At that point we hit a paved portion of the road and went our separate ways. The road forked into an unpaved road as well, which was the remainder of the legendary 35 mile unpaved road. Anyhow, we drove up to Williams and made a pit stop. Then we drove to Flagstaff, where Adele exchanged a skirt. Afterwards, we drove down Highway 89A back to Sedona. We ate a very enjoyable dinner at SAVANNAH'S® a new restaurant in Sedona with live music (sadly now closed as of Labor Day 2010). Then we drove back to Adele's and visited for a while. Then Marc and I returned to my apartment. And such was our Saturday.

SUNDAY - Hiking Bell Rock and exploring Schnebly Hill Road

Sunday morning Marc and I hiked up Bell Rock. We started at the bottom. The trail led us past an incredible view of CourtHouse Butte, which is right next to Bell Rock. Bell Rock has 5 peaks: 2 are relatively easy to climb, and the other 3 are higher and difficult to climb. I celebrated reaching the higher of the 2 easy peaks. Here is a shot of Marc near 1 of the difficult to climb peaks to give you an idea of how high up Bell Rock we climbed. Highway 179 is in the distance. And here is Marc next to 1 of the difficult to climb peaks. And here I am on the lower of the 2 climbable peaks. We then slowly climbed and slid down Bell Rock. I got the bright idea to walk around the other side of Bell Rock, which took us around CourtHouse Butte. We ended being a little late for lunch. We chowed down at JAVELINA CANTINA®, a great Mexican restaurant near my apartment. After lunch we again drove up Schnebly Hill Road. As you can see, Schnebly Hill Road has an incredible view of Sedona and the surrounding mountains. After driving up Schnebly Hill Road, we drove up past Flagstaff to see the sacred white buffalo. They are located along Highway 180 just past the San Francisco Peaks. We had a guide, who explained about the buffalo. They were looking a little off white on account of shedding their winter coat. After seeing the buffalo, we drove down 89A back to Sedona. We stopped at Adele's, who cooked a great Peanut Butter Cheesecake for Marc and me. We ate a couple of pieces and enjoyed them immensely. Then we left for T3®, the latest Arnold Terminator movie. The movie was interesting. After the movie, we drove up Airport Road to check out the Vortex. We sat on a rock where the Vortex is supposed to be located and chilled out for a while. The rock had a very relaxing view of south Sedona. We then walked the Airport Trail, which goes around Airport mountain. However, we only walked a part of the trail. We then returned to my apartment. And such was our Sunday.