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July 17, 2023

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"Grumpy" or not, I'd love to take a road trip with you. Anytime. How about a drive to Young, AZ? In 1998, I took an ill-equipped-car drive specifically to see their general store. That road scare the bejeezus outta me. d

I remember when Slide rock had parking to up to six cars and room for a dozen of your closest friends. NOW....it rivals any of the large water parks in Phoenix.

And the creek has a virus.
For years i have asked that 89A from the bridge north of downtown Sedona to the rim be closed to long term vehicle camping and commercial and residential buildings.

I first visited Sedona in 1950 while on a hunting trip on Mingus mountain.
Then, no McDonald's.
Today at least three Starbucks.

Due to marriages and my love of the female species I've been a Los Abrigados member for 32 years. Since it was owned by the Italians of Cottonwood. And i once owned a small place on the Verde Riverbank.

However including Sedona there are
between the Bradshaws and the rest of Arizona north still many great day trips.

Go while you can. At 83 it has gotten very difficult to hike down and back up the Grand Canyon. A magnificent part of the planet.

Earth First

@ Joanna -- the road you were on (and it sounds like you came up from the south) is State Highway 288, the Globe-Young Highway, a.k.a. the Desert to Tall Pines Scenic Byway.

It's still narrow and winding, with some of the hair-pin-i-est turns you'll ever see in the area of Parker Creek, halfway in the road's 4000-foot climb into the Sierra Ancha. ADOT has thrown a thin layer of asphalt on it in places to reduce dust, but there is still no painted center stripe or any other improvement.

I've been going up to the Sierra Ancha since 1970 to hike its spectacular but low-use trails, usually several times a year. Fire has touched portions of the forest. Still lovely, though.

Most of the millions of recent AZ arrivals have never heard of Young or the Sierra Ancha.

Hope it stays that way, so, Rogue-ists, mum's the word.

I don't go to Sedona or Oak Creek Canyon anymore.

Locusts.

Eventually, Americans love a place to death.

More Roadless Wilderness.

"Wilderness is not a luxury but a necessity of the human spirit, and as vital to our lives as water and bread."
Edward Abbey

"The deserts should never be reclaimed. They are the breathing' spaces of the west and should be preserved forever."
John Van Dyke
The Desert,1901

@JoeSchallan, I think you are correct about the road number.

Beverly Hills-by-the-Vortex. So many low-wage jobs and so little affordable housing. Practically all the workers you see in town drive in from one of the "C's" of the Verde Valley (Camp Verde, Cornville, Clarkdale, and Cottonwood), or Rimrock. To Sedona's credit, they have teamed up with the City of Cottonwood on commuter buses to try to reduce the environmental impacts of all those workers' daily round trips, as well as their out-of-pocket transportation costs.

Last time I saw it must be 40 years ago, and there were people standing in the creek with a volleyball net across it. I'll just remember it the way it was before Arizona became air-conditioned.

As a rule of thumb, a pair of cut-offs was good for about three trips down Slide Rock.

On a similar note, whatever happened to the official (as shown on USGS Topo maps) and long-used name Capitol Butte? Why has it come to be called "Thunder Mountain?" I remember the Sedona of the early 70s - before the horde of pink jeeps. If we can't go back to the good ol' days, I say we at least keep the ol' place names.

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