To Needles and into Arizona
We left home on October 21, 2020. We debated where to stop for the first night, and Needles seemed just far enough but not too far. We drove south on I-5 to I-40 (via CA-58 over the Tehachapi Pass). We saw several wind and solar farms. It was about 544 miles and took around 8 hours.
The map shows many of the locations we visited on this trip.
Needles is on the Colorado River, the border of California and Arizona. It is one of the few places that you can easily cross the river going East. The town was a railroad depot for the Santa Fe Railway, and has a nice sign at the train station, now used by Amtrak.
October 22, 2020
We left Needles early heading east through Kingman on I-40. We made a note that maybe next time this would be the place to stop, at about an hour past Needles. We detoured off the highway near Seligman. The town had a number of historic remains from US 66, the old highway, and a high degree of kitsch.
We traveled farther east to Bearizona Wildlife Park near Williams. The park has a drive through portion where we saw bison, mountain goats, wolves, caribou, black bears and other animals. There was also a small walk through part of the park where smaller animals and grizzly bears reside.
Seligman
After visiting the zoo, we drove to Flagstaff for lunch, and then headed south towards our main destination for the trip, Sedona. We went south on Route 89A which started out in the forest, went through Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Drive where we stopped at Oak Creek Vista, and then emerged in “red rock country.” We stopped at Midgley Bridge observation site were we walked a bit and got some nice photos.
Oak Creek Canyon
Viewpoint near the bridge.
The US Forest Service offers wonderful maps and guides of the area which we used to plan some of our walks and drives.
After checking in to our condo hotel, located in Sedona at the intersection of US 89A and SR 179, we took a scenic drive through Red Rock Park (Red Rock Loop Road drive) and got a nice view of Cathedral Rock.
Cathedral Rock
Our hotel had a nice view of the rock called “Snoopy.”
Tomorrow we will see even more amazing rock formations.
