Las Vegas VI

Village of Oak Creek

Grand Canyon and Joshua Tree National Park were on my list for Flagstaff but since it was too much for the time given I meandered through Oak Creek a most magnificent area below Flagstaff.

And here he is - my latest love - oh I wished we could drive into the sunset and on and on... :)

And along the 89 down to Sedona first red rocks come into view.

Layer on layer.

Wow - that looks mean! And cool too! My first real cactus!

Bell Rock is a popular tourist attraction in Village of Oak Creek, Arizona, south of Sedona in Yavapai County. It is an area of spiritual significance to New Agers.
Geologically, Bell Rock is a butte, composed of horizontally bedded sedimentary rock of the Permian Supai Formation.

Big Park, the pioneers' name for the large open area that became the Village of Oak Creek in the early 1960s, is set among scenic red-rock buttes and canyons, the town is surrounded by the Coconino National Forest.

See the moon up in the sky? It is magic. I am living the dream.

So lucky to have made it down here - feels more aproachable than the Grand Canyon.

The Red Rocks of Sedona. The formations appear to glow in brilliant orange and red when illuminated by the rising or setting sun. The Red Rocks form a breathtaking backdrop for everything from spiritual pursuits to the hundreds of hiking and mountain biking trails.

Every Cowboy book readers dream.

Even though I would have loved to make it to Monument Valley - Utha.

Grand Canyon I

The Grand Canyon is a steep-sided gorge carved by the Colorado River in the United States in the state of Arizona. It is largely contained within the Grand Canyon National Park, one of the first national parks in the United States.

The Grand Canyon is 277 miles (446 km) long, ranges in width from 4 to 18 miles (6.4 to 29 km) and attains a depth of over a mile (1.83 km) (6000 feet).

Nearly two billion years of the Earth's geological history have been exposed as the Colorado River and its tributaries cut their channels through layer after layer of rock while the Colorado Plateau was uplifted.

While the specific geologic processes and timing that formed the Grand Canyon are the subject of debate by geologists, recent evidence suggests the Colorado River established its course through the canyon at least 17 million years ago.

Since that time, the Colorado River continued to erode and form the canyon to the point we see it as today.

Before European immigration, the area was inhabited by Native Americans who built settlements within the canyon and its many caves. The Pueblo people considered the Grand Canyon ("Ongtupqa" in Hopi language) a holy site and made pilgrimages to it.

Grand Canyon II

Grand Canyon III

Grand Canyon IV