Prescott/Sedona Christmas Bus

My RV park, Sunscape RV, had a bus trip to Prescott and Sedona for Christmas.  We went to Prescott first. In 1864 Prescott was designated as the capital of the Arizona Territory, which was created after the Gadsden purchased added so much land to the New Mexico Territory that the government didn't think it could be adequately administered from Santa Fe. The Territorial Capital was moved to Tucson in 1867 but returned to Prescott in 1877, where it remained until 1889 when Phoenix became the capital.

The granite, Neo-Classic Revival-style courthouse, which was built in 1916, is among eleven Prescott buildings in the National Register of Historic Places



This plaque is on the base of the statue in the following photo.

 

 



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We got off the bus and headed straight for The Palace Saloon for lunch.

Check out the ceiling.  There was a huge skylight in the middle but they had blocked most of the light with a large Arizona flag.  Notice the "soiled dove" on the balcony and the waitress's dress.



It's easier to see the waitresses dress in this photo.  The display on the wall to the far left is a memorial for the Granite Hot Shots, a 19-man fire fighting crew that died fighting a fire in 2013.

Notice how the deer on the wall are decorated for Christmas.

After lunch I continued my tour of the square.  This is the water fountain in its winter mode.  They covered the fountain with chicken wire covered in cotton batting. 

We had a long time in Prescott since we were waiting to go to the nighttime light display so I found a path along Granite Creek and went for a walk.

It was a short walk as the path ended before I even got to the historic trestle bridge.

So I wandered around town checking out the historical buildings.

Not a good photo but I would have had to step into the middle of a busy street to take one.  

Finally we were off to the lighting display.  The bus went through at least three tunnels of lights.  The display is called Valley of Lights and is sponsored by valley businesses.

It was really hard to get any type of photo since the bus was moving and I wasn't at a window seat.

The blurry spot at the sleigh runners was a sticker on the bus window.

We stayed at Cliff Castle Casino for the night then headed to Sedona the next day.  The bus stopped at the Bell Rock rest area.

You might have to click on the photo so you can enlarge it to see the three climbers on Bell Rock.  This is as far as my camera could zoom in on them.  The only way we could see it was people on the rock was when they moved and then we could only see the one on top and the one in the white shirt.  Didn't know there was a third until I downloaded the photo to the computer.

Our bus and driver.

The next stop was at the Oak Creek Canyon Overlook.

We could see the snow in this ravine.

The Yavapai-Apache people do a booming business selling jewelry at the overlook.  Sedona has a long history of occupation going back to 9,000 BC.  Various Indian tribes have lived in the area, including Sinagua, Yavapai and Apache.

Yes there was snow along the parking lot and just over the side of the overlook.

Looking down Oak Creek Canyon towards Sedona.  Just over the edge of the overlook was the unlikely combination of prickly pear cactus and agave.  Unusual at this elevation.

Here you can see two sections of the windy road we traversed to get to the overlook.

There's plenty of snow on the shady side of the mountain.

Geologic information on the area shows why there's such a variation in color.

We headed back to Sedona and, after a quick lunch, I elected to go on a Jeep tour.  Course we started off in town and went around quite a few traffic circles.

Look at all the different colors of rocks.

We got off the highway and onto Schnebly Hill Road.  The name Schnebly comes from the city's first postmaster, Theodore Carlton Schnebly.  Sedona was named after Sedona Arabella Miller Schnebly (1877–1950), Theodore's wife.  Her mother claimed to have made up the name.

Do you see Snoopy and Lucy?  Probably not... we need to look a little closer.

Here's Snoopy taking a nap.  You can see that right?

Well you have to have a vivid imagination to see Lucy's head sticking up from the top, but here it is.

Yes, I'm in the third Jeep out of three on this tour.

That third Jeep thing was ok until we hit this.  Yeap, dirt road.  Time for some dust in the face.

Of course the road is rough.. that's why we need a Jeep.

Does anything look familiar?  Lots of movies were filmed in this area including 3:10 to Yuma (1957 version), Broken Arrow, The Comancheros, The Last Wagon.

Slow moving in this area.

Deep sand here.

Wow.. we even found a wet spot.

This spot was in a western but I can't remember the name of it.  In the movie a gal was taking a shower under a water fall that was provided by two water tankers just up the road.

We stopped at an overlook to get a glimpse back at where we've been.  Although the "road" continues, this is the turn around point for the Jeep tours. 

My Jeep and driver.

I believe this is called Carousel Rock and is the filming location for a movie called "The Last Wagon" where they lowered a wagon that belonged to my driver's grandparents from the steep side on the left.
 

Probably the worst place in the road.  The Jeep before us scrapped even when it creeped over this area.  Our driver acknowledge it was tricky but our Jeep didn't scrape