Going into Sedona, Charlie decided to Google “ORV Sedona” and found that there were tons of off-road trails. He watched a bunch of YouTube videos and found a trail he was interested in that was accessed through a residential area of Sedona. By reading forum directions and mapping street names, Charlie figured out that it was not too far from us.
Having gotten over that first ORV hump of “I’m going to vomit” back in Moab, I agreed to go off-roading again. Primarily because I did not want to be left alone with the kids. Once we got there and aired-down our tires, we quickly found a rock to practice on. A group of gun-toting Jeepers showed up, and while Charlie was keen to link up with them, I thought we should move along… and of course we got lost pretty quickly. But once we stopped for a pee break, they caught up to us, so we followed them around for a while.
We found some pretty amazing viewpoints, and chatted from a distance about Jeep stuff and travels, but once it got into politics, I slowly backed into our Jeep and got the kids buckled so we could head off again.
It was pretty interesting to see the Pink Jeep tours – they had maybe up to 6 passengers per Jeep, with those meat-packing sneeze guards, so it was in a way encouraging to see that tourism is still happening. I’m not sure what this means for COVID cases and safety, but with this industry decimated, I’m always curious to see how people are adapting.
Our final climb was “Devil’s Staircase.” These ones always freak me out – I have visions of us scratching the bottom of the Jeep and puncturing something… but what do I know about cars! All I know is that whenever possible, get out of the vehicle and scout your route. And watch where you’re stepping – the guy in front of us did the same, slipped on some loose rock and fell 30 feet down! When asked if he was ok, he joked that he was a big guy with plenty of cushioning (wink).
Anyway, we made it out, unscathed – even with me doing a little driving too! I will admit, it’s pretty fun! If you are ever in Sedona with a trail-ready vehicle, we recommend Broken Arrow!
Tales of RVentures 