An exciting road trip with several planned stops. Kiara came along for the first few days and Joni rode with her in her car while I was learning to be at one with the new Jeep. We left early on a Thursday morning in the middle of a crazy wind and dust storm with occasional drizzle to add to the fun. Just west of Blythe we experienced a haboob on I-10 with complete invisibility in the dust storm… an adventure for sure. First stop other than gas was Sedona for a short, overnight stay with our friend Reylyn at an airbnb that she had set up and a visit with old friends Steve and Deni from E-Dock. There are more pics of the airbnb below but here is the kitchen and the hot tub (note Kiara’s stocking cap).
Sedona is another one of those locations that geology has created for the shear enjoyment of the masses (that’s my story and I’m sticking with it since I am one of the masses). The town sits at the base of the Mogollon Rim which is the boundary of between the Colorado Plateau to the north and the Basin and Range province to the south. Everything is uphill toward the Colorado Plateau and more or less downhill (with intervening ups) to the south. The most striking views of Sedona include cliffs of red to beige sandstones, siltstones and some other miscellaneous sedimentary rocks of the Schnebly Hill formation. While this formation is unique to the Sedona area, it is considered to be part of the Supai Group. The Supai was deposited about 275-270 million years ago (mya) on the Pangea supercontinent. Working our way up above the Supai is the Coconino Sandstone and above that, the Toroweap Formation. Particularly in the cliffs south of Sedona, there is evident cross bedding in these sandstones since the formations were deposited in a desert environment with windblown sand dunes being very common. For those that have been to the Grand Canyon, these formation names may ring a bell as they make up significant portions of the canyon walls.
The Supai to the south and southeast of Sedona is capped with volcanic rocks that originated from 3 million to 15 million years ago from the Mormon Mountain Volcanic Field which includes over 250 individual volcanic vents from a 1.000 square mile area south of Flagstaff, Arizona. One of the most impressive facts associated with this series of outcrops (at least to geologists) is that there is almost 240 million years of missing rocks between the sedimentary cliffs of the Sedona area and the volcanic cap rock on top of these cliffs.
The pictures below in the usual photo album view are from the Airbnb we stayed at and two short hikes that we took before we headed north out of town for Winslow, Arizona and the La Posada Hotel. Here is Kiara on the corner in Winslow and next to the flatbed ford.
