Boondocking in Sedona

Forest Road 525

Sedona, AZ is one of the most beautiful areas in the west and late March is a perfect time to visit. We planned to stay on public land and therefore did not have a reservation anywhere. All our research pointed to Forest Road 525 as the place to go and, as one would imagine, everyone else learned the same thing. After driving 3 miles down a dirt road and finding all the obvious camping spots overflowing with RVs, we began to get a little nervous.

Hiking Sedona

We took a couple of hikes during our week long stay in the area. Our first hike was to Devil’s Bridge. This hike terminates at a natural rock bridge that you are supposed to walk out onto and have your picture taken. The bridge looks a lot narrower from the perspective of the photographer than it actually is. At its narrowest point, it is probably 4-5 feet wide and is at least 6 to 8 feet wide along the majority of the natural bridge. Dan was all in for walking out and having his picture taken but Amy was initially fine staying back. Well, after a woman with obvious acrophobia made it out onto the bridge (her two friends held her hands and she was crying the whole time), Amy decided she would go for it. Well, just to make sure Amy knew how easy this was, the young lady on the bridge before Amy’s turn commenced to do handstands. Her father, taking video of the stunt, assured everyone that it was fine because his daughter was a college gymnast and handstands on a 4-6 foot wide platform was nothing for her. Compared to the woman overcoming her fears and the handstands, our time on Devil’s Bridge was uneventful but fun.

A few days later, we took another hike in the same general area as the first hike. This one was called Doe Mountain Loop hike. This was a very enjoyable hike with lots of wonderful views. The hike consisted of about 0.6 miles with almost 600 feet of elevation up to a plateau. We then walked about a mile around the perimeter of the plateau, resulting in an eventual 360 degree view. In one direction, we saw more of the gorgeous red rock cliffs and in the other direction we saw rolling hills and multi-million dollar homes at the base of the mountain. We thoroughly enjoyed the views as we casually strolled around the top before beginning our descent back down the trail to the parking lot.

When we left the parking lot for Doe Mountain Trail, we thought we would visit the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a church that is built right into the side of one of the red rock cliffs. Unfortunately the place was over crowded and there was absolutely no parking. In fact, it was a challenge to navigate our way back out of the area with our oversized truck. If you are in Sedona and plan to visit this attraction we suggest you go early. In fact, that advice holds for getting to the trail heads as well. We arrived at the trailhead for our second hike significantly earlier than we did for the first hike and as a result, we were able to park in the parking lot instead of on the side of the street.

Friends and Family on the Road

We were told that we would meet lots of new friends on the road and some would become close friends that you would endeavor to hook up with whenever your paths crossed. This has turned out to be true for us already. We met Paul and Kay at Quartzsite in January. They were part of our little entourage along with Jim and Corinne, whom you’ve read about in numerous other posts. On our second day here, shortly after we returned from our hike to Devil’s Bridge, Paul and Kay came by in their truck. They were staying at Dead Horse Ranch State Park and were looking to come here the next day. Once it was determined that there was room for them, all was set and they pulled in the next day and setup right on the other side of our rig. We had dinner together that evening and got to taste Paul’s Bison Chili.

Sedona is about a 2 hour drive from Scottsdale and it just so happens that Rob was visiting Kristina this weekend. We mentioned to Kristina that it would be nice if the two of them could come visit us while we were so close. Luckily for us, she thought that was a splendid idea so they came up for the afternoon and joined us for dinner before heading back down to Scottsdale. What a treat that was!

In the meantime our new friends, John and Tina, whom we met while camping outside of Joshua Tree National Park, messaged to let us know they were in the area at the same state park Paul and Kay stayed in. I suggested to them that we meet up at the microbrewery in Cottonwood called “That Brewery”. On Monday afternoon, we took Paul and Kay with us and met John and Tina along with 2 other couples that John and Tina knew. We had a wonderful time enjoying good beer and conversations about life on the road.

John and Tina were also looking to move into the public lands off Forest Road 525 and we told them we would look out for a spot for them. On Wednesday morning, the day they planned to come our way, the spot on the other side of us opened up. We texted them and asked if they wanted us to park our truck on the spot to hold it for them. “Absolutely!”, they said. That evening our dinner party grew to 6 as we all enjoyed John’s famous spaghetti along with some red wine and homemade bread that Amy brought. Our circle of friends on the road is off to a great start!

Other Things of Interest

Just a few miles down the dirt road from where we are camped are some cliff dwellings with ancient petroglyphs. There are two separate sites: one, Palatki, requires reservations to go see as they try to limit the foot traffic and the other, Honanki, is open but further away on rough roads. Given that we didn’t have a reservation for Palatki we traveled the bumpy road to check out Honanki. These ruins, built by the Sinagua Indians, in the 1100’s were fascinating.

On Thursday morning, we received a text from Tina suggesting we look out our window. There were several hot air balloons in the air and one was headed right for our little campground and may end up landing close by. The pilot managed to avoid our rigs and ended up landing about 200 yards down the road where his chase vehicle helped deflate the balloon and get them on their way. The other balloons in the area must have hit different air currents as they were carried off in a different direction. Amazing the unique experiences you can have camping for free on public lands!