Last night the temperature dropped down to -10°C, as expected. I really wasn’t too sure what to do with respect to the water system in the trailer. The site requires that you disconnect the water hose to the trailer if it is not a heated hose. Ours is not heated, so I disconnected and drained it. I also decided to take no chances, so I emptied the three drainage tanks and drained both the hot and cold water systems in the trailer. Now we had no water until morning!
This morning when we got up it was a matter of reversing the process before we could do breakfast. The good news is, all was well when I got the water flowing.
After breakfast we headed out for a sightseeing trip that would take us north of Flagstaff, then South to Sedona, and continue a long loop around to the west, north and east back to the trailer. Direct routes don’t exist around here due to inconsiderate placement of mountains.
In this blog I’ll let the pictures do much of the talking.
Snow Covered Mountain as we Head East to Flagstaff
The three pictures above show a lava field at a volcano at Sunset Crater about 12 miles north of Flagstaff. This volcano first erupted in 1063, and the eruption lasted about 200 years.
Heading towards Sedona we traveled on the famous Route 66 through Flagstaff, this road was one of the early “long distance” roads that ran from Chicago to Los Angeles, before the Interstate system was built.
Once clear of Flagstaff we headed towards the Oak Creek Canyon.
To get there we had to descend about 1200 ft into the canyon. This was accomplished in a fairly short distance via a series of steep, tight switchbacks. Once on the canyon floor, the temperature started to rise from below 0 to 16°C.
We stopped at the Slide Rock State park
Slide Rock Guest Cabin
To show the different views we were treated to in the canyon, the four pictures above were taken from the same spot just by the cabin looking North, East, South and West
Above are some shots of the water flowing trough Slide Rock.
We also saw a number of male western bluebirds throughout the park.
The above four pictures are general views from along the canyon floor. Plenty of red rocks allover the place.
The canyon just opened out into the town of Sedona, the picture above is for Catriona, anything pink seems to make her happy!
Climbing out of Sedona, the scenery changed from snowy, rocky or mountainous to more foresty (new word). Driving in the area of Jerome reminded me of the mountains in Portugal, particularly with the narrower roads.
Looking Down Along a Small Canyon 
Unidentified Truck (answers please)
We had a fantastic day touring around, if the Grand Canyon is as good or better than this, then we are in for a treat. At first we thought the cold weather and snow would detract from our activities here, but I think the converse is true. The snow adds to the scenery, and the snow melt had many of the rivers running fast.
While in Flagstaff I bough a heated cable to attach to our water hose. When we got back I set this up, which took a while as it has to taped to the hose every 3-4 inches, and the hose is 30 ft long! Hopefully it works.
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