Saturday, October 10, 2020
Our last day in Sedona was a power packed day! We got up early to visit a National Monument called Montezuma's Castle. It is a pueblo dwelling built between 1100 and 1300--that's old! Right next to it, is Castle A, which appears to be a series of "condos", stretching over 5 stories, but the roofs have slid off over the years. How amazing to think about the people who built these dwellings using the natural alcoves so long ago, and how they accomplished construction on the cliffs. Very impressive!
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| Montezuma's castle |
(And, speaking of old, we were able to use our Senior Park Pass and got in free! It's the best deal going!)
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| Castle A |
We decided on hiking the Broken Arrow Trail that we heard about at dinner last night. It was an adventure just getting to the trailhead--you almost needed an ATV to get to the parking area! We're glad the pink jeep tours were sold out, because this turned out to be a fabulous hike.
It was a narrow trail, intermediate difficulty, not a lot of elevation, very few people and a lot of interesting stuff! It was different than the hikes we are used to in Scottsdale, because there were trees that provided occasional shade, and large areas of flat rock surface that provided a resting place and stunning views. 
We stopped at the first flat rock area and there was a panoramic view surrounding us that was spectacular. We couldn't capture the full impact on camera. In the distance you could make out the famous Sedona rock formations.
We took a side trail out to Submarine rock--you can see how it got its name! We climbed up part way, but didn't go over the top.
Along the side of the trail in one spot there is a 90 foot sinkhole dubbed "Devil's Dining Room" that has been fenced off. Documented collapses occurred in the 1880's, 1980's and 1995. We didn't stand around there for long!
The hike was about 3.5 miles long--a really good one! Here's our desert selfie!
We followed the hike with a nap so that we could stay awake for our next adventure...STARGAZING!
It's something that's always fascinated me, and since Sedona is one of only 20 certified International Dark Sky Communities in the world, this seemed like the perfect place to explore the starry night skies!
It was an exceptional experience. (I'm running out of superlative words to use....)
We had a small group of about 10 people who met up with Wes, the astronomer and his assistant in an open field set up with huge telescopes and chairs. It was a little spooky meeting up--they provided directions--"look for the flashing red lights and we will be there to meet you." They were there with headlamps to guide us to the field. We were asked not to use our phones or flashlights so that our eyes could adjust to the night sky...it was sooo dark, but the blanket of stars was beautiful. Each group of two had their own telescope, so that made it nice. 
These $3,000 telescopes had an attachment like a remote control, that allowed you to input the object you wanted to look at. Then the telescope automatically moved and pointed to that site...pretty amazing! Wes had a powerful laser pointer that he used to help us identify the constellations, planets and star clusters. The telescopes allowed us to see the rings of Saturn!! You could hear the gasps of people as they looked in the scope and first saw the rings. We saw Jupiter with it's lines created by spinning "dust", and Mars. We saw Alberio, a binary star with two colors, and Andromeda galaxy. It's too bad we didn't get to see the moon through the telescope--it doesn't rise until midnight at this time of year! Jim and I both saw a shooting star! Wes was so knowledgeable and provided a great education. We learned the North star never moves and it's really not the brightest star. It is hard to wrap your mind around the astronomy concepts--light years and galaxies, black holes, etc. We will certainly look at the night skies and stars a bit differently after this experience. Now I'm going to have to learn astrophotography!
These $3,000 telescopes had an attachment like a remote control, that allowed you to input the object you wanted to look at. Then the telescope automatically moved and pointed to that site...pretty amazing! Wes had a powerful laser pointer that he used to help us identify the constellations, planets and star clusters. The telescopes allowed us to see the rings of Saturn!! You could hear the gasps of people as they looked in the scope and first saw the rings. We saw Jupiter with it's lines created by spinning "dust", and Mars. We saw Alberio, a binary star with two colors, and Andromeda galaxy. It's too bad we didn't get to see the moon through the telescope--it doesn't rise until midnight at this time of year! Jim and I both saw a shooting star! Wes was so knowledgeable and provided a great education. We learned the North star never moves and it's really not the brightest star. It is hard to wrap your mind around the astronomy concepts--light years and galaxies, black holes, etc. We will certainly look at the night skies and stars a bit differently after this experience. Now I'm going to have to learn astrophotography!
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| A picture from the internet that gives a good example of what we saw. |
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