What is up, everyone? Welcome!
On today's adventure Amy and I are doing a scenic
drive from Flagstaff, Arizona
down to Sedona down Route 89A.
Goes through a region called Oak Creek Canyon.
Starts in the pine forests
native to the Flagstaff area
and the higher elevations and just
whoo goes down very steeply
towards the Red Rocks of Sedona.
We've driven this route before
but we've never really thoroughly explored it
so we'd love to have you join us.
Let's go find out if this is good.
Yeah, this first part of the
drive here is absolutely beautiful.
We love the pine forests here in Arizona.
We live in the Sonoran Desert
so to us this never gets old.
Just kind of just shifting...
driving a couple hours north of Phoenix
and you're in a completely different world.
Also cooler too so it's nice.
Even though today is a little bit warm for up here.
It's in the low 80s.
Still down in Phoenix I think we're
looking at triple digits so I'll take
this any day of the week.
[Cars passing and music in background]
So this area we're in now is called Oak Creek Vista.
We haven't seen the Vista yet.
We're on a little trail near a parking lot there.
I've never come here before.
We drive by it every time we do this drive
but so far it's a really beautiful little park.
I see there's like some kind of
a view up here we're gonna get.
Lots of picnic tables.
Lots of pine trees.
So I'm excited to see what we're gonna see here.
So if you guys have seen some of my other videos,
a couple of times I talk about ponderosa pines.
These guys.
I love these trees and if you smell them
they oftentimes smell like vanilla and butterscotch.
Alright, going in for the smell.
Actually I do smell it. I do right here.
The ponderosa pine.
It does smell like vanilla and butterscotch sometimes.
You can get a really strong whiff of it sometimes.
You got to kind of smell the tree in certain spots
but what I will guarantee you is people will look
at you as if you're out of your mind
when they see you smelling it so that is for sure.
Another thing that I'm gonna say here is that
vlogging and doing this activity on YouTube
has been one of the most healthy things in my life
because you learn really quick not to care about
what anybody else thinks because you're
really putting yourself out there.
So go and smell a few ponderosa pine,
film yourself doing it and it'll change your life.
Dun dun duuuun.
Da da da da duuuuuuuun.
Would you look at that, guys.
[Music]
That there's a long way down.
Look at that.
I'm sure the depth does not translate well
on video here but
that is approaching being vertiginous I would say.
Looks like there's another little scenic overlook here.
Let's see if this good. I'm sure it is.
Oh yeah. Look at that. That is so spectacular.
So I'll tell you right off the bat
this Oak Creek Vista area is a must do
if you're doing, like, a leisurely drive down 89A
and you really want to get a great view
of how that road snakes down and
what's to come there's no better place to stop than here.
I'm just surprised we've never
checked this little park out before.
[Music]
So this is perfect.
I guess I'm going to consider this the
beginning of our journey officially.
We're up here at this Oak Creek Vista
and you can see what we're going to be doing today is
taking this road, 89A,
down to Sedona.
I see a lot of campgrounds on the way there,
some that I want to camp at actually,
and then we kind of come out here in Sedona.
We're just gonna play
it by ear and see what happens.
Alright, so we're departing the Oak Creek Vista.
That exceeded all of my expectations.
What about you, Amy?
I didn't realize that you got that good of views.
Certainly didn't know there's a
gift shop here with t-shirts
Nice restrooms it looks like if they were open.
I'm assuming they're nice.
What do you think?
[Amy] Yeah, it was really nice.
I wasn't expecting those views
and it's nice to go to stop
and see them as opposed to
just whenever you're driving down.
Yeah. Totally. Totally.
So don't forget about this one.
Alright, we have started the official descent
down Route 89.
This is the part that gets a little bit hairy.
[Music]
So this is Pine Flat Campground. It's full.
I was actually toying around with
the idea of trying to come up here and camp
during this trip but I don't think
I would have had much luck cuz
everything's first-come first-serve.
But kind of scouting this out for a future trip.
Very nice campground though.
It's like at the base of this really tall cliff.
It's nice and shady back here.
So this is definitely on my list now of
a good campground to come stay at sometime.
Like I said it's crowded and full but
sometime in the near future hopefully.
And we continue to descend.
I think we've been going down the whole time
which isn't a surprise.
I'm at the bottom here of Route 89A.
You can see very abruptly you get
these little pull off spots
and there's like a creek down here.
Looks beautiful.
So I just wanted to kind of
take a moment and we're gonna walk down there.
Alright I took a little bit of a risk here with the camera.
Kind of walked out here in the middle of the stream.
Staying on some dry rocks but,
yeah, check that out.
[Music]
It's approaching noon.
There's quite a few people
congregating down here actually
and it gets busier as the day goes on it appears.
Kind of show you
what I'm talking about.
Might be a good place to eat a sandwich.
Just relax. Cool off.
Pretty nice down here.
Oh nice.
E-coli and other bacteria in creek water
can make you sick if you touch it or drink it.
So it looks like, you know,
heading down Route 89 there's probably
lots of little pull offs there with trails, I'm guessing,
where you can walk down to that creek.
You know, we thought on a...
It's Friday and I have the day off and
we thought "Oh it won't be too crowded here"
because on the weekends, like, this
is just wall to wall cars.
Well, it appears to be wall to wall cars now too.
I think there's the creek down there and
that's where people are probably hiking to
so I'm guessing it's better to start early.
So yeah, a lot of hiking trails I'm guessing here
but look how precarious it is
where you have to park.
You really probably want to do your research if
you're wanting to go somewhere specific
down here so you know the best time to
get here to beat the crowds.
Stuff like that.
People just kind of park where they can.
Some really fantastic views up there.
[Music]
So this is a pretty cool little stop.
Got, like, a firetruck here. An old antique firetruck.
And we have hand sanitizer.
Across the street here is a little cafe.
I always drive by this and
I always want to stop and see it.
[Music]
So a lot of today's adventure is really just exploring
and kind of scouting out stuff.
As I mentioned, we oftentimes
drive down this route and you can see
how hard it is to kind of abruptly pull off
but how are you really gonna know
if you don't get out and explore?
I mean this looks amazing.
This looks very idyllic.
It smells like the woods back here.
Look at all the flowers.
You know, what I was saying is
like how would you know this is here
unless you really just get brave and
just pull off the road and come explore.
I mean, there's the internet too but
seeing it with your own eyes in person is different.
That's a really cool machine.
I don't know if that's authentic.
Looks authentic to me.
If you're camping in the area
looks like they sell firewood here as well as ice
even though I think they have fire restrictions
in this area right now.
They have ice cream and food and
this would be a nice little handy place
if you're camping I think.
Even wine back here and stuff.
Ooh! Little place if you're camping
and you forgot gear and stuff.
This is a really awesome little shop actually.
Oh do they have pineapple Fanta?
If they do I am a buyer.
Pineapple Fanta. Right on.
So that is amazing.
We actually got a personal tour
of some of the cabins and we got some information.
We looked at a couple different ones.
We want to come back and it seems like they have
really good availability right now by the way.
They do have a two night minimum
and the prices do vary.
The last one we were looking at I think is $275 a night
which for this area and everything
I think it's well worth it.
So we're gonna see if we can finagle a little a
couple nights stay here.
A little romantic getaway, right Amy?
And there you go. We're starting to see red rocks now.
I think we're getting nearer to Sedona.
Some of you might be familiar with
Slide Rock State Park in Sedona.
We'll go there for sure sometime but
the parking lot is full so it's closed.
So I guess social distancing is out the window
there I'm almost sure of that.
So we've now come down
to below 5,000 feet in elevation
and no longer do I really see any pine trees.
The rocks are getting much more red as we wind
our way down so I think Sedona is not far off.
So we stopped at another little pull-off here.
There's another grocery store.
The Indian Garden Oak Creek Market.
It is closed currently but
there's a historical marker over this way.
So a little historical marker here.
Looks like it's the home site of the
first settler in Oak Creek Canyon.
This little site here... that historical marker
says that right here in 1876 or in 1877
a guy by the name of Jim Thompson
was the first to settle this area and there was a cabin
somewhere right over here.
But now it's private property
so we can't actually go there but we
might be able to sneak around this way.
I see a little trail over here.
I'm honestly not sure if this is private property still.
I'm gonna just play stupid.
I don't think it is.
I think it's behind that fence that's the private property.
Yeah, you can see the creek down here too.
Look at how beautiful that is actually.
You see people hiking and hanging out.
Very idyllic.
So that's really awesome down there.
I see a lot of people kind of wading through the creek.
If you had like some nice little river
shoes or something and you found a
parking spot you can make a nice day of
hiking down that riverbed I think.
Something we'll have to come back and do.
Look how huge these trees are.
I'm assuming these are some kind of oak tree.
A lot of the parking areas we've seen today require
something called the Red Rocks Pass.
I don't know if this particular one does but
something you'll want to invest in,
I think, if you want to park it a lot of these
kind of pull offs that I've seen.
And actually there's the answer there.
Do I need a pass?
Yes. You need a pass if you leave your
car unattended at a Red Rock fee site.
So I guess the real question is what are the fee sites?
Well, this map kind of shows them but
it's too much to kinda grok here but
there are quite a few of them.
Yeah, so there are so many little nooks and crannies
and we don't have a Red Rocks pass
and even if we had one it's just
hard to find parking because people just park
on the side of the road but when we
do get a chance I mean seeing that creek,
I guess Oak Creek...
It's beautiful. The water is crystal-clear.
It's refreshing.
Yeah, I would love to hike through that
but then you got the e-coli factor so
I'm not sure how much of a concern that
actually should be hiking.
I'm not gonna put my fingers in my mouth
but you never know.
And before you know it all the
sudden out of nowhere becomes Sedona.
Look at those views.
[Music]
Alright, so we are have arrived here
at the end of our mission here on route 89 south.
We're in Sedona.
Kind of in the downtown touristy section
of Sedona today.
So this is Route 89 where we came from.
We came from down that way
heading this way
but you can see this is downtown Sedona.
Lots of stores here.
You got World of Jerky
and lots of just touristy kind of things.
Minerals, crystals all sorts of different things here.
I mean to be honest today with the
pandemic stuff happening, I don't think
Amy and I really are gonna go
into too many stores here but we just wanted to
catch a couple nice views really quick
before we head on out.
[Music]
So in the rear of this little shop area
got some pretty decent views of Sedona.
I also know a few of you over time have
made requests for us to come out to Sedona
and you may be wondering
why have we waited so long?
Well, there is some reasoning around that.
Sedona isn't too terribly far away
from where we actually live.
Earlier on on our channel
we've been trying to hit a lot of more remote locations.
I had some time off between jobs,
for example, stuff like that.
But for the most part, yeah, I've been
saving this because I can get here on
Saturdays and things like that with no problem.
So I don't know.
Who knows how many episodes
we're gonna be filming up here.
We're gonna be doing a lot of hiking and exploring.
The cool thing is is I've lived in Arizona
for a long time and I have hiked up here but
for whatever reason I haven't really
scratched the surface of it so I'm
really super excited to do that.
I think I see something called Snoopy Rock.
There's actually a sign saying that.
Do you guys see it it?
It looks like Snoopy laying down with his
his schnoz up in the air.
Kind of laying on his little doghouse.
Alright, so we're heading back to the car now.
Kind of fun to look at these shops.
To be honest though
this isn't the part of Sedona that I like.
I like getting out in the wilds
and checking things out.
But for a lot of folks this is one of the main destinations
so if this looks like something that would be fun to you,
you should come check it out sometime.
And if you're from around these parts
this will be no strange sight for you.
It's the pink jeep tours.
Amy and I have not done that yet
but something I want to do.
I think they kind of take you on back roads
and through some really pretty country in these.
So one of these days we're gonna have to book a tour.
[Trolley bell ringing]
Sometimes I wonder should Sedona have
been made into, like, a protected national
park or national park unit.
I really wish in some ways that it has
because this area...
You can see there's lots of stuff here
obstructing the views of landscape.
Now there's a lot of wilderness and places you can go
but on the other hand it's kind of
quirky and cool and fun and artsy.
So I don't know.
I'm curious what you guys think though.
Would you have preferred to see Sedona,
if you've been here, be like a national park
or a national monument? A state park?
Or do you think it's fine the way it is?
[Music]
Alright, so we are out of time.
Have to head back home.
We got lots of things going on
but we did complete our journey
of Route 89A between Flagstaff and Sedona.
It was really fun and I got to
see things that we've never seen before.
Got those really quick impromptu tours of those cabins
which we are absolutely gonna try to
get that scheduled and done really soon.
We love those.
So thank you Cheryl, I believe was your name,
for making that happen.
Yeah, other than that I don't want to leave Sedona.
I love it here and fret not I know a few of you
have asked us over time to come visit here.
Don't you worry.
You're gonna be tired of Sedona
by the time we're done with this channel.
So I'm coming back.
We're going to be doing a lot of hiking
and a lot of exploration soon this summer.
So stay tuned for that.
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Adios.
[Music]