Cottonwood, AZ
The Cottonwood/Verde Valley area is tremendously popular with RVers this time of year, and for good reason. It's temperate (maybe on the warm side for us), close to the activities in Sedona and Flagstaff, and thick with RV parks. It was my intention to stay closer to Sedona on this leg, but the park we reserved was called Sedona view and well, it was a distant view. A pretty one, make no mistake, but distant.
Sedona is incredibly beautiful, but extremely rich-tourist. Maybe the Vail of the desert. We went swimming in the river there on Friday, which necessitated driving through town, and it was absolutely packed. Every store, every parking spot, just full. We were lucky to get parking at the swimming hole, and that we didn't need to be anywhere else in town. I'd happily come back to Sedona in the off season. Again - gorgeous place, but the scene there has just too much money sloshing around to make it fun for us.
We did get lucky with parking at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which was very powerful in person but also miserably hot. Some of its contemplative power is diminished by the crowds of people milling in and out, but that seems par for the course here.
We also had an exciting appointment back in Flagstaff to pick up a mountain bike for Kristin at the REI. Bikes are still thin on the ground, but we managed to snag one for her here and time the orders right for pickup. To celebrate, we brought the other bikes too and took a nice family ride through the pine forests just outside of town. It was a good time for everyone this time, and a worthy upgrade for Kristin! Now we'll sell the orange bike and look forward to someone enjoying it for what it is.
Since the big destinations were kind of far away, we did more activities in the local area along the Verde river. The parks and riverside were lovely in the heat and didn't require investment in research or driving. I even got to work at a coffee shop for the first time in a year! Much of AZ is very… casual about COVID, including this area, but here there was a coffee shop with lots of shaded outdoor seating near the local parks. It was great!
Finally, we got to see my parents here as well, as they were headed out of Prescott towards home and stopped to see us. Such a gift to connect with family on the road. We're hoping to reconnect with them in September near Yellowstone.
