We Can't Take That Stuff to Canada: USA - Palm Springs and the Sedona Red Rocks

We arrived in LA ten hours before we left Fiji due to flying over the international date line which messed with our heads and our body clocks a bit. The first thing we did on arriving was to go pick up the car. I'd been looking forward to this as we'd booked a Dodge Charger with V6, and after driving the Rent-a-Dent Primera in NZ I was looking forward to a bit of luxury. Unfortunately there were no Chargers left so I had to settle for a Cheverolet Malibu which was a bit disappointing. It's not a bad car though.

The next challenge after picking the car up was to navigate our way out of LA towards Palm Springs. This was made easier as I'd been loaned a Sat Nav by a friend at work so there weren't too many dramas in getting onto the freeway and out of the city. The drive took us a couple of hours and we stopped on the way at Cabozan to look at the giant dinosaurs.

Giant Dinosaurs

After checking into our motel we went out for some Mexican food and then collapsed in bed at 7pm as we were so tired.

Palms at Palm Springs

The next morning we were feeling a bit more human and decided to go out for a big American breakfast to sustain us for the long drive to Sedona. We went to Ruby's Diner and I had a corned beef hash stack which was delicious and Rose had a Denver omelette which had ham and cheese in it and on it and came with fried potatoes.

Breakfast at Ruby's

The drive to Sedona through the Arizona desert had some amazing scenery, with some enormous cacti well over 10 ft tall. When we got closer to Sedona around sunset we got our first views of the famous red rocks.

Cactus fields

After a quick stop at a supermarket to pick up some food (and beer) we arrived at the Manzanita campground just after dark. After quickly putting the tent up we realised we forgot to buy camping gas so we had cream cheese bagels for tea instead of the soup we'd bought. In the morning we had the chance to take in the beautiful surroundings of the campsite. The site was pretty small and basic with only 18 sites, cold running water and composting toilets.

Manzanita campground in Oak Creek Canyon

Oak creek

After a quick breakfast at the campsite we drive to the Red Rocks State Park which has a few trails you can walk to get some good views of the rocks. The red colour comes from small amounts of iron oxide in the sandstone.

The trails in the park were a lot shorter than we expected and we'd walked them all in a couple of hours so in the afternoon we headed towards Cathedral Rock as we'd read there was a trail up a part of it. The trail is only about a mile and half long but it's quite steep towards the end and has some incredible views all the way up.

That evening we had possibly our best meal of the trip. Home made refried beans with home made guacamole and tortilla chips (not homemade). I also got six beers for $10 including some local stuff from a Oak Creek Brewery.