Other Half and I rounded out our stay in the Sedona area with an ATV adventure. Neither of us had ever driven or ridden in an ATV, but hey, why not? Rio Verde RV Park made it easy with ATV rentals on site.
We opted for a Tuesday, rather than a weekend. Sedona is famous for the Pink Jeep Tours which take tourists on adventures into the red rock country. We figured red rock country would be less overrun with Pink Jeeps on a weekday. We were right.
Like rookies, we took showers before we headed out. We packed our lunch, strapped in and got a 3 minute primer on ATV driving. Other Half didn’t need the primer. I paid attention just in case I wanted a turn driving. I didn’t.
The thing about a rental ATV is that it’s a rental ATV. Our machine was off-the-charts loud and the tires were close to bald. Not exactly confidence inducing. We were given a map of the 4 trail options and a turn-by-turn flip book. And we were off.
We opted for the Broken Arrow Trail. To get there we traveled narrow back country trails that lead to the highway. Good thing our ATV had a plate and was street legal. It took about 45 minutes to get to the Broken Arrow Trailhead.
We had no clue what to expect. We had been told the Broken Arrow Trail was the most difficult trail. But hey, difficult is a relative word. Within a few minutes we understood what they meant. We were facing a boulder that was taller than the ATV. We looked around and realized the boulder was the trail.
Here’s where I have to give Other Half props. It was his first time in an ATV and, of course, we’ve chosen the trail with ample rock crawling. He handled it like he knew what he was doing. I handled it with a death grip on the sissy bar.
We successfully made it up to Chicken Point – the highpoint of the trail – and down the Road of No Return.
There were a couple heart pounding moments, but that’s what makes it an adventure.
The night before our adventure, one of my GFs clued me in to the vortexes in the area. I did a quick Google search to learn what I could. A vortex is a place where the earth is ALIVE with energy. Not sure how to tell if a place is alive with energy, but I’m game. A Sedona Vortex refers to a place where the earth’s energy swirls and draws to its center everything that surrounds it like a tornado.
In Sedona there is an entire industry built around the vortexes in the area. The energy is said to be powerful and helpful with healing, physically and emotionally. I don’t know anything about that – but I do know the vortex energy twists trees like a Twizzler.
We spotted 3 twisted trees on the Broken Arrow Trail. The vortex was why we chose the Broken Arrow Trail.
I wish I could say I felt a special energy at the vortex. I don’t doubt that it exists, but a quick jump out of the ATV to place my hand on the tree was probably not the best way to experience it.
The ATV was great fun. We spent about 4 hours seeing the red rocks up close. Mother Nature keeps wowing us. She also covered us in red dust. Next time we’ll skip the shower before we go.