July 16th - July 17th
Monday, July 16th
Flagstaff - Sedona - Montezuma - Arcosanti - Prescott
I-17 - Alt 89 - 260 - I-17 - 69
Sedona was gorgeous. To get there we had to drive through a mountainous forest with steep winding roads. Eventually we came to a valley surrounded by huge red rock formations; these were the red rocks of Sedona. As soon as we got into town, we stopped to have lunch in a diner decorated in a futuristic, UFO, space age style. Very cool.
James was a little concerned about his wound so I dropped him off at a clinic and drove around town. The town was fairly touristy and chic but it also had a very earthy feel to it. There were lots of tourist shops and lodgings but not too tacky. And of course these incredible red mountains surrounded you.
After I picked James up (everything was OK), we went to the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It was a non-denominational church whose architecture was based on a cross. Built into the side of a mountain, it was the shape of a rectangle. The side facing away from the mountain was shear glass except for a large concrete cross that formed the structure of the building. I don't know if I'm explaining it properly, you'll just have to look at the pictures.
We decided to head out of town after that. In retrospect I wish we had stayed a little longer. Speaking to other people it seems like there was a lot more cool stuff to see.
Anyway, we head down to Arcosanti. On the way there we passed Montezuma. Montezuma is an old Indian cliff dwelling. A couple of hundred years ago these Indians had built homes into the side of a cliff. The structures are still standing. It's quite amazing to think that these people had been so prosperous and also mysterious as to why they all of a sudden left the dwellings with no trace of where they went.
We finally got to Acrosanti after 5. We were expecting to camp there but the place was pretty much closed down for the day. We drove to Cordes Junction (the town next to it) and found a little RV campsite. It was really creepy and certainly not an option for camping. We drove through the tiny town and were astounded at the bleakness of it. I couldn't imagine in a million years ever living there or what kind of people would ever want to. I guess I should count my lucky stars not to have to.
So we decided to drive back up north a little to Prescott. There was a little state park right by a lake that had a campground. We set up camp and stayed there for the night.
Tuesday, July 17th
Prescott - Arcosanti - Flagstaff
69 - I-17
We packed up camp and drove back down to Arcosanti. This time it was alive! We took a tour around the property. The tour explained the mission of archology, showed us numerous examples of it at the site and all the things they are doing there.
Arcosanti is basically a place where they are doing a real-life experiment on archology. The term, Archology was coined by an Italian architect who came to Arizona about 40 years ago and studied architecture in Phoenix. His philosophy is that the side effects of our way of living and urban sprawl will adversely affect our environment. To take it further, he believes that the world will not be able to support the population due to the growth of our needs per capita. He has been studying different architectural designs that minimize energy use and utilizes the design in an efficient way. For example, rooms that are built often have more than one use. Grape vines could be used to cover a courtyard for a cooling effect but also yield fruit. All the buildings are fairly close together so cars are unnecessary. Windows are placed strategically towards the sun for heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. Greenhouses are also placed towards the sun and ducts run from them to warm up other areas of the complex.
It is really interesting stuff. The place is totally self-funded. Money comes from the sales of bells that they make on the property and educational workshops. There are 5-week workshops where he teaches you about the architecture, you help make the bells and contribute to the construction of the buildings. You can check out more about it at www.arcosanti.org.
After the tour we drove back to Flagstaff and checked into the same hostel. I took a walk around downtown Flagstaff. It was a very small little area of shops, but all the same quite enjoyable. That night we went to see the movie 'AI' and got take out from a Thai place around the corner. It was a very nice 'civilized' evening before we head off to the wilderness of the Grand Canyon and Utah's infamous National Parks.