Anaheim - Phoenix
It was an early start for me this morning, so I decided I may as well make it a really early start and try to catch the sunrise.
After finalising my packing, I went downstairs to check out and wait for my shuttle to John Wayne airport. It was a nice quick drive to the airport, and before too long I was checking in and going through security. At the gate lounge, there were power points every few seats, and free wifi. It was SO much easier than LAX and I will definitely be going through SNA again whenever I have the chance.
It was an uneventful flight. I have since heard that take offs and landings at SNA are extreme because the planes have to get higher quicker due to the surrounding residential area. I didn't notice anything different. When we reached altitude, we heard the usual message from the pilot advising us of the flight time and predicted weather in Phoenix. Flash floods? Did I hear correctly?
Coming into Phoenix, it did indeed look like rain.
My plan had been to pick up my hire car and head straight out to Montezuma Castle. With heavy rain, storms, and flash floods forecast for the afternoon, I thought I'd better check with a local about whether that was still a good idea. The guy at the rental car counter assured me that the bulk of the weather wouldn't hit until later, and I should continue with my planned sight seeing.
I went downstairs to the parking garage, where I found my VERY fancy looking (that I had booked as economy) car. To this day I can only assume I got an upgrade, as I'm pretty sure that car was not in the economy class.
I put my luggage in the boot, set up my navigator, and tried to fix the seat to my requirements. There were so many knobs and dials, I couldn't figure out how to do it and had to wander over to the little stand they had in the garage to get someone to show me.
Turned out that I was pushing the right lever, it was just an electronic one, so I had to wait for it to start adjusting. Next, I went to start the car. And hit a blank again lol! This was a keyless ignition car, and after searching for a few minutes I found the start button. When I pushed it it told me to put my foot on the brake. But when I put my foot on the brake, nothing happened. *sigh* It was back to the little stand for me.
Embarrassingly, it turned out that you just needed to press the start button while you already had the brake on.
Finally, I was ready to hit the road. The navigator led me to the freeway, and I was on my way.
I hadn't eaten yet, and had planned to get something on the way. However, this freeway was a bit more isolated than those I had been on previously, and wasn't surrounded on all sides by fast food joints. When I saw a sign advising that there were no services for another 20 miles, I decided that I'd better get off and see what was available in the little town. There was a little supermarket there (like an IGA), where I picked up a few things I could eat picnic style (yoghurt, fruit etc).
Back on the road, it definitely started to feel like I was in the middle of nowhere. I hadn't hit any rain yet, but I could see a MASSIVE storm cloud ahead of me, with a big grey patch underneath that I could only assume was absolutely pelting rain. I really hoped that my route would take me around that!
I passed a massive rest stop on the other side of the highway, which looked like it had quite a nice scenic view. At this point I was pretty keen to get to my destination, so I kept going. Right into that huge grey area. As I drove further into the rain, it got so heavy that I couldn't see and was forced to pull over. I also realised that I hadn't put my lights on, and spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out how to do it before I realised that they had come on automatically lol! I realised how serious this rain was when I started seeing more and more drivers pulling over. Then, one by one, they all started heading out again slowly. With no wind, I started to wonder if I would be stuck there all day if I tried to wait it out, and very cautiously started driving again. Everyone was going very slowly, so I didn't have to worry too much about that, as long as I could see enough to stay on the road! After what seemed like an eternity, I finally reached the other side of the cloud! Montezuma Castle was not much further along.
The entrance to the park was through a little visitor centre, where they had some information and lots of books on the area and the history of the site.
The site is not very big, and there is just a short circuit walk which takes you up to the viewing area for the cliff dwellings and back next to the river. You could easily walk it in about 15 minutes if you weren't stopping to read information boards and take photos.
On the way back there was a little diaroma of the how the cliff dwellings would have looked when they were in use.
I was there for less than an hour. I enjoyed seeing the cliff dwellings, but it seemed like a lot of effort for what I'd gotten out of it lol!
I tried to find something else in the area to make the trip worthwhile, and as I was making my way back to the highway, saw some signs to Fort Verde State Park. I couldn't really figure out exactly what it was, but looked like some sort of historic buildings. I stopped to take a couple of photos, but decided to press on without doing too much further exploration.
Luckily the big rain cloud had moved by the time I was on my way back, and I didn't have to deal with the torrential rain again.
This time though, I decided to stop at the big rest stop and have a wander around.
I finally made it back into the outskirts of town, where my hotel was. It was a little tricky to find, and I was a little concerned by all the warnings about flash flooding in the area. The hotel was lovely.
I immediately called the trail riding place I had booked with for that evening, and was told that the ride had been cancelled. Trying not to let the disappointment of the day so far ruin my short time in Arizona, but unsure about whether I wanted to do any more driving with the concern of flash flooding, I decided to take a self-guided tour of the hotel grounds. It was beautiful and I would have liked to spend more time there.
There was some flooding around the hotel already, which made me decide that I definitely wouldn't go out.
That left me with the dilemma about what to do for dinner. Room service was expensive and unappealing, and there really wasn't anything within walking distance. I ended up finding a vending machine and putting together a delicious and nutritious dinner of twiggy sticks and rice crispie squares
I spent the evening interneting and having a relaxing bath, before turning on the TV for the first time this trip!
