An Exhilarating Off-road Tour in Sedona, Arizona
JOHN M. SMITH
On my recent visit to Sedona, I took an off-road tour with Sedona Offroad Adventures. After all, these tours are apparently the most popular way to get out and explore Sedona's rugged landscape and eye-popping scenery, and this particular company offers tours from "mild to wild", by both jeep and Hummer. My particular tour took me in a Hummer up on the Colorado Plateau to a height of about 2,000 feet above Sedona. We climbed to the Schnebly Hill Vista, an awesome overlook, and although much of our ride wasn't truly off-road, it was on a very old, unimproved stagecoach road that I certainly wouldn't have been able to navigate in a car. In fact, even the jeep tours on this so-called road offered a "shake, rattle, and roll" experience, for the tourists could be seen bouncing around and getting shaken up. You might want to hold on to your hat, glasses, and stomach! In fact, it's recommended that you skip this tour altogether if you have serious back or neck problems or are pregnant. It's also suggested that you don't wear contact lenses, for it can get very dusty on these rides. Even our Hummer tour offered some good bounces, but this machine could handle the boulders and jutting rocks quite well, and we were able to keep on rolling. Also, the Hummer allows everyone to have a forward facing seat, equipped with an individual seat belt. I rode shotgun, so I was right up front, next to the driver. One of our very first sightings was of a mannequin on a balcony on a large house on a hill that's known as "Sedona's House of Seven Arches". We were told that this mannequin was in honour of comedian and actress Lucille Ball, formerly of "I Love Lucy" fame, who used to often stay in this particular house. It's still sometimes referred to as "Lucy's House"
- and if you happen to remember the very old Doublemint commercials on TV, where young twin girls would talk about "doubling your pleasure" by chewing Doublemint Gum, well, one of these twins eventually became the owner of this very house. As we ascended the Colorado Plateau, our guide/driver would give us a lot of pertinent information about the area's unique rock structures and the plants that we saw along the way, too. He'd give us the names of particular rocky precipices and buttes as we passed, and he even found one that he said we'd call the "Smith Amphitheatre" today. However, he was particularly informative about pointing out plants that were edible and used by natives for healing purposes, for it turns out that he had studied these. For example, he pointed out some Manzanita (which translates from Spanish as "little apples"), Mormon tea, blackberry, canyon grape, and banana yucca. He also pointed out some mistletoe that
was growing along this escarpment, and he told us that this particular plant was poisonous, so he thought that it was rather peculiar that we picked a poisonous plant to use as a symbol for kissing at Christmas time! Other poisonous plants included oleander, century plant, castor bean, and candelabras cactus. Our guide's name was VJ Mitchell, and he was a real entertainer. After all, another job of his is as the "Elvis of Sedona", so he would suddenly burst into an Elvis Presley song as we rode along! His Elvis impersonations have actually led him to gigs in such places as Las Vegas and Hawaii, and he loves to perform. He often sings at weddings in the area, or delivers singing telegrams. He also liked to shout out "Thank you. Thank you very much" in his Elvis voice as we drove along. He's not shy! His antics actually added to the Spectacular views of Sedona’s ‘Red Rock Country’ as viewed on this tour, and he took photos of his tour. guests when we finally arrived at John M. Smith/Metroland the aforementioned scenic outlook. He took photos of us both at the overlook itself and seating behind rugged 2.5 hour Jeep Eater Tour the wheel of the Hummer (so that "for the thrill seeking person wantwe could tell our friends about "our ing an experience like no other". driving adventure"). We then pro- Other off-road tour options include ceeded to come back down that a tour of Sedona's unique vortex steep plateau, often skirting along sites, or a combination winery and the edge of the canyon itself. We jeep tour, or a combination Humsaw some serious looking drop- mer and helicopter tour. offs! Indeed, there are lots of off-road Although we had a Hummer adventures awaiting you in Sedona! driver, it's actually possible to For More Information: www.sechoose to pay more and drive a donaoffroadadventures.com; www. Hummer yourself through this rug- visitsedona.com ged terrain. You'd then be accom(Travel and accommodations propanied by a professional driver, but vided by Sedona Tourism) this would cost you about $350.00 for the 2 hour tour. Nevertheless, such a self-driving experience would certainly be a thrilling adCOACH & TOURS venture to talk about after you returned home! It's also possible John has his photo taken in the Hummer at the Schnebly Hill Vista. John M. Smith/Metroland to decide to take an even more EXPERIENCE THE ROAD TO
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