The thing about camping?  When the weather gets too hot, or too cold, or too whatever, you move. As nice as the weather was at McDowell, it was getting on the warm side so we decided to head back to Sedona, part Duh. If doing something once is great, then doing it twice is greatuh.

We went back to our previously visited forest service road to see if we could get our same camping site, but some rat bastard already had it. What was he thinking? Did he not know that we might be back some day? The nerve.

Fear not. We cruised down the road a few miles, kicking up our respective dirt, rocks and dust, and there appeared a site almost as nice, with arguably a better view. When I say not as nice, in this case we could actually see a neighbor! Lord save us.

You have to understand Sedona a little bit.  There is a lot of karma.  You may find a vortex or two.  We received from strangers a couple of hearts that were designed to give us positive energy.  So we have that going for us.  Gunga galunga.

While in Sedona we found another hike that looked interesting to us (out of the hundreds of possibilities), called the Boynton Canyon Trail. This was a little over 6 miles round trip (up and back through the canyon – not a loop).

For the entire hike you are surrounded 360 degrees with beautiful vistas, although the first half-mile or so you hike along the edge of a resort. Not awful, as it is obviously a beautiful resort, but you wish it wasn’t there. But once you clear the resort, it is 2.5 miles up this absolutely gorgeous trail.

It doesn’t feel like you are the desert – it feels like a hike through NH, ME or maybe Colorado. Trees and views are the distinguishing characteristics, with a mix of pines, firs and hardwoods such as oak. While the first half-mile is in the sun, the middle 5 miles are largely in the shade of the trees or the canyon itself, which results in a temperature drop of 15-20 degrees; absolutely great hiking temps. In fact, we had to navigate snow and ice on the trail at certain parts up into the canyon.

After a nice day hiking and back at our campsite we were treated to a full moon (blood moon) rising over the mountains in our direct view – just beautiful, although the pictures do not reflect the beauty.

But alas, we cannot stay here forever as we have plans to visit Tucson and see friends. So we left Sedona and decided to camp one night on the way at Pichacho Peak SP; more on that in a bit.

On the way to Pichacho we decided to stop in Phoenix and have lunch at Pizza Bianco, which is an absolutely unbelievable “pizza joint”.  A meal here would be worth a trip to Phoenix. Period. It’s that good. Because we were in downtown Phoenix and parking a 60 foot long rig is not ideal, Karen had to sherp a few blocks to the restaurant for food to go while I waited with the trailer and Rosie in a sand parking lot adjacent to the University of Arizona. Lunch in the trailer – not so bad!

After arriving at Pichacho Peak SP one of the other campers (a fellow Airstreamer) described the hike up Pichacho Peak. If I remember correctly, I think he used the word daunting. With sharp elevation gain and guide wires to keep you from falling to certain death, this hike sounded intriguing. Not. I may save this hike for another time. Or another life. Or both. If you look closely at the picture of Pichacho Peak, you can see me not in the picture.

Pichacho Peak State Park is nice enough, and probably good enough for an overnight or perhaps two nights. But for us, it was perfect because we just wanted a place to crash on our way to Tucson – for the rodeo, friends, biking and hiking.