The distance from Wickenburg to Sedona is only 133 km – as the crow flies. So a trip there can easily accommodate a few deviations from course while still getting there at a reasonable time. And that we did ...
We started out north on Hwy – 93, turning right onto AZ-97 towards Baghdad. This was a fun road, very twisty with a lot of up and down – somewhat like a slalom run with moguls. It also had warning signs for ‘flash floods’ which were easily identified as these sections of road were typically made of concrete. Fortunately all the flood zones were dry as we passed through.
Baghdad (Arizona … not Iraq) was a small copper mining town. A surprisingly large community in a large expanse of desert, but not much to hold our interest so we reversed course on AZ-96 and headed towards US-89 and onto Prescott via another twisty (and fun!) road.
Crossing a plateau we ascended into Jerome which is a funky town built on the knife edge of a small mountain range. Not sure why anyone would build up there – perhaps a mining town in it;’s past?
Jerome is full of bizarre and unusual shops. There also seemed to be a gathering of vintage autos.
The descent from Jerome took us onto another plateau through Cottonwood and on towards Sedona where the red rock cliffs rose gradually to meet us. A quick stop in Sedona and we ascended the twisty canyon road up into Flagstaff where we ended our day – after racking up another 350 km.