Start 7AM - Stop 5pm

Distance - 387 miles

Our second day on the road started again under clear blue skies at 7 AM. We had eaten a light continental breakfast, filled our Camel Backs, and were ready to head from Nevada into the Arizona deserts. We rode out of our hotel parking lot directly onto Hwy 160 and quickly entered found ourselves in the Joshua Tree covered high deserts of Nevada. The Joshua Tree will always have a special place in my memories. There are only two places on the planet they grow, the Mojave Desert (California, Arizona, Utah, and Nevada) and in Jerusalem. They almost form a perfect ring around the Mojave as they only grow between 2,000-6,000 feet and rely on a freeze every couple of years so that they can bloom and propagate. Their trunk is made of thousands of small fibres, so they don't have growth rings. However, scientists have determined that due to the rigors of the desert a Joshua rarely lives 200 years. The tallest Joshua Tree is 40 feet tall. As we began to approach the descent through Red Rock Canyon the Joshua trees were plentiful and a gorgeous sight to behold. I hope to travel through the same area some day in March to see the creamy white blossoms of the Joshua trees.

Carole and I weren't talking much as we began started our downhill trek through Red Rock Canyon, the beauty of the high desert had us in awe. Off to our left were the spectacular bluffs of the peaceful National Conservation Area that sits just west of Las Vegas. You could see rock climbers and mountain bikers getting in their day's activity before the heat became unbearable. We saw several other motorcyclists heading in the direction from which we came, getting in their Sunday morning rides. In the back of my mind I was thinking, "Darn, only 30 minutes from Las Vegas and we aren't even going to play one hand of black jack." Oh well, that wasn't why we were on this trip. So we passed Red Rock Canyon, made our way through all the new development homes (cookie cutter copies in the barren desert), and skirted the north edge of Las Vegas as we made our way up Hwy 93 to Hoover Dam.

Although I have been to Las Vegas over 50 times in my life I had never been to Hoover Dam. Carole had seen it before so she filled me in a bit on what to expect as we got closer and the traffic got thicker. We stopped for gas in Boulder City simply because we both needed to recycle our morning coffee, then headed on in to the dam. We pulled into the parking structure on the Nevada side and walked across the dam to stretch our legs. Even though it was only 9:00 in the morning it felt like it was already 90 degrees. Hoover Dam was impressive but there were too many people crawling around for us to really enjoy it. Every where we turned there was another concession that wanted to take our money. So we took a few photos and enjoyed each other's company as we made our way back to the parking garage. Driving out on the Arizona side I stopped for a moment to get a good look at Lake Mead while Carole took a last picture. Then we headed south in search of Sedona.

US 93 out of the Hoover Dam area runs straight as an arrow down the eastern side of Arizona. I was glad that it was still early in the day and the temperature was still in double digits. The road wasn't interesting enough to keep our minds occupied but we did see the Colorado river stretching off into the distance to our right separating the southern corner of Nevada from Arizona. Eventually we came to the town of Kingman where we stopped to refill our fuel tank and our Camel Backs. We were getting into the routine of filling the tank when ever it got to half full, not wanting to pay $2.99 a gallon just because we were in the middle of nowhere. As was becoming the norm we talked to a few folks that wandered by our bike and answered the routine questions: "Wow, how big is that engine?" "Where you heading?" "Is it warm enough for you?" "What color is that?" "Aren't you hot in those jackets?" We kept the smiles on our faces, enjoying the occasional envious comments regarding our journey and getting to hear a few stories other travelers were willing to share.

We mounted back up and immediately cut over I-40 for about 25 miles before darting south on US 93 again toward our next adventurous roads, Hwy 96 and 97 near Bagdad, AZ. When I was planning our route to Sedona I really wanted to avoid the beaten path. MS Streets and Trips as well as our GPS showed that there wasn't much in the way of roads until you zoomed in tighter and tighter. Then I saw this segment of road that went between US 93 and US 95. It was hard to tell if the road was dirt or paved when looking at the maps, but since they were defined as Arizona Highways I was ready to give them a shot. The squiggly lines on the maps sure looked inviting. And we weren't disappointed!

I almost blew right by our turn-off to Hwy 97. The turn off had been reconstructed and our GPS didn't identify it in time. But we saw it on our left as we were speeding past at 6 mph. Traffic was light so we simply slammed on the brakes and made a U-turn. As we turned onto the fresh pavement our pulses quickened. This section of road turned out to be one of the highlights of our trip! Traffic was non-existent as we blasted our way down the tight winding road. The tires gripped, the pegs scraped, and we whooped and hollered as we rode the roller coaster of the southern Mojave Desert. At one point I ran onto the centerline of the road which had a tar snake about three inches wide. The tires reacted like they were slipping on oil, so I brought the bike upright which took us right out of our line as we approached a tightening curve. I knew we were going to ride onto the gravel shoulder so I let off on the throttle but stayed away from the brakes, not wanting to dig into the soft dirt. Carole tightened up behind me so I tried to sound as calm as possible as I said, "I got it babe" and did everything I could to keep us from careening off into the desert. My years of experience dirt-biking paid off as I kept the sudden moves to a minimum and coaxed the bike back on the road while we were still doing 40 mph. As soon as we hit solid pavement I throttled up and darted into the next curves. Carole wasn't even breathing hard.

Lesson learned.... leave a bit more margin for error and stay the heck off of the tar snakes. We danced for a few more miles before we met up with Hwy 96 and the scenery became so intense we had to stop and take pictures. Cardon cactus and barrel cactus were all around us as far as the eye could see. We snapped a few pictures and then got back on the roller coaster for another 20 or so miles. Just before turning onto Hwy 89 we passed the turn off to Kirkland and saw a couple sitting there on their Road King. They gave us a friendly wave as we rolled by. They were the first vehicle we had come across in 40 miles or so.

Once on US 89 we made our way up into the Prescott National Forest. The roads were still fun but there was quite a bit of traffic so we took it easy. I probably would have taken it easy anyway considering that we were climbing up through some mountains with guard rails that left no room for play. During our roller coaster ride through Hwy 97 and 96 the temperature was 96 degrees, but it was cooling rapidly as we made our way through the mountains into the quaint little town called Prescott. Now I know where all the Californians that had sold there homes had moved. The ones that got extremely good prices moved to Sedona, the ones that settled for half a million moved to Prescott. We could see why, as Prescott is a forested haven nestled into the surrounding harsh desert heat. We rolled into the north end of town and again stopped for gas and a refill of our water.

Carole and I decided on taking the quickest route into Sedona. We were both anxious to see the landscape and take a couple of days off bike to do some localizing (that's a quaint way of saying that we wanted to sip down a couple of cold ones and get to know the locals). So rather than take the more scenic ride Cottonwood we darted over to I-17 and took the fast 30 mile route into Sedona. At close to 5pm we arrived at our oasis for the next two nights, the Bell Rock Inn. We were both tired and hot from the days ride, but our adrenalin was still pumping from Hwy 97 and 96. We quickly showered, grabbed a bite to eat at the hotel restaurant, and then went for a short hike into the desert. The view around Sedona will simply take your breath away. We watched a beautiful sunset before heading back to the inn and calling it a night.