Our flight out to Phoenix via Denver was scuppered by bad snow storms in Denver, delaying our first flight and completely cancelling our second flight! The airline was originally talking about us having to overnight in Denver, but they managed to put us on a direct flight instead which was leaving almost the same time as our original flight so worked out perfectly! We even landed 5 hours earlier than anticipated giving us a chance to use the outdoor pool and hot tub at our Phoenix hotel. (In case you're wondering, to buy the direct flight was more than twice the price of having a stop off which is why we hadn't booked that option).

It also meant our plans to pick up the rental car at 9am the next morning wouldn't be disrupted and we were able to be on our way to Goldfield, a tourist ghost town just east of Phoenix where they used to mine for gold.






The next day, Tuesday, we woke up in Sedona and started with breakfast at Wildflower, we had planned to cook our own food but the propane we picked up at Walmart didn't fit our backcountry stove top so we treated ourselves to pancakes and a chocolate croissant. The red rocks in Sedona are beautiful. The whole Arizona landscape is like no-where else we've seen.



We took a short hike along Devils Bridge Trail, one of the more famous hikes in the area, and found someone to take a photo of Mike and me on top of the bridge. This was followed by lunch in Tlaquepaque and then on to the Grand Canyon!