After spending three days exploring Grand Canyon National Park we packed up camp and pointed the van south. Several hours later after a brief Walmart detour we found a nice campsite on BLM land just south of downtown Sedona. As opposed to National Park Service land on most BLM land (Bureau of Land Management or Mismanagement depending on your point of view), you can set-up camp just about anywhere you please.
Once we were settled in we decided to give the drone another go. We sorted out all the online stuff, had charged the three batteries, uploaded the app to my iphone and Mother Nature was providing calm winds for our first test flight. Hoku and I both had “starter” drones which we learned how to fly several years ago in Maine. These drones cost us around $50 each and were limited to visible flight paths along with constantly adjusting the joysticks to keep them airborne, this did result in several crashes, mostly my drone not Hoku’s. The DJI Mavic Pro
The following day we set out to explore the fantastic mt. bike trails surrounding Sedona. There are over 55 miles of well maintained single-track surrounding Sedona, I first discovered the trail system when I visited the area in Feb. At that time I had planned on going on a road ride and needed a tube so I stopped in a bike shop in town. After a brief discussion with the folks running the shop it was a no-brainer to ditch the road bike ride for the epic single-track.
Katie was still in recovery mode from the flu so she opted out for a short ride while Hoku and I set off on one of the trails I rode on back in February, Lama Trail. Most mt. bike trails are rated just like at a ski area; green circle – easy, blue square – intermediate and black diamond – expert, the Lama Trail was a blue.
In addition to great mt. biking the Sedona area is also know for being an area with numerous “vortexes”. I won’t go into that whole thing other than saying it was good entertainment to venture into the Sedona Whole Foods to watch the patrons. The area is also home to several Anasazi ruins with one of the more popular and well preserved being the Palatki Ruins. A visit would also make a good history lesson for Hoku. The World Hertiage Palatki site is filled with cliff dwellings as well as pictographs and petroglyphs that were created by the Southern Sinagua people. The Palatki site was technically two sites; one the cliff dwelling and the other being nearby rocks that depict the petroglyphs and pictographs. 
Palatki, which is the Hopi word for red house, features a cliff dwelling that was constructed in roughly 1150 AD. The cliff dwelling was about two stories high and contained the tell-tale pottery shards that are reminders of the lives that once lived there. Historians are not certain why these people abandoned their dwelling in 1300, but they believe warfare had something to do with it. As was with many of the dwellings this one is only accessible with a guide.
Once again more cool stuff in the southwest desert, next stop the Hoover Dam.