Hiking Around Bell Rock

 A hiking day today for us.  

After breakfast, we headed towards Sedona and parked at the Bell Rock Trail parking lot.  Note to self: if you wait till after 9AM, the lot is full and its warm by then!  Fortunately, we got there by 8AM I believe.

It would end up being almost three miles of hiking over uneven terrain with lots of small rocks, ledges and steps to keep things interesting.

At the start of the hike, looking at 

south face of Bell Rock

Neighboring rock formations

I missed it but Martha spotted this snake dragging its prey lizard away from the trail:

North side of Bell Rock

We then wandered over to the Big Park Loop which eventually took us along the north side of Bell Rock and then we turned south on Rector Trail:

West side of Bell Rock, within the Munds Wilderness Area

We'd spotted people climbing on Bell Rock, and eventually found the trail that leads to the climbing path:

We didn't go climbing....

We then took a drive towards Flagstaff using Hwy 89A, which was reported to be a scenic byway.  Well, it was also heavily forested so it was but brief glimpses of rock formations for us today.  It's a very twisty road too so the driver has to pay close attention.  I think it would be fun on a motorcycle but traffic was pretty heavy so not sure.

The afternoon was spent relaxing at the campsite after a nice lunch.  Towards evening, I walked up another small hill overlooking the campsite for this shot:

Nice weather today, sunny but cool breezes in the shade.  Highs in the mid-70s at most.  The haze brought on by a prescribed burn which had made the valley looked fogged in, had disappeared as you can see above.

I'm happy to report the two solar panels are providing more than enough power to not only power the Starlink system but also charge the house battery on the VRRV.  I turned Starlink on when we returned for lunch, left it on all day, and the house battery was 100% charged.

Exploring the Tuzigoot National Monument and Jerome, AZ

 Thursday, May 9th 

After breakfast, we drove to the town of Cottonwood, where they had a Harbor Freight and I bought a second 100 watt solar panel. (more on this later in this post).

Afterwards, we drove over to the Tuzigoot National Monument to check things out:

View from lowest point of the path

Martha near the tower

Views from atop the tower:

A poster in the visitor center

View as we departed the monument

 More info about Tuzigoot on Wikipedia

Since we were close by, we also went over to the nearby town of Jerome, AZ to check things out as well. It had been over 10 years since we have been there. 

A town full of artists, Jerome is a tourist town known for its art scene and tours of Ghost/Haunted locations.

Many of the original buildings have burned down in fires since the late 1800s, they've either been rebuilt close to what they looked like or their facades used as fronts for newer stuff:

Front for Glass Blowing business

Many, if not all, of the buildings along main street have plaques describing the historical role/use of said building.

The stores, are full of knick-knacks, but I found they seem to prefer or specialize in metal origin art...sometimes of disparate mechanical bits from other things:

The above items were from a store called Nellie Bly, whose story I read and found interesting:

The town has no relation to Nellie Bly, I think the owner just liked the woman and story.

Some other things seen underneath what used to be a car dealership where restrooms for tourists are located:

Today's moto content

Another facade used now to display artwork:

Art?

The town was getting crowded by noon, and that's from Martha's perspective, so we escaped to the nearby town of Clarkdale.

We had a picnic lunch at the town park and then we drove home. Clarkdale was very quiet and very few people seen, I liked it!  The town was a mining/company town from when nearby mines produced large amounts of copper back in the day.

Once we got back to the campsite, I would spend several hours creating wiring connections for the new solar panel. 

That's when the trouble began, once I hooked everything up I was not seeing the results that I was expecting; in terms of amperage delivered by the solar panels. 

Cue frustration period:  I had to once again resort to my guru: RichardM.

He walked me through the troubleshooting process and it confirmed I had at least wired things up correctly.

In the process I discovered that my skill at using Anderson connectors was lacking.  Some of the problems encountered involved connectors not assembled correctly apparently.

To simplify things for now, I eliminated the new Anderson connectors and just used wire nuts to hook the two panels together to the extension wire that goes to the solar charge controller.

Since cell signal is sketchy here, I had been having difficulty maintaining a good telephone call with RichardM; so I turned on the Starlink for a better connection. 

Once the Starlink system was up, I noticed that the amp meter was registering the desired number of amps going into the system! What the hell! 

A phone call with RichardM cleared things up and demonstrated once again how little I understand concepts involved with electricity.  

Since the battery was almost fully charged when I first started doing the wiring for the new solar panel; the system was only drawing two amps or less as designed. 

I had been expecting to see 6+ amps being drawn from the two solar panels!  I had failed to realize, that since the battery at that time needed no more than two amps to complete its charging it was not going to draw more than two amps!

I monitored the amp draw using an amp meter and also the shunt meter in the RV and I could see that when Starlink was on, the system drew more amps from the solar panels and kept the house battery charging simultaneously.

Before, with just one solar panel, we were limiting the usage of Starlink to a max of 5 hours a day spread out through the day.  Such a usage would result in about the battery being at 85 to 90% by nightfall so enough to get through the night and more. 

Now, so as long as there's good sunlight hitting the solar panels, we can keep Starlink running with its 5 to 6 amp draw (50-75 watts) and still charge the house battery.  We'll see how it goes.

Boondocking near Sedona - Montezuma National Monument

 We drove about an hour and a half from near Williams, AZ to dispersed camping in the Coconino National Forest about 15 miles from Sedona, AZ.

We had originally explored the area near the junction of I-17 and AZ Hwy 179 but after leaving the URRV at a candidate spot, we found a better spot closer to the Sedona outskirts.

Mid-afternoon, we drove down south via I-17 to the Montezuma National Monument to check things out.

The castle was pretty impressive:

Up to the early 1950s, you could actually drive up to the base of the castle as tourists:

You could also climb ladders (see above pic) and tour the castle but of course, the site proved fragile and I'm sure people stupidly damaged it as well.  So, now you can only view it from near its base.

To "make up" for the cessation of the tours, the US Park Service created this diorama near the base along the footpath to show life at the castle:

I liked the depiction of a mother chasing after her kid who is too close to the edge...(center top), some things never change.

We drove the long way to Sedona from the Montezuma National Monument, via the small towns of Cornville and Page Springs hoping for photogenic scenery.  None seen.

The scenery picked up as we approached Sedona:

Martha wanted to check out the Cathedral of the Holy Cross in town, here's some views of it.  The church was closed for the day.

On the way out of town, two notable rock formations:

Courthouse Rock

Bell Rock

We got back to camp with no issue.  This post was uploaded via Starlink by the way.  There's some cell signal but it's only 1 bar and flaky.

A Visit to Williams, Arizona

Mellow day today, windy and sunny.

We drove into town and just wandered about the main street area which is part of the famed Route 66 highway.

There was a sign claiming: Last town to be bypassed by the construction of I-40.  Interesting claim to fame I thought.

First, a visit to the Visitor Center/gift shop/small museum featuring Smokey the Bear and memorabilia related to the town's history.

Some of the things that caught my eye:

Delivering the mail....even in the snow

There was a whole wall dedicated to the Williams Mountain Men.  A famous enough group that even attended three Presidential Inaugurations, including Slick Willy's.

Wikipedia: Founded in 1954, the Bill Williams Mountain Men of Williams, Arizona are a group of business people, doctors, judges and ranchers who re-enact the life and rides of 19th-century fur trappers. They dress in buckskin outfits, hats, boots or moccasins, and ride the trails to raise money for various charities and scholarships. The Bill Williams Mountain Men explore the mountains, canyons, and deserts of Arizona during their annual spring 200-mile Rendezvous Ride, held since they organized in 1954.

Back outside, a quick pic with the town name and Route 66 signage:

Some scenes as we meandered along main street, occasionally going into the several gift shops featuring Route 66 knick-knacks and assorted tourist crap.

This sign reminded me of the Bonanza TV Show

These ducks are for BridgetM

Williams is a neat town, typical tourist town banking on the Route 66 historical nostalgia.  It also calls enough the Gateway to the Grand Canyon, as its about 68 miles or so from the park's south rim.

We returned to camp for lunch and just rested the afternoon away, with a short walk in mid-afternoon hour.  Still windier than we like, and with high temps only in the mid-60s, it could be slightly chilly.

We leave tomorrow for warmer climes, it was a bit chilly this morning when we woke to high 30s at an altitude of 7100 feet.