Sharon and I just completed our Fall ride to the Sedona/Flagstaff/Williams Arizona area. The weather was great, the colors were just starting to turn and we found several new great scenic roads. The only disappointment was the new Mesa Grill at the Sedona airport. Compared to the old restaurant, this one left a lot to be desired in the way of food, service and atmosphere. I posted a full report on the Arizona board.
http://www.valkyrieforum.com/forum/vrcc_arizona.cgi?review=1505216Instead of our normal three day trip in which we stay off of Interstate highways, we compacted everything into 2 days. Day one we cheated and rode up I-17 to Camp Verde over onto Route 260 to Cottonwood and then took 89A up to Sedona where we had breakfast at the Mesa Grill restaurant at the Sedona airport. Big disappointment unless you are a pretentious Yuppie!
We left there and headed through town and up Oak Creek Canyon. I will have a video posted of this portion of the trip sometime in the future.
Our motel reservation at the Oak Creek Terrace motel was messed up so we left that to be fixed and continued up 89A through the Canyon and on to Flagstaff. We refueled in Flagstaff and headed north through town to Route 180. Route 180 has gotten to be one of our favorite rides.
About mid point on route 180 we passed a sign that said the elevation was 8046. Not 8045 or 8050 but 8046. Now that is precision!!
In a few months depending on the weather route 180 could be closed at the upper elevations due to snow. The gate to close the road is near the 7200 foot elevation.
Route 180 ties in with route 64 which heads up to the Grand Canyon but at that junction we turned in the opposite direction and headed down to Williams.
Not much new in Williams. A few shops have closed probably due to the lack of tourist trade. We had lunch at one of our favorite restaurants and headed back east on I-40 toward I-17 to 89A and down through Oak Creek Canyon back to our motel. Sharon cleared up the issue with the reservation and all was good. The clerk should have complete use of his hearing again in a week or three.
Sunday we headed back down Route 89A into town and decided to tour some of the local roads. This led us to trips on Soldiers Pass Road
and Dry Creek Road
both of which are reached off of 89A South of the downtown area. The scenery on Soldiers Pass Road was great but the scenery on Dry Creek road was even better. These are both rambling roads with posted speed limits of 25-45MPH which allow you a lot of time to enjoy the scenery.
After touring these roads we headed back north on 89A making our final pass through Oak Creek Canyon and up toward Flagstaff where we connected with the north portion of Mary’s Lake Road. We headed South East on Mary’s Lake Road past Lower Mary’s Lake which is now bone dry and then past Mary’s Lake which is also drying up and then past Mormon Lake which has about enough water for one good Saturday bath. This road varies from an elevation of 7200 to about 8200 feet. The motorcycles air conditioner worked very well on this stretch of road.
We continued on Mary’s Lake Road till it connected with Route 87 and then took 87 down South into Payson where we lunched at the Bee Line Café. This place has the most reasonable prices in Payson and good homemade food. In anticipation of riding down into the heat, Sharon removed her sweater which she wore under her heavy leather jacket. It won’t be needed as from this point the heater on the motorcycle will work perfectly.
From there we continued down 87 back into the heat of the desert and our home base area.
I hope you take the time to check out the video’s and for additional images of the Sedona/Flagstaff/Williams area check out my Facebook page Denny CWRailman.
