Day 21: We've got Mingus.

Sedona, Arizona

Distance for the day: 111.5 km

Cumulative distance: 4,583.8 km

Top speed: 114 kph

Moving average: 54 kph

Temperature: 30.8 - 40.6

Prescott's finest.

Er, maybe second best.

Pretty short day, which was good because we had a lot of stop and go traffic and despite it only being 40 degrees, we were warm pretty fast. 
We did have a couple of real treats on the way, though. The first is that we rode over Mingus Pass on the Mingus Scenic Byway, near Mingus Mountain just before we came to Mingus Road. We debated about the origin of the name "Mingus" and we eventually concluded it must be a terrible disease to have all these place names with "Mingus". In any event, we got it in

spades.  The Mingus Scenic Byway is a short but fun twisty ride over a pass between Prescott Valley (not to be confused with Prescott, a separately incorporated city, where we stayed last night) and Sedona. Once we were over the pass, we were greeted by the beginning of the red rock formations predominant in the area. Spectacularly beautiful, the red rock here is not a subtle shade of red but rather, full on beet. Even some of the roads here incorporate the redness and it is quite dramatic. The red colour is

The closer we get to Sedona,
the redder the rocks

Old mining (?) buildings.

largely from a mineral called hematite and the red is highly evident entering the valley. Also  on the pass, there were signs of some long ago dwellings and I am guessing, small mining operations. This was once a rabid copper mining area and, to a lesser degree, silver. There was a large build up of mining activity starting in the late 1800s however, in the aftermath of WWII, the diminished demand for copper killed the mining economy here and the big copper mine that sustained the area closed in 1953.

After the Mingus Pass and Mingus mining area, we passed through the ghost town of Ming Jerome. Hard to call this a "ghost town" given that it was jam packed with people. It must be America's busiest ghost town. People were driving at 2 miles per hour ready to kill for a parking spot. This may in fact be why it is called a "ghost town". The heat made me want to kill the guy in the car ahead of us.

We passed by Red Rock State Park and made mental note of it, then into Sedona. We were at The Star Motel about 12:30 but our messaging clearly states that check-in is after 3:00 pm so we go across the street and have lunch, during which I received a text message indicating the room was ready and the code to enter the room. This is a new fangled motel with no resident manager. Everything is done via internet - reservations, payment, check-in and just leave when the reservation is up. There is even a concierge service to leave beverages in the room for arrival.  The motel has 10 rooms so hard to pay for a duty manager. As an alternative, they provide a phone number. I actually think it is run by A.I. the T1000, in fact. 

I've heard so much about Sedona. Mostly about the beauty and the spiritualness. Well here we are, witnessing the best Sedona has to offer.

This store is called "Indian Touch of Sedona".
Of course, not a single Indigenous person was
working in there. And check out those figures outside the store!

I actually thought this sculpture was kind of cute.

I didn't know this is what they meant by "vortex".

Glad to be able to see the mountains.