Red Rock Country

The terrain changed quickly as we headed north out of Phoenix.  There were huge Saguaro cacti in the Sonoran desert with great mountains in the distance. Then there were rolling plains with scrubby bushes.  Then we headed into the Colorado Plateau, or "Red Rock Country" of Sedona. 

After Sedona, we headed up to Flagstaff over a VERY scenic route through the Oak Creek Canyon, very much like our Smokey Mountains, with really curvy roads, switch-backs, and sharp drop-offs with a rushing mountain river below.  It was beautiful, and very nerve-wracking!  As we left Flagstaff, we headed into the Coconino National Forest, where we saw huge pine trees and beautiful, tall white birch trees, and two herds of what we think were pronghorn deer.  In our rear-view mirror, we could see the sun reflecting off of the volcanic San Francisco Peaks.  BEAUTIFUL!