Pink Jeeps - Sedona

Yesterday, Dr Desert Flower and I took a "Pink Jeep" tour South East of Sedona, on the "Broken Arrow" trail. It lasted 2 hours, and it was fun, intense, beautiful, and well worth the $75 ticket price.
We've been to Sedona on 1/2 a dozen occasions, and I'd seen the "Pink Jeep" tour offices and ubiquitous jeeps many times before, but had never really paid them much attention. When Dr Desert Flower petitioned that it could be alot of fun, and we'd be able to see back country that was beyond the reaches of a day-long strenuous hike, I acquiesced.

Our 27 year old driver's name was "Ryan". He'd been driving a Pink Jeep for 3 years, and in his words "they trust a $70,000 off-road monster truck, and the lives of 7 passengers, to a 27 year old - it's pretty good work, and can be alot of fun." Ryan served as chauffeur, tour guide, safety officer, botanist, geologist, naturalist, photographer, and stand up comedian. He was a good driver and an affable young man. To say that the trail we took was extreme, would be an under-statement. 45 degree inclines, sand stone stair cases, extremely narrow crevasses, each navigated safely by our driver. The vistas we saw were breathtaking. Pictures cannot really express the magnitude of the experience.










We can tell we're getting older though, because after a 2 hour bouncing jeep ride, our knees, hips, necks, and shoulders felt a little achy. I remember 10 years ago when we took our son and one of his buddies to Disney World and rode Space Mountain's rapid, sudden, dark turns - where you couldn't brace or prepare, just got thrown around in the roller coaster - and the neck pain I sustained at that time. The Pink Jeep Broken Arrow trail was not AS BAD as the Space Mountain ride - it was alot slower, and you could SEE where you were heading, climbing, descending, gradually and carefully. But lacing an exoskeleton, the soft tissues that connect our bones and link muscles to bones tend to not react so positively when bounced around in strange ways for middle aged people.

It was tremendous fun, and like visiting the Grand Canyon, climbing the Eiffel Tower, or walking on the Great Wall of China, it's something everyone should do once in their life. I won't be taking my mom on it though - the Pennsylvania Turnpike was enough to almost give her a stroke 35 years ago. I am sure the Pink Jeep ride would send her waaaaaaay over the cliff.