az: hart prairie, n of flag. 11/11/09

[rydnseek]

Kim & I left sedona about 9:30 & headed up oak creek canyon.

The weather was a little overcast, which made the temps a little warmer. We were climbing into the 8500' range, & it would be colder as the day wore on. But if we were going to get up to hart prairie this year, time was running out, unless we went on snowmobiles.

We turned onto fr 535, a nice dirt road that finishes the climb into the coconino nat forest. From here we went north, gassed up at park, crossed i-40, & went down an old section of rt. 66 that's unpaved.

this is in the pines on 535.



Here's some open prairie, with the san francisco mountains in the background.. our destination.



Hart Prairie road.. heading for the aspens. We're approaching the mountains from the west & going around them to the north.


This is along hart prairie road.. the aspens have dropped all leaves. We're about a month late for color, but the look going through them is still pretty cool.. no leaves, very stark.. it went well with the overcast day.






A partial view to the north.



Coming out of the aspens, into hart prairie & the northern meadows.



On the north side of the mountains, viewing north. These are the foothills going toward the grand canyon.



The san francisco peaks from the north, into hart prairie.



We followed the north mountain road until we almost came to hwy89a, then turned toward the south & southwest heading back to flagstaff.. this was along shultz pass road. I took some pics & vids of this on our 4 day utah ride early last month, so i did't take any more.. not much had changed.

We came into flag off shultz pass road & went back down oak creek canyon. No lunch. No more dirt. But it was a fine ride, & no doubt our last one in the high country this year. Snow will be covering everything & the roads will close.

We did a total of about 150 miles, with maybe 50 paved. We were in the 8500' range on most of the loop around the mountains. It's an easy ride.. a nice followup to the gnarly casner mt ride we did last week. This will probably be my last ride of the year.. after thanksgiving, i'm heading to oahu for 3 weeks.. we'll be back before christmas, but might not get a ride in. My poor little wr will be whimpering in the garage, wanting to get out for a nice ride.

scotty

[TripleTee]

Wow! Beautiful country. I lived in Cottonwood for a while back in the mid-80s.

[Gadget Boy]

Looks great! thanks for the multimedia presentation!

[junker]

I really liked the videos - beautiful country!

[lukachuki]

Your Killlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllin me one video at a time.....


What a way to go.

[h8chains]

that wr really put a shot of new life in your riding....not exactly a viagra, but 1 big blue pill.......


nice vids...