Echoes of the Southwest

When it comes to wanting to photograph a cowboy, you can always find one in Sharon's backyard. She used some dead cholla branches, a mannequin head, cowboy shirt, denim pants, burlap and added a stick in his mouth to look like a cigar. The best time to take pictures of him is when the sun is setting behind him. He has an eerie and mysterious look about him. She named him Josiah after the cowboy in her book  Josiah: Undead Cowboy . You can find her book on Amazon.com.

  When Sharon and I stayed in Sedona in the past, we always picked the Kings Ransom Inn. It was affordable and near all of Sedona's hot spots. We were sad to see it gone, but found out is was now Arabella Hotel. I looked it up and discovered it had great prices and reviews. So I booked us a three night stay there. I have to say, they did not disappoint. The upgrades were fantastic as well as the service. The room we had was equipped with all we needed. I got text messages from them everyday we were there letting us know what type of activities they had going on that evening. I loved that. It had the perfect southwest decor with a rustic vibe thrown in. We even had to try out the pool. The view from this place is gorgeous especially at sunset. I would give this place two thumbs up and we will stay there again.

 

While in Young AZ, we decided to park our jeep near a dirt road that enters into the forest. We found pieces of wood for future craft projects and unfortunately, an elk carcass. Next to that, we saw the remains of a tree that looked like it was shredded by something very strong. We did see a group of elk grazing across the road. The male was keeping his eyes on us while protecting the pregnant female of the group. We felt like someone or something was watching us from beyond the trees in the forest. We both thought we saw a figure that resembled the elusive bigfoot. Was it him? We don't know, but I did capture something interesting in one of my photos while panning the forest with my camera on zoom. While waiting for the sun to set, we could see smoke from the other side of the mountain. Thank goodness it was put out by the end of the weekend. Very sad to see our state on fire.