Dead Horse Ranch SP, Cottonwood AZ

First, the name needs to be explained.  The story goes that the Ireys family was looking to buy a ranch around Cottonwood in the 1940’s and one that they visited had a large dead horse on the road.  After seeing a few, the parents asked the kids which ranch they liked and they said “the one with the dead horse”. And the name and eventually the park was born.

Cottonwood is in the Verde Valley and close to Flagstaff, Sedona, Jerome, Prescott and Phoenix.  The area became known as wine country, we had lunch at Merkin Vineyards , one of many tasting rooms in Old Cottonwood.  It was Mother’s Day, the food was great and the wine surprisingly good. I had a white wine flight, my favorite was the Diddler, fruity but dry.  Lunch was a salad special with beets, chickpeas, shaved fennel and wonderful bruschetta.  Tom opted for Philly cheesesteak pizza and we both followed up with gelato dessert.

The campground has four loops, with plenty of space between sites.  The park is very large, with large day use area with two lagoons used for fishing.  It’s hilly and our site had a great view of the valley below.  There are hiking and mountain biking trails throughout and they have horse backing trails as well.  I loved sitting out in the evening and having that wonderful view.  You could hike to the hill behind our site, I did that one morning and saw a lots of wild flowers and a rather large antelope jackrabbit scurrying away (no pictures, I was not prepared).

Next day Tom and I saw a pair of roadrunners, I was waiting for a sighting of coyote and we would have the full Looney Tunes crew!

Hiking from our campground was good, Tom even enjoyed some disc golf (I passed on it).

We visited Sedona twice, it is a beautiful location, very scenic.  Sadly, it’s also very crowded and we had a hard time finding parking at trailheads.  We hiked Carroll Canyon, with views of Pyramid Mountain and lots of wild flowers.  We met some bikers on the trail who suggested Secret Slickrock, a short hike with great views of Cathedral Rock.

Going downtown was close to impossible, it was Saturday and everyone seems to been at Sedona’s downtown.  When we returned Monday, all trailheads seem to be full, so we ended up at the airport and walked that loop, with amazing views of the town and surrounding mountains.

I would love to visit again (not on a weekend) and use the shuttle to get to trailheads (it only runs Thursday through Sunday).  It would be great to explore more of the area but we only had three days on the ground.  It’s a wonderful place, but a victim of it’s own success with crowds and very limited parking at most trailheads.

We are now on the last leg of our journey, with a quick stop in Kingman, AZ and then onto Las Vegas and home.