It turned out to be one of those experiences you check off the list. Done. Never again. Well, at least for me. Probably. One can never say for sure, but less than half-way through our ATV adventure in Sedona, Arizona I was quite sure I would not need to repeat it. But, let me start at the beginning.

We had four days in Arizona, less than that if you count the attempts to sleep after a red-eye and travel to and from the airport. My husband signed up for a CME conference in Sedona, which began the day after our son graduated from high school. Somehow we had all agreed to it, even though we must have known we would have been exhausted before our trip even began. Never mind that, we are used to pushing ourselves to extremes when we travel. It’s par for the course.

We didn’t play golf, even though the resort had a lovely course that ran beneath the red rocks with a sprawling green lawn nearly as brilliant as the blue sky that graced each of our days. The New Hampshire we had left behind was experiencing a rather damp and gray beginning to summer, and the shock of the intense, dry Arizona sunshine was welcoming, at first.

After flying through thunderstorms across the entire United States, we landed in Phoenix in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Only my daughter and husband slept (some) on the plane, and the four of us staggered out of the plane and made our way through the passageways that led to the shuttle to pick up our rental car. Two hours later, we loaded into a car that was not the one we had reserved, but it was close enough, only to be halted about ten minutes into our drive by an accident.

I can’t tell you much about the 2.5 hour drive to our hotel, because I drifted in and out of consciousness in the passenger seat. My daughter, who when I glanced back at her during the drive appeared to be fast asleep, slumped against the window, swears she saw the Milky Way at some point along the way. Maybe. It was the right time of night, and anyone who’s taken the drive from Phoenix to Sedona knows there’s a vast landscape of “nothing” for quite a while. Just a lot of desert.

It was still dark when we arrived at the hotel, 2 am local time to be precise (5 am EST) and I wasn’t thinking about stars, I was thinking only of a bed to sink into. Somehow my husband made it to his 7:30 am conference, while the rest of our slept. The morning passed with sleep, breakfast, and a visit to the adult pool. By the time my husband’s conference was over, we were all ready to give a proper greeting to Sedona.

“What should we do?”

We debated the possibilities until we settled on an ATV adventure, totally unprepared for what awaited us. Deadman’s Pass could not had been a more fitting name.

The vehicle was built for the terrain, but I’m not sure we were. We rumbled along the highway, my son at the driver’s seat, until we got to the turnoff. It took several more minutes to find the dirt road, and during that time I was thinking, “this isn’t so bad.”

Before I knew it, the red dust of Sedona was flying into my nostrils and mouth, and I was gripping the metal bar in front of me as I realized I was experiencing a ride worse than a rollercoaster. The fear of tipping over and staying there stayed with me for most of the two-hour torture ride, and when it finally ended and I told myself “never again.” But in all seriousness, despite the steep drops and turns filled with gullies and rocks, it was a memorable experience. We were hot, filthy, hungry, and very thirsty by the time we were through, but we did see some spectacular views that I managed to capture with my phone while tipping out the open window.

I hope you enjoy these shots from Deadman’s Pass despite being unable to ride along with us 😉