Wednesday, April 29, 2020

A BUSY GHOST TOWN

Sedona, Arizona, is a tourist mecca in the heart of Red Rocks Country.

When we first discovered it in the early 1970's it was a sleepy little burg with an Old West vibe.

Since then it has grown exponentially with constant construction of mansion homes everywhere, expensive restaurants, New Age crystal emporiums, pricey art galleries and traffic, traffic, traffic.

However, during the slowing down because of the Covid-19 pandemic, with most businesses being closed, we had heard that Sedona had become a ghost town.

On our recent visit we found many dozens of cars parked alongside the two-lane highway in the picturesque Oak Creek Canyon just outside town as hikers filled the area.

Construction crews working on Midgley Bridge had traffic down to one-lane and were letting lines of vehicles pass alternately.

In town it seemed construction was going on everywhere as the city used the slight lull to improve the infrastructure.


A decorative fence was being put in place through the middle of the street in the Old Town section in an apparent attempt to prevent jaywalkers from blocking, or being run over by, the usually constant string of cars in both directions.

To sum up, the Old West village become jam-packed modern town become ghost town is busy once again.

Not as busy as before the virus caused the state's governor to issue a stay home order but still a bit of a pain to visit.

We were glad to leave it all behind and head for home.