By Ted Grussing
… it really is awesome and along with thousands of others I actually live here … full time for 29 years this week and part time for two years before that. Corky and I had been looking to get out of Southern California for a couple of years and considered Central California and Northern California, but found the same type of overcrowded development in these places that had we grown to dislike where we were. A client suggested we check out Sedona. ‘Never heard of it” said I, “where is it?” “Arizona”, said he. “Forget it” I replied, “I know what Arizona is like.” “No you don’t”, said he.
Several weeks later, Corky and I closed up the law office on a Friday, and drove over to Sedona from Huntington Beach. We arrived in the black of night, drove up to Sky Ranch Lodge on Airport Mesa, checked in and crashed. The next morning it was like WOW! … three days later we bought the lot we built on, and from May of 1990 to May of 1992 we came over to Sedona for about a week or so every month and in May of 1992 we started construction on our home … that’s us down on the golf course closest to the red rocks. 🙂
So this photo has nearly everything in the area in the one shot. SR 179 cuts a diagonal course from the lower right corner up through the Village of Oak Creek, cuts between Castle Rock on the left of the road and Bell Rock on the right … continues through the wilderness area, through the Chapel Area and finally reaches its terminus with SR 89A at the Y (two thirds up from the bottom and to the right of the Airport Mesa, which is just above the little cloud about midway up the photo and just in a little from the left. That little cloud is parked above Cathedral Rock and Oak Creek runs a bit to the left. The canyon with a dry creek bed running through it on the right side is Woods Canyon and above it on the left is Jacks Canyon including the developments in it and then Pine Valley near the upper part of Jacks Canyon before it cuts to the left, opening into Oak Creek Canyon. Court House Rock, Lee’s Mountain, Munds Mountain and more are all here.
It is an AWESOME place to live … we’re blessed! My friend Wayne Ranney has got a great book out on the geology of the Sedona area: Sedona Through Time. I highly recommend it.
Need to be up in a little over four hours to head down to Lake Pleasant … the hunt for the perfect shot of the perfect wildlife continues.
Enjoy today … always your choice how you perceive the day … a freedom that cannot be taken away. Keep breathing too, it helps.
Ted
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The easiest way to reach Mr. Grussing is by email: ted@tedgrussing.com
In addition to sales of photographs already taken Ted does special shoots for patrons on request and also does air-to-air photography for those who want photographs of their airplanes in flight. All special photographic sessions are billed on an hourly basis.
Ted also does one-on-one workshops for those interested in learning the techniques he uses. By special arrangement Ted will do one-on-one aerial photography workshops which will include actual photo sessions in the air.
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