John Wayne Tree

Take it to the Limit / The Eagles

So Nick, our Guide/Driver, says there’s something else he wants to show us close by.
Lead on …
He points to a nearby tree and says: “See this tree?”
“This is John Wayne Tree”.

What?! Really!! How so?
Nick says that back in 1947 when John Wayne was starring in Angel and the Badman
John had posed by this tree for a photo.
I now recalled seeing that photo somewhere? but I’ve been able to find it since.
This did seem seem to be an amazing coincidence though because there’s no way Nick could have known
that I had a blog called My Favorite Westerns where I had extensively featured The Duke.

Nick claimed John posed something like this.
(Notice how I bear absolutely no resemblance to John Wayne who was without a doubt
about one of the most photogenic Celebrities who ever lived.)

But I really had to wonder though at the odds of this??
We hadn’t planned on taking Jeep Tour at all and these Jeep Tours go to many different locations in the area.
Yet here we were.
Pretty amazing.

Angel and the Badman / 1947

1947.
One year before I was born.

John Wayne was 40 years old.
He was a Star, but had not yet achieved
the unparalleled heights of SuperStardom
he ultimately reached.

Eight years earlier John had Starred the most important Western ever made: Stagecoach.
Directed by John Ford which raised Western Film from pulp to
legitimate Art.
This had been also John’s breakthrough role as a Western Hero.

Available to watch on You Tube.

The End

Take it Easy / The Eagles

Sedona Jeep Tour 2013

I never really did tell the full story of our John Wayne Tree adventure at Sedona back in 2013.
My previous posts on this were lousy so I want to fix that.

In Sedona my pardner, Rose, won a Jeep Tour prize by getting sucked into a TimeShare presentation. That was the hook. I was quietly kicking Rose for making me endure the TimeShare thing, but we would never have gone on this Jeep Tour otherwise. Life and Fate, however, often have a different idea that they only let us in on when we’re right in the middle of it all. Sometimes wonderful things happen. Sometimes not. This turned out to be pretty wonderful.

So off we go.

When you realize how many Jeep Tours there are here and the many different places they go,
you have to realize what an amazing coincidence this event turned out to be.

Schnebly Hill Road

History of Sedona | Sedona Heritage Museum

A bit of history:
Theodore Carleton (T C) Schnebly and his wife SEDONA Arabella Miller Schnebly
moved to the Sedona area in 1901.

Schnebly Hill Road, of course is named after them and Sedona after her.

The Hill road is an adventure in itself.
Below you can see one stretch of the road – and why they use Jeeps.
All six of us were all well strapped in, but we still needed to hold on to our saddlehorns.
At one point we saw a family in a minivan coming up the road.
You can bet they regretted that.

Nick, our driver, was giving us a running commentary on the area as we bumped along.
(Can’t remember a thing.)

Nor was there much chance for taking any pics on the way up.

But we did snap a couple.We jostle and jerk our way up to see a viewpoint Nick calls Schnebly Hill Vista
… and jump out for a jaunt.

I look back down and see the old timer still sitting in the jeep. (below)
(He was a very unhappy camper to be along on this excursion – and didn’t hide it.)
Possibly another victim of a TimeShare pitch.

Hiking up a short, but steep little path and arrive at the Viewpoint …

AWESOME!

Nick was right. This is a hell of a viewpoint.

You can literally see for miles.
Sedona in the distance.

There are a lot of such vista views around Sedona area.

We clamour around a bit enjoying the view.

But the best was yet to come …

Next:

Tag: John Wayne Tree