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“To go to the snow”

That was my response to the insurance agent when asked what was the purpose of the trip.  She laughed but being from Arizona, we don’t get to see snow that much, unlike you East coast people who complain so much about it.  So why was I talking to an insurance agent about my trip to the snow?  No I don’t have a buddy who works for Allstate, I got to an accident. But how? And why was I going up 89A in a snowstorm? To go to the snow of course!

Well seeing how much snow Flagstaff and up north was gettin, I had to get in on that action.  Since Reachhane had to work all week so we were stuck in town for Spring Break I thought it would be cool to go up north to the snow since we didn’t get any snow all year. So we left early Sunday morning (we got up at 5:00, you all were still sleeping at that point). When picking up one of our friends in Laveen we even had seen some snow on South Mountain! It didn’t take to long to see it everywhere.

The Sign for Sunset Point

Sunset Point

By the time we got to Sunset Point, it was hard to imagine that it is March and just a week ago we haven’t had rain for over 140 days.  It was snowing, all the mountains were white, the huge saguaro cactus had dustings of snow on it., signs saying “Phoenix – 30 Miles” covered in snow. It’s something that I won’t soon forget.  After playing around on our first of many quick stops we headed further up I-17. Next stop, Sedona.

The four of us

I never used to be much of a photographer, but ever since I started really getting to photography, I always wanted to take photos of Sedona and Grand Canyon with snow.  Grand Canyon might be a bit more challenging but I couldn’t pass up this opportunity to cut though Sedona.  The views were defiantly worth it.  Seeing the Red Rock contrasted with the white snow, and forever preserved on digital pictures. Awesome! After several stops for photos we continued on toward our final destination of Flagstaff.  Things were going great aside from the mountain tops started disappearing.  After one final stop at Rainbow Trout Farm to take photos of Oak Creek, we started hitting heavy snow and un unplowed road.

Snow on the Red Rock

Oak Creek Canyon at Rainbow Trout Farm
 

The truck I slid into

At that point believe me the thought had crossed my mind to turn around and head back, but I was constantly reassured after seeing car after car that made it down out of the mountain, so I figure if those cars made it down, I can make it up.  The road started getting so bad I wasn’t driving any faster than 25 miles an hour.  I thought I don’t care if it takes an hour to get up this road, I don’t feel like turning back and Ill get a few more awesome photos. Then we came up to a curve and I seen about 6-7 cars that were on the side of the road.  I thought, “OK they must have all hit each other”, but the snow and road conditions were so bad that it was time to head back.  But these guys were waving me to go though and I was too close to turn around where I was at so I was going to pass this mess, turn around and head back down.

As I slowly turned the curve (like 2-3 MPH) I stopped going forward and started sliding toward my left and a bright red truck.  Doing everything in my power I tried to prevent hitting that car but in slow motion I hit the side of his truck, jamming his bumper into my new 05 Lancer Lucky no one was hurt, just our cars.  When I got out I realized no wonder I got into an accident.  I could slide from one side of the road to the other with one step, like a huge ice rink.  I ran to the road where those guys were waiving me on and started stopping any more cars to come though.  I don’t need any more damage to my poor car!  Luckily someone had cell phone service and called for help and although I had a big dent (and 2 small ones) that’s what insurance was for, plus I knew that what the risk was for taking that windy mountain road in the snow.

A Close up of the Damage

The Snow Plow that hit the Jeep

Just then a snow plow came cursing around the corner. Yeah, we can get out of here, he’ll clear the road and we’ll just drive back down. Not much longer after I thought that than this giant yellow snow plow also started sliding and right into a Jeep where its owner was standing.  He narrowly escaped death and got out of the way just in time before it slammed into his Jeep, but not without injury.  He ended up with a deep cut on his nose that required a trip to the emergency room.

So here we are, with it being dead quiet and we all began wondering how we would ever get off this mountain.  Not too long after a fire truck and DPS officer came up.  Although it looked bad, we started pushing are cars off each other and one by one, after some of that black rock from the snow plow started melting the snow we got out of there.  Now aside from my $500 deductible I now have to pay to get my car fixed, the trip, I’m happy to report, ended up with a happy story.  We got the heck outta Sedona, and with some advise from the DPS officer (I-17 couldn’t have been much better), headed back south on I-17.  After some quick phone calls our next stop was Prescott. 

 
Pushin out the cars

                We ended up in downtown Prescott in front of the court house where there was plenty of snow.  1 snowman, 5 snowball fights and one ball of ice to my bro’s butt later we ended up having an awesome time.  Don’t believe me? Check out these pictures and leave comments!!

Originally posted March 28th, 2006