Somehow, I had the most fun of my whole trip to the Southwest when I went on a couple of very rough jeep roads near Sedona. I was man enough to sign up for the Broken Arrow/Scenic Rim Combo Tour with Pink Jeep.

Mary and Patty Show How Happy They Are That I Am Out of Danger (Photo by Mike Carey)

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I wanted to take that tour the first morning that I was in Sedona. But since I was the only one who had signed up, they canceled it. Fortunately.

When I got to the Pink Jeep office on time at 6:30 a.m., I learned that they had called to let me know that the tour was off. But they left the message on my home phone, which I hadn’t checked. The helpful receptionist recommended instead that I go to West Fork for my first outing in the area. I wrote about my trip to that beautiful canyon in my previous photo essay in this series.

My good fortune was that the following morning I was able to take the same combo tour with Mary and Patty, who are two lovely ladies from Virginia, and a professional tour guide named Mike Carey, who has a whole lot of charisma, enthusiasm, and skill. Mary and Patty are friends and neighbors of the Mike’s former commanding officer when he served in the U.S. Air Force. Mary and Patty had asked specifically for Mike, and I was lucky enough to be the fourth.

The four of us had an exciting trip, but all of us survived.

Hanging on for Dear Life (Photo by Mary White)

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This film clip, Touring Sedona the Rough Way, shows one of the jeep tracks we took.

Later I handed one of my cameras to Mike so he could take to take a photo of me standing alone in red rock country. But somehow he worked his way into the scene.

Big Mike Carey and Little David Mendosa in Red Rock Country (Photo by Mike Carey)

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But the scariest part was driving the jeep for a short stretch. For some reason, no one wanted to go with me.

Driving a Pink Jeep in Red Rock Country Is Not for Sissies (Photo by Mike Carey)

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Actually, this photo essay isn’t just about my adventures on a jeep track. It’s also about some gorgeous scenery that I saw when I got off the beaten path.

This Place Is Far Off the Beaten Path (My Own Photo!)

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I Sure Had Fun! (Photo by Mike Carey)

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But why are all those pink jeeps such a feminine color? I wondered if it was to attract women to off-roading, which many people think of as a masculine activity.

Actually, the company’s website explains that the company’s founder, Don Pratt, got the idea in 1960 when he stayed at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, which has a shocking pink façade and uses pink vehicles for its tours of the island. After all, “Pink is fun,” he was fond of saying. So it is.