Long on our wish list, Sedona is the home to two national parks, Red Rock State Park and Slide Rock State Park. In between the parks’ red rocks are many homes and privately owned businesses — as well as the city of Sedona.
Local businesses hawk a variety of crystals and other mystical energy sources. And the tourist maps list the locations of “vortexes,” which are said to emanate from the towering rock formations rising from the desert floor. They’re described as “swirling centers of energy that are conducive to healing, meditation and self-exploration. These are places where the earth seems especially alive with energy. Many people feel inspired, recharged or uplifted after visiting a vortex.”
We didn’t focus much on the vortexes as we hiked around and up onto Bell Rock, (pictured above) on a 4-mile, mostly flat trek that took us alongside Courthouse Butte (pictured below). We also climbed onto Bell Rock, giving us sweeping views of the wide-open sky, red-rock buttes and steep canyon walls. This was in the Spring and the heat was still significant for such a long and frankly exhausting hike. The rocks seemed smaller from a distance than when we tried to circle them — and missed a turn that would have made the hike shorter.
Cathedral Butte, a massive sandstone structure that dwarfs visitors hiking alongside it.
A day later, we visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a soaring church perched on the edge of a butte built from 1954-56. The sculptor who first envisioned the design, Marguerite Brunswig Staude, wrote that she was inspired to build a church around a cross by the newly constructed Empire State Building in 1932. She initially consulted with Lloyd Wright, son of the renowned architect, Frank Lloyd Wright, on building it in Budapest. But the outbreak of World War II ended those plans, and she decided to build the church in her native region.
To visit the chapel, guests park below and take a long walk up to the small chapel where light streams in through the windows surrounding the cross. An outdoor deck offers views of the surrounding rocks and countryside, and there is a small gift shop below. It’s a short tour but worth the time for the views and the opportunity to pray in such a majestic setting.
Sedona is a “dark sky” city, so we drove up a winding unlit road to the top of a ridge line, to the Jordan Trailhead Observing Area, to see the stars. It’s a short drive from the City and is simply an empty field at the end of the road. It’s supposed to be one of the best places to see the Milky Way in Sedona. Unfortunately, it wasn’t that clear a night, so we didn’t get a great view of the stars.
We spent just 2 nights in Sedona and felt we had seen most of what we wanted to see. Others might choose to shop in the downtown area, where they can buy crystals, crafts and other touristy items. But that didn’t appeal to us. The restaurants in town are okay — but not great. We stayed in one of the many hotels lining the city’s main arteries. There’s plenty of selections, and ours wasn’t anything special.
We were fortunate that we visited Sedona before Arches and Zion national parks because both were much more spectacular. Having not yet experienced those two, we found Sedona to be an impressively beautiful and invigorating destination for hiking and enjoying magnificent scenery. A notable bonus was the drive out of Sedona to Flagstaff on our way to Santa Fe, NM.
We were surprised by the beauty of Oak Creek Canyon Scenic Drive (Rte. 89A). The 24-mile drive to Flagstaff climbs some 4,500 feet to the top of the Mogollon Rim, winding through sandstone canyons and featuring awe-inspiring rock formations seemingly around every curve.
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