On to Sedona

TRAVEL THERE: REVISITING A FAVORITE SPOT

Sedona, AZ is famous as a uniquely beautiful place.  It also has a reputation as the location of energy vortices and some say it is a hotbed of alien activity.  I don’t know about all that.  I don’t see vortices and aliens.  I see something beautiful that God made and just being there brings me a sort of surreal peacefulness.  I believe there are just some places on earth where God showed off a little bit and I think Sedona is one of them.

Getting On the Road

As usual, I woke up very early and entertained myself with reading and crossword puzzles.  I was ready to get on down the road, but Bill was all about lingering.  Lingering aside, I needed to get me ready to go and all our stuff packed up by checkout time, which was 10 AM.  Finally at 8, I started the process and eventually Bill decided it was OK for me to start packing.  Bill waited until the very last minute to leave and that’s just about the time he got an inquiry concerning a possible photography shoot from a new client.  We missed checkout time by 5 minutes.  not that big of a deal, but par for the course.

Bill had a new mantra, “SAVOR.”  That’s a good mantra, but I can’t get very excited about savoring McDonald’s.  In fact, we’d already had a whole lot more McDonald’s that I’m used to on this trip, but here we were again to start our drive to Sedona.  I tried to modify my anxiety to get down the road while Bill savored whatever Mickey D’s breakfast he’d chosen.

Pedal to the Metal

It was decided I’d drive to Sedona and that was fine with me.  I jumped in and drove as fast as I thought I could get away with.  It’s a gorgeous drive from the Sonoran Desert of Scottsdale to the Red Rocks of Sedona.  The weather had not been promising before we left Dallas and we had cancelled the four-wheeling adventure, because it sounded like we’d be facing a chilly damp day.  It turned out to be one of those days that has a little of everything in it, but as you can see from the picture above, as we neared Sedona, the sky was incredible.

If you’re taking this little trip, let me make a suggestion.  Do not turn off at the first exit for Sedona.  I completely forgot this advice myself, since I was driving rather than navigating and we entered the town from the south.  The benefit to the south entrance is that you arrive at some of the most spectacular Red Rock formations right away. The down side is you don’t start with Oak Creek Vista and for me, a few moments there, before entering the fabulous Oak Creek Canyon, is the best way to start a visit to Sedona.

Photography Heaven

The spectacular landscape just south of Sedona demanded we get out of the car and start taking pictures.  We drove from one trailhead to the next, using their parking lots to take jaw dropping pictures.  It was still a bit nippy at this point with some drizzle, so we were right to cancel the four wheeling expedition, but it didn’t stop us from enjoying the scenery.  Let me share some of the beauty with you and then come back next week to find out more about our visit to Sedona.