Sedona, AZ

Wednesday we decided to spend the day in Sedona, Arizona.  It is about a 60 mile drive south of where we are staying.  To get there we took Route 89A, which takes you through Oak Creek Canyon.  This is a narrow, winding road that means you have to go slow at times but you are rewarded with some spectacular views of the valley as you get closer to Sedona. 

We arrived in Uptown Sedona around 9:30am.  This is the portion of town that is comprised of shops and restaurants and is usually where all the tourists end up.  Street parking is free but there are very limited spaces for all day parking, and especially limited spaces for a 1 ton pickup.  Fortunately, since we arrived early, we found a space on a side street as our plan was to stroll the street, have lunch and take a jeep tour.  We needed an all day space. 

Here is a picture of the uptown area

We strolled the shops and set up a Pink Jeep Tour (www.pinkjeeptours.com) for after lunch.  We decided on a restaurant called Open Range ( http://www.openrangesedona.com/) as their dining room has floor to ceiling windows overlooking the rock formations.  It was a great lunch then our tour.

We selected the scenic rim tour as this took you to the top of a mountain so you could get some great views.  If you look at their website they have tours where they climb rocks and really put the four wheel drive jeep to the test.  Our drive was on a washed out dirt road that was very bumpy and 4 wheel drive is good to have, but nothing really challenging.  It is a public road and we were amazed to see some people driving it in passenger vehicles.  Not a smart idea as some of the rocks were protruding up to a foot out of the ground.  Good way to wreck your car!  When we got to the top here is the view.

Following our 2 hour jeep ride we headed to West Sedona.  This is an area of town that is more spread out.  We had been to Sedona 30 years ago and stayed in this area and we were trying to see if we recognized anything, which we did not, other than the rock formations.  The airport for the town is on a hill and there is a great scenic overlook.  I took a panoramic picture from the overlook.

We decided to take I-17 back home, which meant taking another highway out of town to hook up with the interstate.  This road took us past the famous chapel that is built into a hill.  Here is a view of the chapel from the road.

Here is the view from the inside

I do have to give a special thanks to the parking attendant at the chapel.  The road going to the chapel is windy and narrow and there are parking spaces along the way.  I tried one but was concerned I would block the road and possibly not be able to get out, so I continued on up and this attendant told us to go all the way to the top and park in one of the handicapped spaces.  Thank you!  It saved us a long walk up a hill, plus we had no problems getting the truck in and out.  (All the handicapped spaces were empty, so I did not deny anyone).

What is interesting about going to this chapel is just before the entrance road for the chapel starts there is a beautiful, very large house that makes you stop to look closer.  When you get to the chapel you can clearly see the house and its grounds and everyone was taking a picture.

I will leave you with some pictures of the rock formations in the area.

They all have been named, but darn if I can remember them all!