Arizona Travel, Part 1, Sedona

Hello Everyone! I have some pictures to show you from our Arizona trip. We have been fortunate to be able to show our kids different parts of our great country. When they were young, we started doing travel trips one year, then a beach trip the next year. Our beach trips are relaxing, but we stay on the move with the travel trips, often visiting National Parks. During this trip, we flew to Phoenix, then drove to Sedona where we spent several days. From Sedona, we did a day trip to Page to see Antelope Canyon and Powell Lake. On our way to spend a few days at the Grand Canyon, we had lunch and did a little shopping in Flagstaff. On our return to Phoenix, we stopped at the Montezuma Castle National Monument, a Native American cliff dwelling. It was busy, but well worth it.

Unfortunately, my son had to work so he wasn’t with us on this trip. My daughter was on spring break, and what we didn’t know, it must have been spring break in Arizona, for everyone. There were lots of people everywhere. Fortunately, we were on eastern time, so we beat the crowds to a lot of places early in the morning. I’ve put a few pictures (from the thousands that were taken) together to hopefully represent the trip. The pictures were taken either on my iPhone 6 or my daughter’s Canon EOS 80D.

Thunder Mountain and Sedona from the top of  Airport Mesa

Sedona’s elevation is 4500 feet and is surrounded by red rock mountains. Everywhere you looked, the view was stunning. It is definitely a hiker’s paradise. There are hikes for every level of hiker.  We hiked every day and every hike had a view. We averaged about 4.5 miles of walking and hiking everyday except for one day at the Grand Canyon.

The first morning, my daughter wanted to take pictures of the sunrise, We went down the street from where we were staying and while we waited for the sun to rise, she captured this beautiful moon setting.

Sedona has several vortexes, places of energy and spiritual healing. We visited several while we were there.

Bell Rock

 

Cathedral Rock

 

Airport Mesa Vortex

You can see in the pictures how the lighting effected the color of the rocks. In the early morning and late afternoon, the colors were much deeper than the middle of the day. The view was always changing. That’s Bell Rock in the middle behind me. I never did feel the spiritual effect of the vortex. My daughter had a go at it too.

Airport Mesa Vortex

I think she got more from viewing the surrounding mountains. She also liked sitting and standing close to the edge!

Chapel of the Holy Cross

The Chapel was built into the side of the rocks and had an interesting history on how it came to be. It was a very popular place.

We tried to go to the Chapel on Sunday, but it was too crowded. We went back on Tuesday and were one of the first ones there. The inside was beautiful and very calming, much more spiritual than the vortexes.

On the right side of this picture, you can see Oak Creek Canyon between the two ridges. That was a beautiful drive to Flagstaff and points north. The buildings on top of the small mesa in front of the rocks are the old part of Sedona

Another great view from Airport Mesa Vortex

In this picture, Thunder Mountain is on the left and at the other end of the ridge is Coffee Pot Rock. The little round hill between the two is Sugarloaf Rock. We hiked to the summit and got great views of Coffee Pot and Sedona.

Coffee Pot

Chimney Rock from the summit of Sugarloaf

Sugarloaf was a fun hike right in Sedona. It seemed like no one knew about it because it was one of the few places that didn’t have lots of people around it.

My daughter wanted to try to get a Milky Way picture. We got up early, and went down the street and listened to the coyotes while she set up her tripod.

Unfortunately, the moon was bright all week, so getting a nice dark sky was out. She was able to capture some of it though.  The light in the bottom right corner was from the moon. What a beautiful picture.

As we were driving through town on the first day, a quilt shop sign stood out to me, so we had to visit before we left. I just had to make a few pattern purchases…

I will try to make these this summer. And I have real pictures to work from.

I hope you enjoyed this part of our trip. In a couple of days, I’ll have pictures from Antelope and the Grand Canyon. I also have a couple of finishes for the 2017 Finish-A-Long to share. Thanks for stopping by.