Sedona- A Hiker's Mecca?

The Shangri-Nah of Hiking

Sedona has a great business model.  They are a small city surrounded by amazing and inspiring red sandstone cliffs and towers and mountains, with pretty creeks, canyons, and valleys.  So they market themselves as a hiking and outdoorsman's mecca, and build tiny parking lots at every trailhead, and post hundreds of no overflow parking signs, and then put big free parking areas near the center of town, so you will have to kill most of your day everyday shopping at expensive trendy stores.  It works, and I don't blame them.  This model also lures a lot of retired people who like to think of themselves as active, but who prefer the kind of hiking where you hike an hour, then go shop or get a massage in a spa, rather than going all day.  Its been clear to me my few times there that the city has no use for an actual outdoorsman who will not be lured into paying $15 for a shoddy hamburger while waiting to hike a canyon mostly taken up by a resort with keep out signs and fences anyway.  Yes there are some wilderness areas in Sedona, and you should probably head to them.  If you've a good offroad vehicle, try Secret Canyon and Secret Mountain. I wanted to, but as far as overnight weather was concerned, the time was not right.  I drove into Sedona during a flash blizzard and would have died had I tried to camp atop Secret Mountain as I planned.

Every decent spot requires a small and reasonable $5 pass.  The most popular spot for some bizarre reason is a parking lot where you can look at a bridge while cars drive over it.  From here there are some nice trails, either up or down.  I got some lovely cold pictures of bright sunbursts through intense grey clouds with black edges, all with snow-covered red towers and pillars in every direction.  It was exactly what I hoped from Sedona, and I cannot complain.  But I did not even stay the day, as I've shopped and seen the store prices before.

There is a fine drive from Sedona through winding passes up to the Flagstaff area and I took that.  Oak Creek Viewpoint was closed so I stopped on the side of the highway and sprinted as far and as fast as I could to the overlook, which I remembered from years before.  This was tough with over 6 inches of heavy wet snow, and the fear of cops and tickets looming over me.  I snapped a few pics, but this area is really only breathtaking in summer when there is green lushness and better lighting for miles.

In Flagstaff I wound up visiting Sunset Crater, a mostly lame park, but one where for $5 you can see glimpses of the painted desert, can visit some Indian ruins, and take a nice drive.  There are also lava flows, and if up to it, a 10 mile round trip mountain hike that looms over the Crater, and you can look into the cinder cone.  I also got to hike a snow-covered cinder cone, which was fun.  The sunset from an old Indian castle was special, and I planned to hike the mountain next morning, so I got a hotel in Flagstaff.  Unfortunately, next morning I was not at my best.  I tried to go anyway but managed to lock the keys in the car in my exhaustion, which if you know me, and how obsessive I am over checking for keys (locked myself out of the house a few times at age 8,9, and 10 and learned my lesson), you will find quite funny.  Luckily the trunk was open, so with the help of an ice axe and a lot of grunting, I spent the better part of an hour breaking into my own car through the trunk. My back seats are now permantly bent, but I did not have to wait all day for a locksmith in the middle of nowhere or smash a window- that was option 2.  I skipped the mountain though and headed home.

My last stop was Antelope Canyons in the Page area, and I will give them their own blog.