Doah's Ramblings: Sedona

This "Sunset over the Redrocks" of western Sedona, Arizona
was taken by Harvey Stearns.

Like I told you in the post before this, we just spent six nights in Sedona, Arizona. The first four nights we had the kids and the next two nights were just Chrisy and I. It was a grand time. I'm a bit enamored with Sedona now and wanted to write about it and share some photos. The opening photo above is one that I found on-line.

The kids at the trailhead of the Bell Rock/Courthouse Butte Loop.
Sedona, Arizona
(December 19, 2006)

Our first encounter with Sedona was actually last year, December of 2005. Before that I had a lot of misconceptions about Arizona. I thought it was all flat and hot all the time. It's not in and around Sedona. Arizona, come to find out, is sort of like a group of people: you cannot paint it with a broad brush and remain accurate about your generalizations.

Here's another photo I found on-line of a trail near Coffee Pot Rock.

Last year when we went to visit Chrisy's father, he gave us a great gift: a few nights stay in Sedona, a massage at a local spa, some certificates for dinners out, and babysitting! During our kidless stay last year we did some hiking and really appreciated the natural beauty, colors, variety, rock structures, and weather of Sedona. We really enjoyed Sedona, so much so that we wanted to go back this year and show the children this beautiful part of God's creation. That's what we did.

The kids with a bit of Courthouse Butte in the back.
The part on the right behind Max is known as Rabbit ears.

Sedona's average high temperature for the year is about 75 degrees. It's at an elevation of about 4,500 feet so it's a very enjoyable climate year round. The hottest month is July and it's not much different than here where I live in Orange County, about 95 degrees. It's situated in an area that has several national forests around it. By contrast, Phoenix is at an elevation of only 1,117 and is located in a valley. I guess Sedona is considered central Arizona; it's 120 miles north of Phoenix and not too far south of Flagstaff. The natural beauty and views are in this area are truly awe-inspiring. Chrisy and I kept hearing ourselves say to the kids, "Look at that!" or "Can you believe that?" as we drove around. The colors of the rock formations and mountains are always changing depending on your position and the position of the sun. It's quite amazing actually.

Here's Chrisy crossing the creek to get over to the Baldwin Trail.
(December 21, 2006)

Last week while we were there we did two hikes with the kids. The first was the Bell Rock and

Courthouse Butte loop. That loop is just a bit over 4 miles. It actually started snowing as we did the Bell Rock hike. That was way cool. The photo off to the right is an arial photo of Courthouse Butte. From this view, Bell Rock would be off to the left. The trail we took actually goes completely around both Bell and Courthouse.

The second hike we did was around the area of Cathedral Rock on the Baldwin Trail. I pulled the photo of Cathedral Rock on the left off the Internet. The Baldwin Trail hike is 3.8 miles. It offers great views of Cathedral Rock which is the second most photographed land structure in Arizona. Second only to the Grand Canyon, of course. Last year Chrisy and I actually did the Cathedral Rock Trial which is more strenuous, but this year we had the children with us. The Baldwin Trail hike was wonderful and a bit more challenging than our first hike. To get there you've got to go across a creek. The kids enjoyed that. During the hike we kept thinking we must have gotten off the trail, but we actually stuck to it pretty well. It was rewarding.