Spirit of Sedona

Flying in to Phoenix, Arizona, from London on New Year's Eve was the start of a new American adventure and chance to visit a destination I'd wanted to explore for years.  Located a two hour drive north of Phoenix, Sedona has the reputation as a spiritual power centre which I was intrigued to experience.  An unexpected snow storm had caused havoc in a State more used to high desert temperatures, but gave a beautiful freshness and rarely seen look to the famous red rock scenery.

Starting with a couple of nights Uptown I was able to explore the central attractions by taking a trolley bus tour, including a stop at the Chapel of the Holy Cross, impressively located and built into the red rock landscape.

Sedona has a year-round population of 10,000 inhabitants, but welcomes over three million tourists a year, which understandably puts a real strain on the town's infrastructure.  Roads become clogged with slow moving traffic.  Thankfully visiting off season, I was able to enjoy relative peacefulness.  The scenery is truly stunning and the result of volcanic activity hundreds of millions of years ago, when the area was originally ocean.  Human history dates back around 4,000 BC, with the Yavapai and Apache peoples moving in to the area in 1,400AD.  The strong Native American Indian connection exists to this day, continuing the belief this is sacred land with unique vortex energies.  The many vortex sites, or energy centres, are said to support healing and meditation.  They certainly attract many hikers and visitors keen to feel the special energy of simply being here.

The effect of the vortex energy may be seen in the juniper trees as their trunks and branches react and twist to the energy instead of growing straight.

The territory of Arizona was first created in 1863 to control mineral resources during the Civil War and the first Anglo settlers arrived in Oak Creek Canyon in 1876.  It was an entrepreneurial businessman with a general store and hotel, Carl Schnebly, back in 1899 who applied to establish a post office and used his wife's name, Sedona, as the nominated place name on the application form and so the town of Sedona was born.

As a backdrop to many Hollywood Western films, with their heyday in the 1940's the area began to attract some famous names, including Lucille Ball who owned a large property pointed out as part of the trolley bus tour.  These days Sedona is a popular second home place with people keen to enjoy the great outdoors and play golf. 

When I first checked in on arriving at the Orchards Inn, I was told Sedona is an 'early to bed, early to rise type of place'.  Sure enough breakfast at the hotel was served from 6am-9pm and dinner in most restaurants was available until closing time around 8.30pm/9pm.  The majority of people seemed to dine around 5.30pm/6pm.  With such bitter cold weather, even with the occasional blue sky days, it was no hardship being indoors for a cosy evening.

The highlight of my trip was staying in Boynton Canyon and taking a hike up to the Kachina Woman rock.  This dramatic looking location was both beautiful and uplifting.  A local resident, Robert, climbs to the plateau daily in good weather (the high rock on the right side in my photo below) to play his flute from the top.  The gentle music floats in the air and sounds quite magical.

Sedona was a fabulous place to be to start the new year, both invigorating and inspiring.  Happy 2019 and wishing you wonderful travels!