The Red Rock Realm

10-20

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I woke up late but surprisingly pain-free, considering how rough yesterday afternoon’s hike had been. The skies promised more beautiful weather, which I hoped would translate to my next destination: Sedona!

I packed up all my gear – thankfully now dry, as I hate packing up wet gear after a rain – and hit the road, bracing myself for the horrors of Phoenix traffic. Phoenix isn’t as bad as LA, but its size does tend to manifest in large vehicular snarls. But to my surprise, we soared right on through, my trusty Google Maps doglegging me off onto one side road but otherwise not having to work very hard at all.

Then it was up the side of the plateau, a long uphill slog made more interesting by the rolling plains and rocky swells that comprise the foothills.

In a couple of hours – a very short time indeed for us – we crested a final hill, and the legendary red rocks of Sedona revealed themselves in the distance.

I can only imagine how it went when this place was discovered by early settlers. You just come over a hill, and all the sudden there’s something… very interesting… in the distance. Maybe someone goes, “Hey, what do you reckon that is?”, and maybe you go, “I don’t know, but it looks awesome, let’s go!” and then there you have it, you’ve wound up in one of the greatest natural paradises on the continent. Huh.

 We wound down the valley, which bloomed with increasingly lush growth the further we went, a brilliant contrast to the massive looming rock outcrops that frame the basin. Out here, bushes were still of the desert-y variety, but they were larger and more vigorous than their equivalents in the Sonoran desert.

A few more minutes of driving across the basin floor, and we came around a corner and our destination swung into view.

Sedona, Arizona. Peak Red Rock Country. One of the most beautiful and iconic locations in the American Southwest. A place of stark contrasts – arid desert adjoining lush riparian zones. Azure skies melding with red rocks and verdant vegetation. Artisans meshing with hippies and outdoorspeople and the rich. Secluded back country, congested trails. Boundless wide open spaces, and ghastly gridlock. Bursting at the seams, too small and yet somehow also too large. An enigma. And my home for the next week.

Even the simple drive into town is breathtaking, assuming you know the right roads to take to avoid the traffic jams. Fortunately, I did.

As I passed this art gallery, I realized that I know the guy who did this eagle sculpture! (John Maisano)

Get anyone in Arizona to talk about Sedona, and they’ll all mention how it’s a “beautiful town, ruined by too many tourists”. Of course, that does imply that they themselves aren’t tourists when they visit (funny how that works). It’s undoubtedly too crowded (some months of the year) with underdeveloped infrastructure and poor traffic control for both cars and pedestrians alike. It’s a small town that got too much attention and didn’t react fast enough. Or maybe it didn’t want to react – maybe it hoped that eventually the tourists would migrate elsewhere, leaving Sedona to go back to its artsy settler roots. Seems unlikely, with a place like this. Regardless of the underlying motives, during peak season, it’s many thousands of pounds of tourists stuffed into a 10-lb sack. But you know what, I’m happy to be one of them.

I skirted around the most crowded parts of town and instead headed west to the residential side. I saw a roadside sign advertising a gem and mineral show at the high school, so I went there first and spent an hour or so perusing the vendors – there were well over a hundred, with some really cool specimens I’d never seen before!

Then, I cruised a couple blocks over to an AirBnB I had lucked into finding. Accommodations in Sedona during peak season are hard to find, and incredibly expensive. Of course normally I would camp to avoid all this, but most of Sedona’s reasonably-priced campsites are up the northern canyon, which gets very little sun and is situated alongside Oak Creek. In October, that makes for early, cold nights. So I had kept an eye out for any deal, and lucked out into getting a discounted AirBnB garage apartment – discounted because it was brand new and I was the first person staying there! I arrived and found the place perfectly equipped with a fully kitchen, laundry machines, a comfy bed, and epic views. Score!

I also soon discovered another perk of the location: proximity to a Verde Shuttle pickup stop. Sedona’s traffic is absolutely no joke on the weekends, and parking downtown is nearly impossible to find. One of my least favorite things to do is very slowly circle an area, in bumper-to-bumper traffic, in my classic Mustang, looking for even the tiniest possible parking spots along with a hundred other cars. I’d rather hike my way in. Or, in this case, I could walk to the bus stop, pay $1, and ride the shuttle all the way downtown! I’d say that $1 is well worth the peace of mind.

So off I went to Sedona’s downtown, the land of tourism – a place of endless art and jewelry shops, highly touristic and probably very overpriced but also very interesting to peruse, at least. I grabbed myself a steak at Cowboy Club, got some ice cream at Cold Stone Creamery, and wandered the shops until night fell and the bus came to pick me back up. Let me tell you – it is DARK in Sedona at night. It’s a dedicated Dark Sky town, which means that outdoor lighting is limited and mostly pointed towards the ground to avoid light pollution. But for some reason they also translate this indoors, so it’s very difficult to see in shops at night. Well, no matter, I had a nice book awaiting me in my nice cozy AirBnB.

Plus, I’ve got a lot of planning to do for the week’s activities! I can’t wait.

Kelly signing out.