Sedona, AZ

Sedona, AZ – Redrock PlayGround.

Our flight to Phoenix was late and we grabbed our rental car and headed toward Sedona well after midnight. 

The headlights pushed the dark away from route 17, barely illuminating the wide shoulder. When I got a chance I’d stare away toward the east and west trying to make some sense of the shadows in the distance.

It wasn’t until we woke the next morning and I made the short trip for breakfast that I got my first look at the red rocks of Sedona. I’m sure my breath caught. I know I came to a stop and found my head on a slow swivel surveying a landscape like nothing I’d ever seen before. The other-worldly rock pillars breaking against the impossibly colored sky mesmerized. 

That feeling of wonder and honestly, magic never left me for the entire trip. It was as though my eyes couldn’t begin to draw it all in, my brain unable to completely process the beauty. Three-hundred-sixty degrees of jaw-dropping geologic alchemy. 

As we hiked toward them, every turn, every rise in terrain, every circle around a grove of trees would reveal, would expose columns of rock that defied gravity, ribbons of color dancing across the rock faces, and rainbows arcing across rainless skies, daring to break the formations apart.

The hikes were spectacular, the food fabulous, the air hot and clear. Nintey-five and higher temperatures did nothing to dampen the beauty or spoil these landscapes.

I know Patti agrees, it was a perfect four day escape to a magical place and we’ll be back.