A road trip within our road trip today. We breakfasted at the hotel at 7:00am then at 8:30 left for Sedona. It's about a 2 hour drive from Tusayan and instead of going all the way down to I40 then over to Flagstaff, we split off at the Flintstones place and took 180 to Flagstaff. I'm glad we did, as that drive was much more interesting.
180 took us through peaks, ski areas and forest (not right here obviously)
Red Mountain. That's its name. There were a lot of hiking and exploring options along this corridor, including a mile long lava tube. We'll have to spend more time when we come back.
Approaching Sedona. The drive down 89A from Flagstaff offers some great views once you get closer. I was reminded several times of Custer State Park in South Dakota.
Amazing rock formations
And we've arrived
After we parked and got out I realized I had a big misconception about Sedona. I thought it was going to be the like the Beverly Hills of the desert with interesting shops, restaurants, galleries, handmade goods, etc. Well, it wasn't. It's just super touristy with shops lining the main street. Many of the shops sold tacky t-shirts or mass-produced souvenirs made overseas. Every 3rd or 4th storefront was a ticket counter for tours, helicopter rides, spiritual journeys, you name it.
Don't lose your head lady, it's just Todd
Some stores sold polished rocks ("gemstones") with alleged healing properties. One of the things that was repeatedly touted was Sedona's "vortexes", which are "special spot(s) on the earth where energy is either entering into the earth or projecting out of the earth's plane". Yep, you read that right.
Maybe that empty parking space is a vortex?
It seems like Sedona is new-age-spiritual-healing-mumbo-jumbo central. Which I guess is great if you're into that sort of thing. To be fair there were several women's clothing and jewelry stores, and we did have a nice time just walking up and down the street looking in the storefronts. But the conclusion I've come to is that the drive and the scenery are what make Sedona worth the side trip.
Fantastic views
Everywhere you look
I mean, everywhere
Gorgeous
The highlight of our in-town experience came at lunch when we left the main drag and discovered the nearby Hillside Shopping Center. A small congregation of stores built on the side of a hill (duh), it had a couple of nice galleries like I had originally anticipated. The best part however was The Hudson restaurant at the top of the hill where we had lunch. The restaurant had excellent food and fantastic views of the surrounding hills. I had a Long Islander Turkey Reuben with fries ("house-pulled turkey, Hudson slaw, Swiss cheese, honey mustard, marble rye"). It was delicious.
We strolled through the galleries a bit then drove back to Tusayan. There was a little bit of rain on our way out of town.
In a hurry to take the picture - couldn't pull the focus off the rain
When we reached town Todd had a great idea to watch the sun set from El Tovar hotel at the canyon's rim. El Tovar is one of the premier lodging options inside the national park. We would have loved to stay there, but you pretty much have to book a year in advance to get a room in the summer. We all hopped in one car and drove into the park. Parking was scare so we parked down the hill a short ways at the train depot and walked up to the rim.
Oh dear, there's deer at the train depot
Look at me, I'm a train
The view from El Tovar
It was overcast and raining on the North Rim, so sunset viewing turned out to be a bust. Still beautiful to look at.
The back side of the El Tovar hotel
Looking down into the canyon at a portion of Bright Angel Trail. Todd and I hiked a portion of that trail the next day.
The trail starts over there by the lookout point
There it is zig-zagging down in the upper center right of the picture
Then it continues down way over there. You can see a peek of it in the center of this photo, just above the bushes.
Another view of the El Tovar. Sorry, I didn't get one of the front but you can see it on their website.
Since this excursion was a bust we drove back to town early and consoled ourselves with Frosty from Wendy's (per Wendy's, the plural of Frosty is also Frosty - go figure). After that it was back to our hotel for an early night, which was also nice. I watched on Youtube, and highly recommend you watch, Peter Pan Goes Wrong - a hilarious farce filmed mostly live on stage.
Not our hotel, but I liked the sky
Next post: Todd and I hike (part of) Bright Angel Trail, and we finally get to eat at a steakhouse! How was it? Stay tuned to find out!
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