Sedona: A Wonderland of Red

This was our first trip to Sedona, Arizona. We had seen photos and heard it was a beautiful place, but the Red Rocks area was more breathtaking than we imagined. Dropping into Sedona on Highway 89A was a hairpin driving experience we were not quite expecting, but as we descended 2,500 feet down to 4,500 ft elevation on the 16-mile drive, we were mesmerized by the change in climate and scenery. By the time we made it into the town of Sedona, we had moved from high desert to amazing red rock outcroppings everywhere.

We wound our way through town and finally arrived at our home for the next week: Rancho Sedona RV park, across Bear Creek from town. The RV park was amazingly well maintained, close to town, and quiet. Great Blue Herons regularly nest in a clump of big Sycamore trees there and had just arrived for the nesting season, so it was fun to watch them jockey around for nests!

We were a little bummed we couldn't use our gas firepit because it has become an evening ritual to sit outside around the fire in the evenings. The park is strict about fires, quiet hours, and staying compliant with Sedona's light pollution/dark sky rules. Oh well - it was very cold at night anyway!

Oak Creek

Blue Heron Nesting in campsite close to us.

On our first full day we did our first hike after a great visit to the Sedona Visitor center. We got the lay of the land from a local volunteer and hiked the Mt. Schuerman trail. We literally had a 360-degree view of all the surrounding areas. Stunning.

Sedona Wolf Sanctuary

Liz discovered a wolf sanctuary south of Sedona that rescues wolves that that people used to have as "pets" -- until they figured out that even pet wolves are too wild to be tamed. Some were also rescued from "fur farms" (blech) or from owners who highly mistreated them. The sanctuary only has 6 or 7 wolves (including one wolf-dog hybrid), and the only purpose is to give the wolves a safe, loving forever home.

Liz joined a small group of people on the wolf visit and was able to go into the pens with all of the wolves - with strict rules (had to stay seated, let the wolves come to you, one person at a time interacting with them). Two of them are ultra domesticated like giant dogs (literally - look at their feet!). Others are friendly and will walk right up to you and lick your face (so awesome), while a few younger ones are skittish and keep their distance.

One young wolf named Luna loves people, and when she's too excited they need to put her on a leash to keep her from knocking people over and licking them all over. It's very sad to see such a beautiful wild animal leashed, but we were reminded that that this is not by choice - someone unfortunately tried to turn her into a pet at a very young age and providing a home for her here at the sanctuary keeps her safe. and the interaction with people is part of her daily animal enrichment (she loves it). This is her howling in the video above! Liz just loved spending an afternoon here, connecting with wild(ish) animals.

Friends join the camping trip!

Our good friends Terri and Michael Mueller joined up with us in Sedona! They were with us for the remaining stay in Sedona and will be traveling with them to the next couple of destinations in Arizona. We had fun hikes, happy hours and evening meals.

Hiking Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock

There is so much good hiking in the area and we barely scratched the surface. Liz enjoyed a beautiful hike around Courthouse Butte (first 2 pictures below). After Terri arrived, they took a beautiful hike out to Bell Rock, one of the popular hikes along the Sedona Red Rock trail. They circumnavigated the large rock formation (fourth picture below) and got in a gorgeous hike. We'd definitely like to come back to Sedona to do more hiking!

Ruins and Ancient peoples

The remaining time in Sedona consisted of eating at some great restaurants and taking time to explore some ancient petroglyphs (cave carvings) and pictographs (cave paintings). The Palatki Heritage site was amazing. It was the home of the Sinagua people, ancestors of today's Hope people.

We learned that when a substance was painted on the rock it is called a Pictograph, but when a tool is used to remove rock to form an image, it is a Petroglyph (petroglyphs tend to be much older). There are a lot of ruins in this area from ancient native Americans who were very sophisticated with their farming techniques, and there's evidence that they traded and interacted with other peoples from as far away as southern Mexico. Some archaic images date back to 8,000-12,000 BC, while the pictographs are more recent (1100 CE). As we mentioned in the Wupatki NM blog, the occupants made this their home, built dwellings, and tracked their stories and rituals on the flat surfaces of the red rock walls for thousands of years.

In this photo it is hard to see but there is an entire dwelling that was built from stone and mortar. This used to be a multi-story structure from about 900 years ago. Just amazing how all of this was happening here so long ago.

Our final spot to explore was the Crane Petroglyph Heritage Site, which only had only Petroglyphs. This site as just amazing with the number of carvings in the rock. It was very protected and the images were in many cases clearer at Palatki. Dating back 900 to 600 years ago these images are amazing and it is very clear that this particular wall was used as a solar calendar - the sun's monthly patterns were closely tracked and scribed into the stone, and shadows were used to track the time of year. This helped them know when to plant crops but likely had other unknown meanings as well. In the upper photo the image shows a jagged line with the sun at the end. The amazing thing is when the sun hits this image throughout the year it lines up perfect to the two solstices and likely when they planted their crops.

The Hopi people believe that everything is alive, even the rock, and that the underworld is the gateway to special spiritual places. The images below (human figures with square shoulders) are likely of Shamen performing ceremonies next to a crack in the rock where life was believed to come out or retreat. The images also show animals, which often represented the names of the Clans living in the area (Horse, Rabbit, Snake, Crane).

Sedona turned out to be an incredible addition to our trip, and we were unaware of just how much there was to see and do in the area. It definitely warrants another visit.

We were in Sedona for a full 7 days. It was an amazing stop that we could have spent another 7 exploring and indulging in town. It can be in expensive place to hang out but if you are careful, you can have a nice vacation and not break the bank. On to the Lost Dutchman State Park near Phoenix and Organ Pipe National Monument on the Mexico border!