Day 3- Sedona

Fri 2/10/17

Initially, we planned to do a driving tour called the Apache Trail on Friday, but ended up changing plans because our AirBnB hostess mentioned it is a really rough drive and I did not want to chance messing up our rental car. Plenty of websites say it is fine to do in a sedan but our hostess said it’s a very narrow road and people do not drive courteously. The weather was also forecast (at that time) to be bad on the weekend, when we initially planned to go to Sedona, and we felt Sedona was something we did not want to pass up. So we went to Sedona on Friday instead.

We left Phoenix around 8 am and got to Sedona a little before 10 am. It was a very nice drive and hardly felt like 2 hrs.The scenery changes rapidly as you drive north of Phoenix and in no time, amazing desert formations appear. There are intriguing signs along the highway indicating ghost towns (I wanted to stop; James said that's how horror movies start). We also saw some hot air balloons!

I found a basic driving tour online that seemed to hit most of the highlights of Sedona so we roughly followed it. We did skip some sections based on time and/or confusion about what exactly we were looking for.I only referenced the map, not the CD the website mentions.The areas on the tour are:

1 - Bell Rock
2 - Cathedral Rock
3 - Chapel of the Holy Cross
4 - Schnebly Hill Road- skipped (it appeared to be a dirt road and no dirt roads for the rental car)
5 - Airport Vortex
6 - Airport Mesa
7 - West Sedona- skipped (could not really figure what exactly we were looking for)
8 - Boynton Canyon
9 - Upper Red Rock Loop- skipped (in interest of time, wish we hadn't skipped it)
10 - Red Rock Crossing- skipped (in interest of time, wish we hadn't skipped it)
11 - Uptown Sedona
12 - Midgley Bridge
13 - Indian Gardens- skipped (could not find exact location)
14 - Slide Rock- skipped (state park with a $10 fee. We didn't have enough time to truly explore)
15 - West Fork
16 - Upper Oak Creek Vista and Canyon

A lot of the tour areas do require a parking fee and some had very small parking lots.

We at lunch at a lovely café- ChocolaTree- total hippie vibe, raw, vegan, etc. It’s a little outside the main drag of Sedona but was perfectly situated on our tour. It's located between the Airport Vortex and Boynton Canyon.

We saw the bare minimum on our whirlwind tour, but the tour really does take you from the desert to the mountains and I felt like we traveled so much more than we actually did. I would definitely like to return to Sedona and spend time visiting the northern part of Arizona.

Day 3 observations- in AZ, you can go from the desert to snow in a~30 min drive, there is nothing a crystal or vortex can't heal, spring water tastes drastically better than Phoenix city water.

Sedona pics to follow in their own post!