Kim had read about the energy vortexes (which as far as I can tell are pure BS) and the new age vibe surrounding scenic Sedona, so it made sense as the next stop on our itinerary after the Grand Canyon. The drive from the north through Oak Creek Canyon certainly is an impressive entry. I never expected to see this much greenery juxtaposed with the red rocks in Arizona. There were more than a couple campgrounds along the canyon drive, but we didn’t stop until Manzanita campground since it was the smallest and tent only. We got a sweet site right next to the creek, with a nice cliff lined swimming hole just a minute walk away. This may win for being one of our nicest, most peaceful campsites. The campsite in the Sawtooths was more scenic, but this one felt more comfortable with the tree cover and nearby babbling brook.
We went into town for the evening, and at first enjoyed and then were overwhelmed by the touristy atmosphere. There were helicopter, trains, jeep, hiking, and yoga tours of the surrounding red rocks, and more artsy, trinkety jewelry shops than I could stand. It was all surrounded by gorgeous scenery though, and there were was some pretty good food and ice cream. We found what we though were too good to be true prices on some of the tours, and then found out they were too good to be true because we would have had to do a timeshare presentation. We probably would have done so since we’ve used that tactic in the past to
do awesome tours for cheap in Hawaii, but they don’t allow kids under 3 or dogs during the hour plus long presentation.
There is kind of a vibe in the town even if I don’t believe there’s special spiritual energy in the vortexes, and I overheard more than one conversation between people about life fulfillment. Kim got up early one morning and left me with the kids at camp so she could take a yoga class. Later in the day Kim and the kids did a trolley ride tour of Sedona while I got some time to myself, and there was a magnificent thunderstorm during that time. It poured and the thunder crashes were so loud that it took me 5 minutes after the storm was mostly over to get Ubu to stop shaking. Poor dog. I was going to do a jeep ride by myself at some point, but didn’t really feel like paying for it when I could just go for a hike in the beautiful scenery.
Hiking is something I wish we had a lot more time to do in the area, and could do at a much faster pace than kids allow. There seem to be a ton of great trails in the area, and with all sorts of different scenery from red rock canyons lined with greenery, to majestic, towering rock formations in the desert. We hiked near Bell Rock in the desert, and got Geneveve to do the whole thing, almost a mile and a half, despite the heat and sun making that rather difficult for her. As long as we kept her mind off how hot it was she and Xena were great hikers and only whined a little. I ran back to the car and drove it to pick them up at a different trail head so we could do a slightly longer hike, so I got to do a little trail running in the hot sun.
Surprisingly one of the few touristy events we did end up doing was a Western dinner show at the Blazin M Ranch. Kim was drawn to it for some reason, and as cheesy as it was, it was a lot of fun and a good activity for the kids. There were lots of little shops and activities setup like a small western town, tractor rides, farm animals, roping and motion hand carved figure galleries. Then there was a dinner and show. The dinner was OK, and we wouldn’t have
done it if they didn’t have a vegetarian option, but nothing amazing. The show part was mostly punny comedy and singing. Old style country music isn’t my thing, but it’s a lot better than poppy country and even better when performed live by talented musicians.
We spent 3 nights here, and probably would have spent more if it were earlier in the trip and we didn’t feel the need to get somewhere more settled. Sedona was definitely an unexpected gem in our travels and defied my preconceptions of what Arizona would be like. We’re headed to Phoenix now, and I’m not really looking forward to it since our neighbors at camp have warned us the temperatures have been around 110 degrees lately. This might be our last bit of camping for awhile.