Sedona trip, December 2012

Sedona 2012

Like the previous years’ this year too we decided to spend our Christmas holidays away from home. My hubby suggested me many places, but I strongly wanted to go to Sedona . It was my dream, I waited for a long time, and this time I didn’t miss the opportunity to go there. Those red colored layered rocks were mesmerizing. At last he agreed with me. However, his intention was totally different; he only wanted to rest and have great food. I didn’t want that at all. I wanted to drink the beauty of the place to my fullest.

Towards Sedona

We left home on the 28^th of December in the morning. We decided to go via Phoenix, because that was more economic than going direct to Sedona, though it was a 100 miles drive from Phoenix. Our flight was on time, we reached Phoenix airport hassle free. It was a hot sunny afternoon. Outside the airport the Saguaro Cacti welcomed us to phoenix, and showed us that we reached a very different place from ours. As far as I could see there were only rocks and cacti, and nothing else. However, the desert also had its own beauty. The rocks, acre after acre of empty lands, and of course the Saguaro created a different kind of beauty. Mother nature was probably in a rough mood while creating the place, she didn’t show any kindness. It was a harsh beauty. Though in the beginning I really enjoyed the harsh beauty, but sometimes later I started feeling suffocated, my eyes wanted to see some greenery, some wetlands; my heart wanted the din of the human beings. Anyway, as we traveled in the daylight, so we couldn’t see any coyotes, though I heard about the coyotes of this harsh land.

Saguaro Cacti

I was eagerly waiting to see the red rocks, one of the Mother Nature’s finest creations. She created the rocks and painted with bright vibrant red color. What a creation!!! When from distant I could see the red “Bell Rocks”, I jumped on my feet like a child. It was the month of December; Sun god started preparing to go to bed, when we reached our hotel. Below the saffron sky the red rocks were standing tall with their mystical beauty, a heavenly situation; I felt a strong urge to run to the foothill. I already fastened invisible roller skate on my feet, so I didn’t want to spend much time just sitting at the hotel.  The lady at the counter of the hotel was telling about all the attractions around the place, but nothing was going through my ears, all I could see were the red rocks. It was chilling cold outside along with strong wind, which was totally an unfavorable condition to go out, but I didn’t want to stay back in the hotel, though the hotel was very cozy. Usually I research about any place before going, but this time my hubby was so  reluctant to visit the place, that I lost my enthusiasm to research. The lady at the counter gave us complementary tickets of a lighting show in a neighborhood hotel, my husband was in dilemma, whether we go or not.

Christmas lighting show

 When we at last got ready to go there, it was dark outside, and it was extremely cold, but we couldn’t realize the intensity, though we went there armed with all kind of winter garments. After reaching there, when we came outside the car, the chilled wind blew over the faces, and we were almost frozen. Full of enthusiasm, we started walking. A little later we really felt difficulty in moving our hands and feet. Our bodies became totally numb, and my son was constantly whimpering and wanted to go back home. It was just for him we went to see the show, but he didn’t enjoy it. Somehow we managed to finish the whole spectacular show, and literally ran into the car, and put the heater in full. When we reach our hotel, we were still shivering. My husband couldn’t move his fingers to drive the car. After getting back to hotel we put the heater in full and gradually started feeling better. Since the last few days our son was suffering from cold, and his condition was worse than us. He felt so home-sick that every now and then he wanted to go back home. I’d never seen him so home sick ever before. We already did a little grocery in Phoenix on our way to the Sedona.

Bell Rock Vista

 So, after coming back to hotel my first job was to cook the dinner.

Next day, my hubby was not at all in a mood to go out, but I desperately wanted to go. My hubby dear tried to assure me that we had one more day in our hand. Actually I wanted to go hiking on any of the trails. I looked forward to this trip so that we could go hiking.

Court house butte

30^th December, the weather was little bit warmer than previous day and sunny also. At last we decided to go out and see around the Sedona town. Since morning the weather was sunny, we thought the weather is going to be comfortable. However, Mr. Weather was all ready to prove that wrong. We started our day in a teeth-tittering cold. Sun god seemed to be too meek to bite the cold. We were already provided a map of the place, as we didn’t study about the place before, so the map was our only hope.

Anyway, after studying the map we found that it would be better to start our tour from “Bell Rock Vista”, which was the point from where the Bell Rock could be seen. The dark rust colored layered rock named due to the shape of it. The Bell Rock was the first major rock site that we came across in Sedona. It would be very unfair if I didn’t appreciate the unique and massive rock formations. From there we could see the rare side of the Courthouse butte. We didn’t have much time in our hand, so we couldn’t stop at any of sites for a long time. After that we went to the courthouse vista, from where the courthouse butte could be seen very clearly. From there we started towards Cathedral rocks. We passed the little horse trailhead and took left turn on Beck o’beyond Road, without knowing, where we were going. Actually we wanted to go to Cathedral Rock, but the route was different. However, suddenly we found that we were standing at the trailhead of Cathedral rock. 

Cathedral Rock

I was extremely eager to go hiking there, but with a sick child it was not possible. Still my hubby dear suggested me that I could hike as long as I wish. Without watching behind I almost started running towards the top in the chilling cold, but it seemed that it was receding more and more from me. After few minutes I looked back I found that I already had gone far bottom foot of the hillock. So, it was the time to going down, as we had to cover a lot within one day. Our next destination was Chapel of Holy cross. The chapel was situated on a mound. 

Chapel of Holy cross

We parked our car on the foot, though there was small parking area behind the chapel we decided not to go there, because it was a difficult task to going in and out in the parking lot. So we parked the car a little far from the chapel and we walked up to there. From deck of the chapel the view was spectacular. From the top was visible one unarguably beautiful house just below the chapel. 

View of the beautiful house from the Chapel

We were talking about the house while going to the chapel, and both of us wished to see the house in details, and from the top we could do that. ­­ Then we decided to go southbound. I was watching the map in my hand to figure out where actually we were going. Suddenly my husband tapped me asked me to watch, but I couldn’t understand what to watch. Then I saw a spectacular scene. Clouds were hovering through two of the buttes. I was just staring at the scene, I couldn’t move my eyes, but the sound of snowflakes put me back to reality. However, it was very exciting to me and my son, because both of us never have seen snowfall, but we realized it wouldn’t be wise going further. The place is unknown to us, and it was snowing. I asked my husband not move further, but as usual he didn’t listen to me. We crossed Morgan road, Broken arrow vista and went up to high cloud trail. Then he realized it wouldn’t be wise to go further. We came back, and went to have lunch at Sound bites Grill. We were too hungry to wait, so, without thinking about expenditure, we decided to have lunch there. When we parked our car, it was still snowing. We just ran in the restaurant. so we had a stomach and heart feeling lunch. After lunch obviously a cup of coffee was needed. Why?? The Starbucks was adjacent to the restaurant. When we were waiting in the queue for coffee, again it started snowing. I started jumping like a child. Both mother-son ran outside of the shop. I started clicking snaps of snowing. My son too excited to stand with me. He sprang outside and started jumping on snow. My enthusiasm became so much that I couldn’t resist me, and also went outside to jump with my son. 

Let it snow, let it snow

It was a great fun-time. My son, who was cranky just few moments back, was very happy when he got chance to jump on the snow. However the snowing didn’t last for a long. We decided to go further.

We started driving towards Sedona airport. We passed Crest view church, Sunset Drive, Seventh day Adventist church. Both of us were delighted when we saw the Cuisines of India in between the route. We took left turn on airport drive. It was a serpentine road with many offshoots. We didn’t know which road we would take. Luckily one open tourist jeep was going just before, we blindly followed them and we reached the small airport. It was an amazing view as we could see the whole Sedona town from the top. There was nothing much to do, we decided to towards Oak Creek canyon. The mountain road was very narrow; there was no room for error. We reached the Midglay Bridge. It was an amazing view from there. My son fell asleep. So we came out of car in turn to watch the beauty. Just to the west of the bridge is Wilson Mountain; a hiking trail began just next to the parking lot.  The Huckaby Trail, took under Midgely Bridge to Oak Creek, but unfortunately I couldn’t explore that .

Midgely Bridge

Passing Huckbay trail vista, Grasshopper point we reached the Oak Creek Visitor center. Then it again started snowing heavily. It was not wise to go further uphill. We started coming down and reached a very beautiful small town. It reminded us our visit to Gatlinburg near Smokey Mountain. As we reached the town again sun god showed his face. So again we changed our mind and started driving towards another side instead of going back to the hotel. We entered the Red rock state park through Upper red rock loop Ed. Actually we enter the park from the uphill and started driving downhill. The elevation was so much that the car was rolling down by it, it was difficult to control the car. We entered the Yavapai county.  

I wondered, how they climbed to the top?

 While crossing Tortuga trail I saw three people on the top of an unknown butte. I wonder how they climbed there. While crossing Caberello trail again it started snowing. Though the road was not dangerous but it was very bumpy. Then we saw Cross creek ranch. From outside it was looking very nice; we thought we could go inside. However, after going up to the gate we realized that it was a private property. The entrance was so nice that I couldn’t resist myself from taking some snaps. Then we started hotel bound. Before going to hotel, my husband wanted to explore a little more. Without knowing we enter Canyon drive and reached a dead end. That lane was so narrow that it was hard back our car. Anyway, somehow he managed to do that, and then we went the opposite side of the road. Again we reached another dead end, but we found a way to direct 179 express-way which directly led to our hotel.

Courthouse butte in the evening sun

Next day morning we left Sedona. Our flight was in the afternoon from Phoenix. Again we hit the desert road full of cacti. Just before reaching there we were caught up in traffic, which we feared but we reached on time. That was the end of the trip, but I would love to come back again and again.

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