DAY 39: Sedona

September 06, 2014

DAY 39: Sedona

Sedona is beautiful town nestled among majestic red sandstone formations. It is considered as a spiritual place and has a global reputation as a place of enlightenment. It is also somewhat a hiking mecca with amazing trails providing both views of the red rocks and allowing you to scramble up onto them. Our first hike was to devil’s bridge; the largest natural sandstone arch in the Sedona area with absolutely gorgeous views from the top. The trailhead is accessed via a dirt road and Boris our 3-door Toyota Yaris was not going to be able to handle this so we parked at another nearby trailhead and walked the extra 2 miles through the red sandstone, juniper and prickly pear cacti. The top of devil’s bridge is at an elevation of 5000 feet and the views across the yellow, orange pink and red hills and buttes were just stunning. On our hike back we took a slight detour and emerged out under the bridge and you suddenly get a sense of how high it really is.

Natarajasana pose on Devil's Bridge

Tim hanging out on the edge

Standing under Devil's Bridge

The second hike we did was called Soldier’s Pass which took us to the Seven Sacred Pools. These are a series of 7 descending creek bed pools naturally carved into the slip rock. The pools are so deep that they have water in them all year round, even when it is 40 degrees Celsius like it was when we were hiking. The contrast of the turquoise pools with the red rock and green Arizona Cypress trees was really beautiful. Our third hike was the really quick Yavapai Vista Trail – as we’d heard the views from the top were amazing. We got a complete panorama of all the famous formations in Sedona: Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte, Rabbit Ears, Gibraltar and The Nuns. The strata in the stone are really striking and it’s amazing to think about the history that formed them. The really red layer was formed about 280 million years ago by rivers carrying sediment rich in red iron oxide. The next layer is Coconino sandstone which was deposited by sand dunes that buried the rivers and this ancient tropical coastline. Then about 15 million years ago all these spires were exposed through erosion.

Seven Sacred Pools

Soldier's Pass Trail

Panorama from Yavapai Vista (Bell Rock is far left)

Tucked up in the red rocks is the Chapel of the Holy Cross – designed by Marguerite Brunswig Staude who was a pupil of Frank Lloyd Wright. Completed in 1956, it has a very surreal effect as it juts out of two red mounds on a spur of a rock. The most prominent feature of the chapel is a cross that seems to have been wedged in the rock almost splitting it in two. Inside the chapel is simple and intimate with the beautiful sweeping landscape of trees and red rocks being the main focus. The other really cool thing about Sedona is that it has an airfield on top of a mesa! Standing on top of the mesa provides spectacular views of Sedona’s best known red rock landmarks such as Cathedral Rock.