Combine 3 women, 6 days, and the wild, wild west! As expected, there was an abundance of sharing, laughter, hiking, tequila, and natural beauty. Sedona will remind you — America is so beautiful!
We flew into Phoenix, picked up a rental SUV and drove 2 hours north to Sedona. First stop, fish tacos and margaritas! It’s important to maintain focus and keep objectives in mind. We’re here for all the good things — not just the hiking.
Our AirBnB house was perfect! Big common area, cozy fire place, and lots of windows from which to view the red rocks.
We were on Disney Lane and the former home site for Walt Disney’s house was just across from us. Our view from the back was Cathedral Rock which is generally believed to be the strongest of the vortex sites.
And the view from the front was a house with a giant portal to extraterrestrial forces perched up on the mountaintop. Located near Disney’s home in between the portal and Cathedral Rock confirmed we had made the perfect selection for housing. It was quiet but convenient — only about 10 minutes from the main highway.
Early the next morning, we savored huevos rancheros and delicious coffee while sitting in a lovely courtyard at Casa Sedona. Somehow, everything tasted better than it does back home. There was a peaceful aura and very chill vibe surrounding us.
Despite the weather forecast, the day was absolutely perfect for our first hike to the vortex site on Bell Rock.
Sedona has an interesting culture of fostering peace. There is a city ordinance restricting noise and light between 9 PM (some places say 10 PM) and 7 AM. All around town and in the rental homes there are reminders. It’s little surprise that there was very little live music and even that ended by 9 PM. There isn’t really a “bar culture.” People are expected to go home and be quiet. One evening we drove 60 miles south to Prescott, former capitol of Arizona Territory and a historic town known for its “wild, wild west” past. Around the town square there’s a row of saloons and brothels — originally 40 bars consecutively known as “Whiskey Row.” We went in the Palace Saloon, built in 1877, where a bunch of famous shoot-outs and knife fights with Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp and his cousin, Virgil, took place .
The walls are covered with memorabilia. It’s hard for me to tell who the “good guys” were. Doc Holliday was a dentist, a gambler, and a friend of the Earps. Wyatt was a marshall and a gambler. It seems all the frontiersmen were a bit sketchy.
One day we drove 3 hours north to Antelope Canyon on Navajo land near Page, Arizona. The slot canyons have sandstone walls that look like waves . They’re carefully protected. The number of visitors are limited and a native guide is required so you need advanced reservations/tickets to enter.
Even though the pictures are incredible, they don’t convey the feeling one gets when standing small inside this completely natural, grand creation. The canyons were formed by water erosion and are between 8 and 60 million years old. We were very fortunate to walk through mid-day when beams of sunlight lit up the sides and fell all the way to the ground.
Not far from Antelope Canyon, we visited Horseshoe Bend where the Colorado River swirls around the red rocks making this beautiful formation. That’s the same river that formed the Grand Canyon about 130 miles south. It’s an easy 1.5 mile roundtrip hike to the observation point.
There were seemingly endless boutiques, cafes, and interesting places to pop in around Sedona. We took the opportunity one rainy/snowy day to make the breath-taking, twisty drive through Oak Creek Canyon to Flagstaff. Route 66 runs through the historic area which enhances the college town feel and retro mood.
For me, a highlight of the trip was the sharing — shared time, shared thoughts, shared experiences. I smile every time I think of watching the sunset from the vortex at Airport Mesa with my girlfriends. A storm was rolling in which added to the energy in the air swirling around us. Others were scampering down the summit while we were savoring Chardonnay, apples and cheese. If there was audio, you could hear us singing the Eagles, “Peaceful Easy Feeling.” These are the happy memories I make along the way; then hold on to forever after.
“Women’s friendships are like a newable source of energy.” Jane Fonda
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” Muhammad Ali
“The best gift anyone can give, I believe, is the gift of sharing themselves.” Oprah Winfrey
” … and then, I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough?” Vincent Willem van Gogh
Kathryn Byler, blog 