Two Days in Sedona, Arizona

And we are going back to our winter break in Arizona. For a quick recap we started our trip in Page then headed to Vegas. We took a day trip to Valley of Fire and are now on our way back to Arizona, to the beautiful city of Sedona.                         

We took a five hour drive from Vegas to Sedona and drove straight to Bell Rock for our first hike. I had initially planned on walking the 3.6 mile Courthouse Butte/Bell Rock loop but we weren't going to be able to wrap it up by sundown and my kids were more interested in climbing than walking. We paid the Red Rock Pass in the parking lot $5 or you can park for free in you have the America the Beautiful pass. Then we climbed. You can check out the reel here. 

The best thing about Bell Rock is that you can make it as challenging as you like. You can walk a couple minutes to its base and soak in the beauty or you can climb a part of it. The higher you get the steeper it gets, we heard that there are people who climb too high and can't get back down again, a few  have had to be airlifted down. 

H made it all the way to the red line.. M and D stopped a little before that and I a little before that. H did need a little help coming down.. it was steep. 

That's the Courthouse Butte behind us.

Someone was getting married!

It was such a beautiful hike. Afterwards we went to our hotel to check in. Got cleaned up.. the headed out to dinner. 

We ate at Rascal Modern dinner.. I only got this one picture but the food was so good we went back for breakfast the next day. 

The next day we head an early start.. when we arrived for breakfast we were the only ones there. 

Our first hike of the day was Devil's Bridge. It was a 4 mile round trip. When I was reading up on hikes to do or not this one was the most talked about. The topic was mainly about it being a must do or it was overhyped. The pictures looked so cool and well I had a case of FOMO and decided that it was a must do. 

We did this hike on Christmas and it was still decently busy. The first 1.5 miles were just walking.. as I said before, the kids aren't a fan of just walking. The last 30 minutes the incline increased and there were a few places the path become narrow enough that you had to wait for people to pass before continuing. But still nothing exciting until the very end where we saw the bridge. There was a 30 minute line to get on the bridge for your picture. I heard it becomes hours long during busy season.

Another problem.. you have to hand your phone over to some stranger hoping they will get a good shot. The bridges not as scary as it looks. It was quite wide.

and then we started to make the trek back down.

My honest opinion.. this hike is totally skippable. A 4 miles trek for a photo. And if there is a line then it just becomes longer. Unless you like to walk for the sake of walking then it's fine. Sedona is so beautiful and there are so many hikes you can easily find something else to do.

We had grabbed pizza's the night before from Pisa Lisa and ate them in the car before heading to our next hike. 

Our next hike was Fay Canyon. On the face of it Fay Canyon is a pretty simple walk. 1.5 miles in and out. But according to the many blogs I read there are some hidden treasures along the way that made this one of our favorite hikes. 

First we walked to the end of the hike.. took about 20 mins. And then you see a large anvil shaped rock and you climb it. 

When we got to the base of the anvil we walked around the left of it. It was a shelf like space to walk on. We stopped a little way on but could see people walking further out.. 

and then we made our way back down. On the way back, 10 minutes before the the parking lot there is a turn off to the left. You will never know it if you weren't looking for it.. in fact we were looking for it and still took forever to find it. You cross a dried up creek and hike up cacti lined rocks to spot an arc. 

The hole you see in the back is the front of the arc.. there is a small area to step behind the arc and that is where the magic is.. 

The view was just unreal.. nature is amazing. 

Now we were tired.. it had been a long day. So we headed back to the hotel to freshen up and go to dinner.

We had made reservations at Shorebirds and the food was so good. 

The next morning we were up bright and early again and after a quick breakfast we went for our Pink Jeep Tour. We chose the Broken Arrow tour and it was so much fun. Here's a video

After the jeep tour we took sometime to walk around the shops of Sedona downtown. Grabbed some coffee and then went to Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village. Authentically fashioned after a traditional Mexican village, Tlaquepaque, meaning the "best of everything," has been a Sedona landmark since the 1970s. 

We roamed the pretty shops and had lunch at Oak Creek Brewery. 

And to our absolutely delight we discovered The Chai Spot. While we prefer coffee to chai.. there is just something about chai that reminds us of home.

Now onto our last hike of the day.. Cathedral Rock. There are parking closures at some of the Sedona hikes on certain days and you need to either take a shuttle or park at a different lot. We parked at a nearby lot which added an extra 15 minutes worth of walking. 

Cathedral Rock is like Bell Rocks big brother. Like Bell Rock you can see it from the parking lot for those with mobility issues or you can climb a part of it.

The view from the parking lot. The red line is how high we went. D stopped a little earlier.. it got a bit tricky towards the end. It was close to sundown so we didn't try to go any further.

It was so beautiful. It was dark by the time we got to the car. And after a quick refresh at the hotel we headed out for dinner.

We went to Butterfly Burger. They weren't our favorite. We found them a little dry but our bigger peeve was that the burger came with no sides, no fires nothing.. everything was an extra.. which is just like come on. 

We had our last Sedona breakfast at the Mesa Airport Grill. We got a view of little planes while we ate.

Sedona is a bucket list destination that should be on everyone list.. so beautiful, amazing food and pretty shops. 

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