April 2, 2019

#158 Red Rock Country

Zane Grey used Red Rock Country as a backdrop to his 1924 Call of the Canyon, and thanks to more than 80 Western that were filmed here (and in Utah) the layer-cake striations and sandstone towers have drawn a community of artists and spiritualists here.

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Sedona and its surrounding area is famous for its electromagnetic centers (called Vortexes) which supposedly have healing power and natural transformative energy.

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The Yavapai-Apache tribe consider this sacred ground, their Garden of Eden where the human race began.  What I can tell you is that it is beautiful.

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But also, that is was so crowded that any "special-ness" was lost in a sea of people just trying to find a parking spot. 

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Every official parking lot/scenic overlook was packed, as were the sides of the roads leading to every parking lot and trail head.  

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I took these out the car window while I was waiting to get into the parking lot - once inside, it took 30 minutes to wind my way to discover their was no parking at the top and to just turn around and come back down.

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There was just a sea of people (and also a lot of poor drivers) and I am gonna place this on the "Meh, I didn't need to go there" side of The List's scale of impressive must-sees.

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Outside of the Sedona/Oak Creek area, I also stopped at Montezuma's Castle.  Erin recommended it to me, and it was a nice little stop.  

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Also on the nice side of the scale - I had planned to buy an National Parks Service America the Beautiful pass at the Grand Canyon, but they sold them at the Ranger Station.  So, that was a little extra bonus that basically got me an extra weekend of free entry.