Sedona, Arizona – Beyond Imagination

By: Colleen Lanin, The Travel Mama
December 28th, 2010

You know Sedona is famous for its gorgeous red rocks and breathtaking desert landscape. You’ve heard about this Arizona mountain town’s mysterious energy vortexes, and probably dismissed their existence. Maybe you’ve imagined escaping to this scenic destination to hike trails amidst all that natural beauty.

As you drive north from Phoenix, saguaro cactus with their arms stretched outward or twisted in defiance stand guard over bits of desert brush and fruit-bearing prickly pear cactus, chubby round barrel cactus, and the dreaded jumping cholla (whose evil needles long to cling to bewildered human and animal skin). This gives way to a more lush landscape of evergreens intermingled with a few stubborn cacti. Trite clouds made of cotton puffs are suspended in an impossibly blue sky.

You come up over a hill, and drive through a mountain pass as the earth turns from bland to russet. At last you see what all the fuss is about. Cathedral Rock appears in the distance and you grab your cell phone and snap photos, eager to share this beauty on Facebook or Twitter. The jutting mountains, plateaus, and science fiction rock formations in various hues of orange and red resemble an oil painter’s fantasy more than real life.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any more stunning…the sun begins to set. You’ve seen sunsets before, but somehow the colors seem more alive here in the high desert. The sky ripens with colors from your Crayola box – carnation pink, burnt umber, sienna, scarlet.

You are buzzing with energy from all this beauty…and a part of you begins to believe in energy vortexes after all.

 

Which destination have you visited that is better in-person than you had imagined? Please share your thoughts in the comments below!

You might also like:

• Favorite Family-Friendly Nature Spots in California

• 4 Phoenix Fun Spots for Kids

• Phoenix Restaurants Worthy of Craving

• The Travel Mama’s Top 3 Hidden Gem Destinations

A Note from the Travel Mama: I was invited to Sedona by the Enchantment Resort. Check out my review now!

Tags: Arizona, Cathedral Rock, red rocks, Sedona, sunset, vortex

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 28th, 2010 at 6:30 pm and is filed under Family Vacations, Grown-Up Getaways. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.