April 14-18 , 2007

Ahhhh, the famous Red Rocks of Sedona, AZ. A vacation that's been in the back of our minds for some time, ever since friends of ours (you know who you are) discovered this "piece d'resistance". This vacation was all about photography & hiking, thus there are no food pictures (sorry to the fans.....)....well there might be two. I bought a brand new Nikon D80 for this trip, and I can honestly say...it didn't disappoint!!! (the trip or the camera)

Things to do....

We rolled into town in our rented Jeep about 2 o'clock and grabbed a bite at the Blue Moon Cafe, before checking into our B&B, the Penrose. The Penrose was a GREAT B&B, that included breakfast & views to die for. Whitney, the Penroses figurehead, took pictures for us, suggested hikes and restuarants, and offered little bits of knowledge only the locals can give you. (Thanks Whitney!!!!)

After getting settled at the B&B, we took to the Jeep and drove into downtown Sedona to get our bearings and figure out the lay of the land. And since we were three hours off our normal time, we grabbed a spicy dinner @ Tara Thai in the strip mall next to the B&B and went to bed.

For our first full day in Sedona, we decided to take the Jeep up Schembly Road and hike around. The views were amazing, and the Jeep ride was nothing but FUN!! We drove up to the top of the mountain, where the views were amazing. On our way back down, we passed lots of "Pink Jeep Tour" jeeps heading up, but they were missing the good morning light. During our descent we hiked one of the trails that was marked to include a Vortex area. Although the hiking was good, we couldn't find the Vortex, but that had to do w/ not being able to follow a map!! We explored a lot more of the canyon, by pulling off where ever we thought was interesting and checking it out.

We took our lunch at The Heartline Cafe

After lunch we headed to the Nature-Day at one of the parks near I-70 because there was a special event going on, and our Red Rock Parking Pass got us entry into this "said" event. The event was based around the petroglyphs on the wall, which were rather interesting....I swear I saw a "Kilro was here" among the different petroglyphs. The event also included spear throwing...yes, I was the only adult AT the TIME throwing the spears, but swear other adults were doing it, and roasted agave. The agave roasted for 3 days in a pit, and when done, was peeling like an artichoke and tasted like pineapple.

Returning back to Oak canyon, we stopped at a charity wine tasting event (for animals of couurse!!) presented by Cucina Rustica restaurant, where we met the chefs, and sampled wine and cheese while listening to jazz music, all this w/ the red rocks in the background.....A Fabulous day!!! After a soak in the hottub jacuzzi, we returned for dinner @ Cucuni Rustica. For the appetizer, we split the Carciofi, or grilled artichoke (hmmmmmm!!!!!) Kristy had the fish special, which was a sort of fish rolaude, and I had the Vitello Magellano, which was veal & scallops prepared w/ a bunch of goodies.

Our second full day started w/ beautiful weather, so of course, we both had to pose together before breakfast. Before Kristy woke up for the day, I'd sit out on the porch photographing whatever wildlife happenend by. The B&B was surrounded by quail that would migrate down from the red rocks hooping and hollering in the early morning. There were also rabbits, cardinals, blue birds (not blue jays, but real blue birds), frogs and lizards, and I even "caught" a roadrunner.

Our hike for the day was Cathedral Rock. This hike contains the "most photographed" place in Sedona. Had I been the "professional photographer", I would have researched the place, and discovered the best time of day for photographing the "bet shot in Sedona" would be in the late afternoon, when the sun is hitting the front side of the mountain w/ water in the forground. But I'm not, so we got moring sun in our shots. Still pretty, but not "the perfect shot". One of the more interesting things about this place, is that everybody built cairns around the water. The place was covered with CAIRNS, so KRisty and I had to make our own and meditate for a few minutes!!!

We headed out for Jerome for lunch. Jerome was one of the roughest mining towns around, well according to the literature posted around, and it was built right in the side of the mountain. It's about 20 miles out of Sedona, and marked w/ a big "J" in the side of the top of the mountain. We bought a few items at the Artist guild, and headed to the best lunch place around, The Red Rooster. We feasted on "Tomato/Cilantro soup" (Hmmmm!!!!), a seasonal cheese plate, and finished it off with a 4 berry cobbler, served of course with ice cream FABULOUS!!! Returning back to Sedona, we hiked around Bell Tower, snapping pictures when the sun cooperated, which wasn't very often.

Dinner? We wanted to do something touristy, so we headed into downtown Sedona to eat at the mexican restaurant, called Oaxaca. We had margaritas & fajitas. We strolled around downtown and took pictures of things that we found interesting, like the "Javelia's on Parade"...(one, two, three, four, five)......very simalr to "the famous "Cows of Parade"....

The final day in Sedona started w/ a hike to the famous Devils Bridge, a natural bridge sculpted from the famous red rocks. This trailhead was off of Dry Creek Road, whcih was a new area for us to explore. The hike to the bridge was one of the better hikes (good and steep...and somewhat dangerous, I must say) The side of the mountain was in the sun, so there were alot of cactus blooming, as well as a good amount of ferel honey bees. (Come back of the wild honey bees in Sedona!!!) We took lots of pictures of the arch, enjoyed the view and went in search of lunch!

Lunch was a "good for you" feast @ D'lish of Sedona.

Our afternooon was spent searching for a trail off of 89A North, but we never found the trailhead. So we hiked along a flowing river to kill the afternoon. After our hike, we found that the Church in the Rocks was well lit, so we stopped by to take a few snaps.

Dinner was @ Rene . I had the antelope, while Kristy had the Cedar plank salmon, both fabulous. We split the Salmangundi, and I really wanted to try the "The Best Baked French OOnion Soup", but I was just so stuffed from three days of fabulous eating, that I just couldn't do it. This place was our favorite, and we would highly recommend giving it a try..

All in all, we burned through about 3 tanks of gas in a 16 mpg Jeep Wrangler....and I'd do it again in a heartbeat!!!!

My favorite photos of the trip....

Since this was our "first" photography vacation, the pressure was on to take some descent pictures....I think I did okay... These prints are available for purchase....I won't even charge you shipping 'casue I'm going to order some myself!!!!!!