Sedona

Up The Grand Canyon Montezuma's Castle Sedona

The ride down US89A toward Sedona is just unbelievable.  If you ever go to Sedona, you must take this route.  In just a short stretch you end up dropping about 3000 feet in altitude and have the opportunity to see the most amazing scenery.   

Once in Sedona, we stayed at the Alma De Sedona Inn in the "Zora's Legacy" room.  The Inn was very well appointed and located on the west and newer side of Sedona near a number of other resort-like B&Bs.  In the mornings, the time difference helped get me out of bed early.  I was able to watch the sunrise and see the hot air balloons climb in the distance.   Each morning we went to the main house for a fabulous gourmet breakfast on the patio next to the pool.  It was so perfect, I almost felt guilty :)  Oh yea, we were being spoiled in a major way.  

During our stay in Sedona we visited just about every shop in town, the famous Holy Cross Catholic Church, the famous rock formations, and the neighborhoods of the many movie stars that live in Sedona during the winter.  We ate out one evening at Robert's on Route 179 just south of 89A.  The service and food were excellent.  I highly recommend that restaurant.

To get a bird's-eye view, we took the risk of a helicopter ride over the city, the more famous rock formations, and finally the Secret and Boynton canyons to see the ancient Indian cliff dwellings.  It was our first time in a helicopter.  We flew in a Bell 206 JetRanger (which just happened to be one of the helicopters that have a Turbine Outlet Temperature indicator that I developed.  Cool eh?). 

Alma De Sedona Inn

This was the main building. The pool and patio are in the rear.

Evening view from the pool

Sunset from our room

Cactus at Sunrise

This was taken just as the sun peeked over the horizon.

Another view from our Inn

Rock formations in the distance

Andrew, Susan and a Bell 206 helicopter

View of Sedona from above

Red Rock formations

Top-side view

Toward the Boynton Canyon

Grand view of the Red Rocks

One of my better shots while in Sedona

View from the front of the Helicopter

My engine instrument is at the bottom of the screen.

Ride through the canyon

Indian cliff dwelling

Another cliff dwelling

Original ladder used by cliff dwellers

The lowest rung was illegally put on the ladder by an unknown person.

Another cliff dwelling

Hmmm.. this is a famous formation but I can't remember its name

Birdseye view of the Sedona Golf Course

Helicopter leaving the airport

Chapel of the Holy Cross

Build into the red rocks and completed in 1956.

View from the Chapel

Inside the Chapel

Pretty cool statue

Outside the back of the Chapel

A lizard of some sort

This was on the rocks outside the chapel.

Another native cactus plant.

It looked pretty neat, so I shot it.