Before I go any further I must apologize for the length of this post. There is a lot to see around Sedona and believe it or not the number of photos below is just a small fraction of what I took.
We stopped at a couple of scenic views along the way and ended up in Sedona before the visitor’s center closed. We decided to drive through town and get a few photos on our way to the place where we would be staying.
Yes that is the old boomers themselves out seeing the sites.
I took a picture of some of these rock formation from several different perspectives. Different light angles, different distances, still pretty impressive rocks.
Apparently, when we were first talking about the trip to Arizona in the first place I had commented that after the conference it would be nice to find a little place up in the mountains north of Phoenix and use that as a base camp to see the sites in the region. I'm sure that’s exactly what I said, even if I had a hard time remembering that I said it, nevertheless, Karen found a perfect spot that met all the criteria. So, since we knew the place was a little bit remote we decided to leave enough time to find it in daylight. The place where we stayed was in one of about eight cottages originally built by a stone mason back in the early 60’s or so. His family still owns and operates the complex which turned out to be a really nice place to vacation. The cottage was well equipped and cozy with fireplaces down stairs in the living room and upstairs in the master bedroom. There was also a sitting room upstairs and a second bedroom. This place could easily sleep a family of six.
This is the cottage in which we stayed. 
It had a nice kitchen, and dining area.
There was a comfortable living room with a fireplace.
Sitting room and master bed room.
views our of the bedrooms overlooked a mountain stream.
One of the prominent features on the site was the mountain stream which passed by most of the cottages. There was a nice walking bridge that connected the cottages to the main road.
The cottages on the site blended is quite well with the landscape. The owner did a nice job working with natural stone.
The squirrel below is different than the ones in Indiana, it had long pointy ears.
Access to the cottages involved first of all finding the sign that pointed to the cottages and then believing the sign that said "yes, it is okay to drive through the water". so we slowly crossed the stream and up the other step bank on the other side. It worked the several times we tried it. I suppose the walking bridge was for the time when the sign was changed to "don’t cross".The pictures below are actually on our way out one morning.
Wednesday morning after a nice breakfast we headed into Sedona for the day. We decided to hit a few trails, first, then head back into town to see an art center and then drive up to the airport for the evening views over Sedona and the mountains.
Later on in the day we would be up on top of this rock over looking the valley floor behind us. 
The first trail into Fay Canyon was about a three mile round hike that had a nice set of cliffs and rock formations to see. It was a nice warm up.
There were dozens of interesting rock formations to see.
Next we went on a trail that had a 1200 foot elevation change. It was a bit more rugged, but provided some spectacular views.
We are headed to the top of that rock and had to climb up on a winding trail.
More prickly pear and wild flowers.
The trail was fairly steep and narrow with a constant set of switch backs, but with each layer a different view of the plain.
The ground cover gave new meaning to the color sage.
We are getting up above the trees and brush so we can see back to the road and parking area.
Another view to show that we were gaining height.
Karen kept on jogging up the trail. I had a hard time keeping ahead of her.
Every so often we would stop and take a look at the nice views.
We were better than 3/4 of the way to the top, which is the rock over karen's right sholder.
There is a small slot just to the right of the trees.
Here you can see Karen working her way up through the slot to near the summit.
Great views form the top.
This is a panorama looking to the east.
These are sections of that panoramic view.
The parking lot below was where we started the first hike in the morning.
Heading back down the trail.
Perhaps the buzzard thought we would become his diner. 
Next we drove on some really rough dirt roads back to a site called Palatki which had some Native American petroglyphs/paintings and remnants of cliff dwellings. 
The site for this settlement was well protected and provide a nice broad area for agriculture.
There were some interesting ruins that have been preserved. I’m sure that the wood trellis above this dwelling was a re-creation, but it gives a good feel for what the space might have looked like originally.
The markings were pretty rudimentary and probably painted rather that created by pecking the surface like most petroglyphs are.
We saw several nice flowers scattered along the walks.
Karen is walking along a path that was sort of a dam that held back water in a small pool.
This building was a rebuilt structure from some 1800's settlers.
Another ½ mile trail to more ruins. 
The scale of the place can be seen in the size of the rocks that are piled up along the path.
The ruins are pretty much the way they were found and preserved.
There was one small room into which we could go to get a sense for the size of the place. There were about a hlaf dozen room probably used by several family groups.
Here is Karen, demonstrating the latest in Stone Age Kitchen Counters.
The view out the front windows was quite nice.
After visiting the ruins we headed to the Art Center, Talashi. It was built with a classic southwest theme. We had been here 13 or 14 years before on our way through and had only had a few minutes to window shop. This time we decided to take a quick run through to see in which shops we wanted to come back later a spend a little more time. It had some pretty interesting outdoor art pieces.
Fountains and flowers were everywhere.
There were lots of interesting courtyards and nice Southwest architecture.
Lots of really expensive outdoor art.
These guys are not at all pleased.
After the Art Center we headed up to the airport. The airport is the highest point in Sedona for getting a nice view of the terrain. When we were here last time we went for a bi-plane ride from the airport, but this time we just stood at the edge and took pictures from the edge of the road.
Panorama of the view form the airport.
On the right hand side of this rock formation is a section that looks like an old coffee pot,
and yes, we were there.
1 comment:
Wow! Now that's a lot of pictures!! Loved the little wood cabin....
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