In between Phoenix and the Grand Canyon lies Sedona, AZ. I remember coming here as a teenager. I recall staying in a Best Western and it being a flat, small town – sort of like a long strip. Restaurants and hotels were there but spread out. I remember seeing rocks with names such as Snoopy Rock.

No longer a sleepy town, Sedona bustles with activities, tour buses, people among beautiful red rock mountains. To get the best (the mountains) without the worst (the steeply-priced hotel rooms), consider making this a day trip from Phoenix, Flagstaff or the Grand Canyon.

Village of Oak Creek

Since we came from Phoenix, we drove to Sedona via the village of Oak Creek. If I had more time, I’d come back here to explore more. We stopped at the Visitor Center and had our first view of the famous red rocks.

Bell Rock. Courthouse Rock. Cathedral Rock. They were all here right in front of us. The rocks have the red color due to a layer of iron oxide that has weathered through thousands of years.

Inside the visitor center, we asked which hike to take. Both Cathedral Rock and Devil’s Bridge are highly rated, but crowded. The park ranger suggested Devil’s Bridge since it was still early and she showed us two different places to park. We hopped back in the car driving past the Chapel of the Holy Cross. Built into the red rocks in the 1950’s, the chapel is architecturally significant. Our plan was to return here after the hike.

Devil’s Bridge Hike

Although this trail is only about 2 miles round-trip, you have to hike about a mile to get to the trailhead unless you have a high-clearance vehicle. Just to be clear, a high-clearance vehicle is not your rental SUV. We saw Hummers, Jeep Wranglers and Land Rovers.

We parked at the Mescal Trailhead on Long Canyon Road just about 0.2-mile from the Dry Creek Road intersection. Taking the 1-mile Mescal-Chuckwagon trail, we hiked along a relatively flat path. In fact, a few cyclists passed us along the way.

Once we got to the parking lot for the actual Devil’s Bridge trail, I only saw really rugged off-road vehicles like Humvees and jeeps.  The trail began to climb a bit and we saw more people. Soon, the trail was almost like climbing rocks and we had to do a bit of scrambling to get to the next level.

Around a bend, we saw the bridge area. A small line formed to walk out onto the bridge. It looked relatively easy until we started walking out there and I could see how far the ground was below us. I smiled and was ready to leave immediately.

On the way back, we walked to an overlook taking in the vast expanse. The trail was easier back to the car and we went into town for lunch.

Uptown Sedona

Sedona has three main areas: Village of Oak Creek, West Sedona and Uptown Sedona. The Devil’s Bridge Trail was near West Sedona, which is more residential. About an 8-minute drive east of West Sedona, you’ll come to Uptown Sedona where Main Street bustles with restaurants, shops and tour companies. Although parking is at a premium, you can pretty much walk anywhere.

The way Sedona has grown, almost all the restaurants have gorgeous views. We ate lunch at Open Range Grill found the scenery breathtaking.

Jeep Tours

We had planned this trip relatively quickly and I booked Pink Jeep Tours for my husband. However, the day we arrived in Sedona, my teens also wanted to do an offroad tour.

Since Pink Jeep was completely booked, I found three spots for us with Sedona Offroad Adventures. While my husband did Pink Jeep’s Broken Arrow tour, we climbed in the canopied Hummer for our 2-hour Colorado Plateau Ascent tour with George as our driver and guide.

George told us that a third of the people living in Sedona came here on vacation and decided to move to the area, another third are “New Agers” and the rest are people who grew up in the area. While we drove through Sedona, he pointed out “Lucy’s House” with the mannequin of Lucille Ball, Snoopy Rock and a few other points of interest.

Soon, he turned onto a dirt road and we began the bumpy trek to the top. The scenery of the red rocks looked different from this vantage point. I looked in the row behind me and my teens gave me the thumbs up signal.

We came to a cylinder-shaped rock called Merry-Go-Round Rock. It’s the site of numerous weddings. Although beautiful, I cannot imagine traveling in a flowy-white wedding gown along that bumpy ride. I think I would be covered in red dust. George drove us higher to more scenic sites before turning around and heading back to town.

By the time, we got off the tour and met up with my husband, it was 4:30 and we needed to get to the Grand Canyon. We hated to leave, but had a great day.