When Ann and I took our trip to Sedona in 2011, we said we couldn't wait to come back. Well 11 years later, we decided it was time to make that happen! We couldn't believe we waited 11 years to revisit this beautiful place.
We won't make that mistake again.
Ann had the Friday and Monday of Easter weekend off from school, so we decided it was the best time to fit the trip in since it was close to our birthdays and the weather should be perfect. We picked our resort, planned our hikes, and packed our bags!
We flew into Flagstaff, AZ. I had never seen such beauty at an airport. It was a small plane, so we got to de-plane outside which was cool!
We picked up our Honda CRV at Avis....
...and hit the road for our hour drive to Sedona! Our drive down highway 89A took us through Oak Creek Canyon which was jaw-droppingly beautiful. Unfortunately, there is no way to capture it through the car windows so I just quit trying.
We arrived at the Wilde Resort around 1:30 p.m. and checked in to drop our bags off before hitting the hiking trails!
We had a two queen room with a little patio. We really liked our room, it was nice and quiet and the patio was a nice place to sit and have tea in the morning.
The hotel even left us a crystal on our bed.
Ann and I wanted to try and do at least one hike a day so we grabbed some water and got back in the car to drive to our first hike, Doe Mountain. I had read it was "moderately challenging" but I knew it would have a big payoff at the end so I felt it would be worth the effort.
See that mountain? Yeah that is where we were going!
Let's do this!
Getting there!
After about 30 minutes of climbing, we realized that "moderately challenging" in Sedona is different than here at home. We were over halfway up and decided we had gone far enough but we were still really proud of ourselves. And even though we didn't get the big 360 degree view from the top, the view we did have was pretty awesome.
There is Doe Mountain on the right. We were so close!
We felt we still had some hiking left in us so we went to another, much easier hike, Fay Canyon.
This is more like it!
I knew there was a little arch we could hike to and get a cool picture from inside so we found the turnoff to get there and started climbing up. But once again, it was a little tricky and a bit of a rock scramble so we just got this picture instead. We think we'll be able to make it next time though!
Happy with our adventure, we rewarded ourselves with margaritas and dinner on the patio at the hotel restaurant!
We ended the day with sunset up on the third floor rooftop. Our trip was off to a great start!
Thanks to the two-hour time change, we were both up early on Saturday morning. Early morning is the best time to go hiking so we quickly made a plan to hike Airport Mesa which is a very popular hike in Sedona.
We needed breakfast first and Ann had the great idea to have breakfast right next to the trail at Mesa Grill. It is located at the Sedona airport and you can watch the planes take off and land.
Fuel for the hike!
The Airport Mesa Loop is a 3.5 mile hike that ends at a mesa with a great panoramic view of Sedona. But there is also a shorter out and back hike that gets you to the same place in less time so that is what Ann and I opted for.
We had great views right from the start.
The trail ends at the mesa and then you can climb up higher to the summit.
Up we go!
This is one of my favorite pictures I took the whole trip -- Ann on top of Sedona!
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We saw where the airport loop trail joined this one so I decided to see what was around the next bend while Ann stayed at the mesa.
I came back to find Ann enjoying the view.
We really enjoyed this hike, it was one of our favorites!
After the hike, we drove to the shopping village, Tlaquapaque, for a little crystal shopping. We found a neat shop filled with crystals and Ann bought me beautiful crystal for my birthday.
This shopping center is home to the famous fountain photo from our trip in 2011.
So of course, we had to recreate it for 2022!
After shopping, I was pooped so we went back to the hotel to rest up for our fancy early birthday dinner at the famous Sedona restaurant, Mariposa, which has a patio with views of the red rocks. I was so excited for this dinner and it did not disappoint!
We started with empanadas which are handmade in the restaurant. Muey bueno!
I got the halibut and Ann got a stuffed poblano pepper and everything was delicious! We ate and watched the red rocks light up at sunset.
We ended our fabulous dinner with complimentary birthday gelato!
It was a fantastic way to celebrate!
Back at the hotel, I took a dip in the hot tub and saw the full moon, a great ending to a wonderful day.
The next day was Easter Sunday. We could not believe our last full day was already here and we could feel our trip already winding down. But we had a great last day planned--we planned to go to church, then brunch, and then back to the hotel for a massage, what could be better?!
I started my day with a cup of tea on our patio, watching the birds.
Ann and I enjoyed our leisurely morning so much that we realized we were probably going to be late for church. So we decided that rather than walking in late, we would just celebrate Easter in nature by doing a hike instead. I knew of a short hike we could do that would give us a great view of Cathedral Rock -- what could be more fitting on Easter Sunday?
The trail ended at a huge clearing with great views of Cathedral Rock. We had the place to ourselves the whole time.
Ann took the opportunity to really soak up the moment.
We had our Easter at a different Cathedral instead.
We made our way back to the hotel to get ready for our fancy Easter brunch at Cress on Oak Creek, a restaurant at a really nice resort that had just re-opened to non-guests after Covid. We had a lovely brunch seated right next to the creek and it was so relaxing!
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After brunch we headed back to the hotel to get ready for our spa appointments. We had the last appointments of the day and enjoyed a quiet, empty spa, it was heaven!
We ended the night up on the rooftop for sunset.
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After sunset, we went to a little vegan place so Ann could get some dinner and then we went back to the hotel to start our dreaded packing! We couldn't believe our trip was almost over.
I stayed up for awhile trying to decide what we could safely fit into our last morning before the flight home. We had been bitten by the hiking bug and wanted to try to fit one last hike in!
I wanted us to hike to Bell Rock but it was too long of a hike to do in the time we had. We decided to go and just do as much of the hike as we could and then turn around.
We got there at 7:40 a.m. which gave us about an hour and a half to do a short walk up to the rock.
It was an easy walk and then we got to a point where we could actually climb on the rock itself.
We decided to see how high up we could go. We stopped at the base and the view was really beautiful from there.
Ann said she had found her happy place. I decided to climb a little higher.
I climbed to the second saddle and was there by myself and it was so quiet. The view was just breathtaking. I was so moved, I actually had tears in my eyes.
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I went and told Ann to come up where I was and we just sat on Bell Rock until we absolutely had to leave.
It was a fantastic ending to our trip!
I am still reliving so many of the things Ann and I did even a week later. Sedona has not lost any of its magic and I think I appreciate it even more now than I did in 2011.
It's not goodbye, it's see you later Sedona, we will be back.
