Take a walk on the Wild Side...

If you don't enjoy the outdoors and need a lot of entertainment I don't think Sedona is for you.

Luckily for us we like a change of pace and as our 2nd visit there followed a few days in Las Vegas and an overnight in the Grand Canyon we were happy to decompress in the quiet of Sedona, away from the crowds.

Our entertainment was to take walks, away from the streets with their art galleries, gift shops and restaurants.

Laying in wait to photograph ducks....which we have plenty of back at our hotel.

The sky looks somewhat threatening and we are a long way from shelter.....

We start to walk back the way we came

Interesting bark on the trees

None more beautiful than the Sycamore bark

That sky!!

  We have umbrellas from the hotel but we'll be marching through mud if a storm comes.

We don't want to take shelter under a tree and become a magnet for a lightning strike!

The clouds mercifully move on without a drop of rain falling on us

And the sun shines again

We  are rewarded by this magnificent view when we emerge from the undergrowth to return to the hotel.

Pink Jeep

You'll see a lot of Pink Jeeps in Sedona. They give off-road tours into the foothills of the mountains from morning to sunset. They hold 4 or more people but we booked one just for ourselves and paid extra to have the guide to ourselves and have no unnecessary chitchat  from potential seat mates.

So quiet here.

Long shadows as we are getting near to sunset

We travel on well-worn dirt roads which is better than going completely off road and crushing the vegetation in our path.

Fresh desert air, absolute silence, no crowds of sightseers and the stunning beauty of the rocks. Although our guide and driver, Roy, does this everyday he still stops to take in the serene atmosphere.

Desert vegetation

Bathed in light from the setting sun

Losing the light

The sun has gone down and so it's time for us to drive back to Sedona and enjoy a meal at the hotel followed by sitting on the porch in the dark, drinking in a beer and the sound of the crickets and the bubbling creeks. Magical.

A quiet retreat

I hope everyone likes rocks. Big red ones. Sandstone outcroppings. That's the backdrop to every direction you turn your head. Unless you keep your head down and look at what's immediately around you in L'Auberge de Sedona.  Quiet cosy cottages with wood burning fires and neighbors who don't make a sound as they are relaxing.

It's the kind of place to get away from it all (in our case Chicago) and take it easy.
 On our second visit which I have learned was as late as 2004 (not 1998 as I thought-where does the time go??!) we met the tour manager from Fleetwood Mac who was spending a couple of days there.
He invited us to his cottage for a drink and we learned that Stevie Nicks has often come to the hotel and rented a cottage or two for the purposes of writing songs in a place where she can hear herself think. Makes sense.

The creek that runs by our cottage is home to many ducks.

Unseen are some wooden Adirondack chairs so you can sit by the water's edge and "turn off your mind, relax and float downstream" (a quote from my favorite Beatles song Tomorrow Never Knows)

The long shadows of morning...

For breakfast we could either have room service delivery or go to the waterside restaurant or take this little funicular railway car up to street level and dine outdoors at a cafe. Breakfast burritos were a favorite with lots of spicy chorizo.

That's the hotel part up above at street level

At the top the funicular let's you off to wander

The view on a sunny morning

This was back in the days before I began photographing every meal and restaurant we set foot in so there are no photos of food, even though we ate well there, on basic food. Sigh. It's not a culinary capital of the world though so you are maybe not missing much. It doesn't have the restaurants of Santa Fe or San Francisco to name but two great places for dining.

We'll visit Santa Fe at some point in the near future....another one of a kind town.