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The minute we entered Sedona it was magical. The red mountains are truly spectacular and must see! I was driving through winding mountain roads and wanted to pull over at every turn to take pictures of the scenery. Being from flat Texas, anytime I see mountains or anything other than hills, I start taking a lot of pictures. Anyways, I had been dreaming of Sedona for a while and finally over Labor Day weekend, the stars aligned and we were able to go.
Where we Stayed:
One thing I love about World of Hyatt is the extra reward deals that they send out about once a quarter. Last year they sent out a deal that featured their hotel in Sedona, AZ, Hyatt Piñon Pointe. Even though, we couldn’t make it work with our schedules at the time, I still really wanted to go because it seemed beautiful and situated in the middle of the Red Mountains. Anyway, a year later and we can finally go! I was able to do a lot of research on the hiking and different activities around the area so I was all set for our trip! The location of Hyatt Pinon Pointe is ideal! It’s located at the end of Sedona’s main street ( I think they call it Downtown Sedona) so we were within walking distance of everything. Which was a huge plus because parking in Sedona, outside of the trails/hikes, is very limited.
For a full review of this property, including cost and more pics, checkout my full post on it here.
Where we ate:
Cress on the Creek at L’auberge
I’ve gotten in the habit of going to 1 fancy dinner while I’m traveling. Cress on the Creek is L’Auberge’s fine dining experience, complete with a three course meal and a romantic creek in the background. It was perfect, the food is amazing and the wait staff is so professional and friendly. Even the price was fine dining, at $85 a person. Lucky for us there was no dress code so we didn’t have to pack additional clothes. Boyfriend wore jeans and a polo and I wore jean shorts and a nice top. I felt a little underdressed, most women wore short dresses. One thing I didn’t plan for was the timing of our reservations. The only time slot available was 5pm which is really early for dinner but I made the reservation anyway and I’m so glad we got to go early! Clearly, no one else wants to eat at this time so we had the place practically to ourselves and it was so much more romantic with the creek in the background. Once other people started to show up the place got a little louder and I was glad we were almost done.
Activities:
It’s always been on my bucket list to go hot air ballooning and when I saw the Red Mountains, I knew that was exactly where I wanted to go. I chose Red Rock Balloons because they were well reviewed and have shuttles that take you to and from your hotel. This is really good because they pick you up around 5:30AM! Since it’s so hot in Arizona, they take off at sunrise, it’s so beautiful and the coolest time (temperature wise) to go. We were in the air for and hour and a half and the whole trip was around 4 hours long, at the end they provide a breakfast picnic with mimosas (!) much needed since you’ve been up since 4 AM ! All that was definitely worth the cost of $225 a person and the pictures were well worth it.
For more pics and info on our hot air ballon ride, checkout the post on it here.
Hiking:
Devil’s Bridge is this really cool natural bridge that formed at the top of a mountain. The view is amazing but bridge is what people go to see. The hike to Devil’s Bridge is ranked as easy on all the travel sites but we thought the opposite. Technical, the trail to Devil’s Bridge is only 0.8 miles, so 1.6 miles there and back. However, it’s actually around 4.30 miles. We parked off the main road, FR 152, which is what most people do. Then you walk up the paved road to the overflow lot. If you’re feeling lucky, or going early enough, then I’d recommend parking here. It’ll save you about half a mile of walking. What no one tells you is that the actual parking lot, and the start of the trail, is located off a dirt and rocky road that’s impossible to drive on unless you have an ATV or a lifted truck or Jeep. Since we couldn’t park at the overflow lot or get to the actual parking lot, we ended up walking around 3 miles just to get to the trail. Below are some picks of the ‘road’ they expect people to drive on to get to the trail. If I were doing it again, I’d recommend renting and ATV and driving on the rocky dirt road to the start of the trail.
Once you get to the trial, it’s actually not an easy hike. Most of the websites I found said that the hike was pretty easy. I’d say the hike is easy because it’s not long. However, this is a hard climb to the top to see Devil’s Bridge. It’s very steep and you have to climb over and through a lot of loose rocks. I wouldn’t recommend kids under the age of 10 going. It’s a relatively difficult hike and there are a lot of steep drops.
However, the views are amazing! I can’t do these views justice through the photos but it’s breathtaking. One rookie mistake we made was not taking water along with us. I’d recommend using the waterpacks because you need both hands when hiking/climbing up this trail.
Shopping:
Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village:
One thing I like to stress when I go on vacation is that I don’t care about local shopping or souvenirs, I just want the photos. But, in the rare cases where I can take photos of the shopping center, then I have to buy something or it would be rude 🙂 Sedona is a very western, Arizona town and one thing I loved about it was that the style and color scheme everywhere was consistent. But it was such a breath of fresh air to walk into this Spanish style shopping complex, it’s gorgeous and clean, not what I was expecting for an outdoor shopping center. It’s so cute and I would definitely recommend going there, the shopping in boutique style shopping so it’s all local stores, not chains, and it’s a little pricey but everything they have you can only buy in Sedona.
We were so lucky to be in Sedona for the 3 day weekend. 3 days is plenty of time to do everything and feel like you’ve accomplished everything. We left home crazy tired from all the hiking but I could stare at these pictures for hours. And lets be honest, the photos are the only reason why I travel 🙂
** No photos were edited in the making of this post.
