Sedona, Arizona - Sugarloaf Mountain
Sedona. One of the most stunning places in the world. Its colors. Its landscape. Its weather. Its history. Even its food!! We are going be exploring this area for three straight days and camping for two nights. Real camping. No RV. Just a tent. Very exciting!!
Jessica and I visited Sedona back in 2008, when we went on vacation to see my parents who lived in Prescott at the time. We visited it only for a couple of hours, and because of my epilepsy, I vaguely remember it. In fact, I can tell you that I only remember that when we visited, we drove down a dirt road, to a creek and saw some red rock pillars somewhere. Nothing else. Kinda sucks, but at the same time, it would be a whole new experience for me.
On the way to Sedona, you drive through a part in the highway that leads you around twisty turns and makes the ride interesting, yet slow. It's a 12 mile drive, but it took us 45 minutes to complete. Calculations show that we were only going around 25 mph!! I got a video of it because my uncle told me about it beforehand and I wanted to show everyone how crazy the drive is. Watch it below and try not to get sick!!
The highway went through the mountains of the Coconino National Forest. Some turns on the road almost felt like complete u-turns!!
Some viewpoints came out along the drive through the mountains.
A slight glimpse of Sedona from high in the mountains!
After the crazy drive, we were finally heading into Sedona. We were driving over this little hill on the highway, and boom, the beauty of Sedona was in our sight. It was like a amazing sunrise that you'll never forget.
The closer you got, the more that came into view.
We didn't even have to hike to see how beautiful it was. One can simply drive all around Sedona and take in most of its beauty. I had a list of where we were going to hike, on what days and how long they should take. Ask Jessica, I'm a crazy planner. But first thing we had to do was purchase a Red Rock Pass. The pass gives you parking access to all trail heads. Some people don't get these and eventually their cars get towed. This would make sure that ours didn't end up that way. Sedona is a very popular place. We knew it would be busy, but we forgot that is was spring break on the west coast and there were more people than we expected. It still didn't ruin the experience.
Sedona is a very unique place. It holds a lot of amazing geological features. The canyon walls of Sedona show nine layers of stone from different geological periods that span over hundreds of millions of years. There are six layers of sandstone, two thin layers of limestone and atop all of these, one igneous layer of basalt stone. The different sandstone and limestone layers were formed by wind blown sand dunes or mud deposited by inland seas. The red colors of some of the sandstone layers are the result of iron oxide staining the rocks over great periods of time. The uppermost layer was deposited by volcanic eruptions 14.5 million years ago and once covered the entire Verde Valley several meters deep in lava.
The two most important things you need to remember when hiking out west: water and sun screen. I don't think there was a day with clouds in the sky while we were in Sedona. The temperature was around 75 degrees each day, but the constant sun made it feel in the high 80's. Warm, but out there it's near perfect! Staying hydrated and not getting sunburn were the top two things on our list.
We got our red rock pass and headed to our first hike, Sugarloaf Mountain. Compared to the other mountains and hikes in Sedona, this is a small and short hike, but it offers phenomenal views from the top. Sugarloaf only has a couple hundred feet of elevation gain, compared to the others that soar into the thousands! From the picture below in the parking lot, we didn't even have to hike to get a view. But we wanted to see more.
Sugarloaf is the little bump to the right in the picture. To the left is a 6,300 foot mountain named Capitol Butte. A Butte an isolated hill with steep sides and a flat top (similar to but narrower than a mesa).
The mountains and rock walls were ablaze with color. Red, orange, white, green, yellow. The color of the rocks would change the higher you got. It was stunning!
Capitol Butte standing tall.
To the left is Chimney Rock. An amazing sculpture made by mother natures wind, water and sun light. This pillar has been eroding for millions and million of years.
The ridge in the middle is called Coffee Pot Rock. As you can see, the area to the far right is shaped like a coffee pot!
Coffee Pot Rock to the left and in the middle is the Wilson Mountain, the tallest mountain in Sedona.
Once at the top, it exploded into a 360 degree view of Sedona. It was breathtaking!!
Wilson Mountain, the highest point in Sedona, is straight ahead. Wilson Mountain is over 2,000 feet higher than where we stood, but it felt like we were just as high!! For comparison, Sugarloaf is just under 4,900 feet tall.
Overlooking the south eastern part of Sedona.
Chimney Rock to the left and Capitol Butte to the right from the top of Sugarloaf Mountain.
After the awesome hike up Sugarloaf and the breathtaking views, we went back and set up camp. Our campsite was about 20 minutes south of Sedona, right next to the famous Oak Creek. I couldn't get a campsite right along the creek, but it was still a beautiful place to camp. The canopy of trees and the comfortable green grass made it an ideal place to camp. It felt more like upstate NY then it did Sedona, which made us feel more at home. We had to get back to the campsite early to shower and freshen up before everyone else came back and swarmed the site. Since it was spring break out west, most families were out camping. The whole site was filled. There was only about 6 total bathrooms with showers at this campsite (it has over 50 spots for tents and 25 for RV's). We also didn't want to go to dinner smelling bad!!
Our campsite
We then headed into Sedona and thought about where we were going to eat. We both looked at each other and said 'Who are we kidding. We're having mexican!' We checked out a place called Oaxaca Restaurant. Not only was the food amazing, they had an amazing view of Sedona right where you eat!!
What a great first day in Sedona. Being blown away by everything is very hard to achieve. Definitely looking forward to the remaining two days we have left to explore!!