After 24 hours at the Grand Canyon, neither of us felt like we had been there long enough but it was time for us to leave. With hopes of being able to return after going to Sedona, we waited for the Grand Canyon tour van that would bring us into Sedona. After loading our bikes onto a bike rack and packing our gear into the back, we were moving along in a car for the first time in two weeks!
During the Grand Canyon part of the tour we stopped at two outlooks that we were not able to get to earlier in the day when we did our South Rim bike ride. This, combined with the information that we received from our tour guide, made us feel like we got to experience even more of this fantastic place. We were very happy with the way that this worked out!
Being in a car was definitely a strang feeling for both of us, and not one that we could immediately characterize. We appreciated the speed at which the landscape passed us by, how easily we crossed over steep inclines and around sharp corners, but we both felt like we were missing so much. After leaving the Grand Canyon and passing through the Navajo Indian Reservation we began to appreciate the fact that we were not biking. The road became increadibly steep and the traffic increased as we approached and passed through Flagstaff, and then eventually arrived in Sedona. We were glad that we decided not to do this part of the trip on bike, if not for the inclines, then definitely for the condition of the roads: it would not have been safe for us to crawl slowly up mountains with little or no shoulder alongside the traffic.
Eventually we made it to Sedona and to the Hyatt, where we would be staying for three nights (thank you Dad!!). We had excellent timing with our arrival. As we approached Sedona the sun was setting and cast a brilliant red glow on the already very red mountains and vortexes that make up the landscape. Our tour guide pointed out some of the rock formations and relayed the names that the natives of Sedona had proved for them. After loading our bikes and all of our gear into our room, our first order of business was to find something to eat! We walked out of the Hyatt and down the road to where there seemed to be a lot of activity. Sedona is first and foremost a tourist town, it was the weekend, and our attention was drawn to the well-lit and attractive up-town area of Sedona (there is no downtown Sedona). The streets were lines with many restaurants and shops and we ended up stopping a place called the Cowboy Club for dinner. It had an entertaining atmosphere. We were seated in a nice two person table in the back of the restaurant where we could observe some of the activity without feeling too much distracted by it. We were surprised at how delicious the food was! We both ordered the Buffalo cheeseburgers and could not have been happier with the experience!
Sedona: 12th, and 13th June, 2011
After visiting the Grand Canyon it seemed hard to image that we would be easlily impressed by anything else. However, we were proved wrong almost immediately when we arrived in Sedona. Although the landscape can't really match that of the Canyon, it is beautiful in its own way. The really neat thing about Sedona is that you are always surrounded by the landscape, and you don't have to go out of your way to enjoy it. We spent our two full days there enjoying the views as we explored the city on foot.
One of the first, and most interesting, places that we found was Tlaquepaque. It was designed as an artist community, and now holds an eclectic collection of galleries and shops. We spent most of our first day in Sedona walking through the unique shops and stunning art galleries that this artistic hideway had to offer.
On our last evening we took a trolley tour of the city. This was a great opportunity for us to explore parts of the city that we were not able to get to on foot, and to get better views of the surrounding rock formations.
Returning from our trolley tour we thought about what we might want to do for dinner and asked our guide for some suggestions. The first thing that he suggested was the Cowboy Club, but since we had been there already we thought we should try something different. After walking the streets and checking out some of the other possibilities we decided to go back to the Cowboy Club, the food was just so good! We were pleased to be seated at the same table that we sat in on our first night in Sedona. It was difficult for us to order something different, but we both ended up with delicious meals!
Sedona was a wonderful vacation from our vacation, but it wasn't without some excitement that we anticipated getting back on our bicycles and hitting the road.
Location:Grand Canyon, AZ to Sedona, AZ
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