Sedona, Arizona
Cathedral Rock at Red Rock Crossing (in Red Rock State Park.) Photo by Wally Gray.
We lived in beautiful Sedona, Arizona, for 15 years before moving to Nevada.. What is Sedona like? The place is surrounded by red rocks that we never grew tired of. It has its four seasons where the falls and springs are lovely, the summers are hot and the winters are cold. Snow is infrequent in the winter but it crowns the red rocks when it comes, making the place even more beautiful. The hot summers do not rival hotter Phoenix ( a hundred miles to the south), and you can always escape to cooler Flagstaff (30 miles to the north.)
We have selected several links that can describe better than we can the area including tourist attractions, accommodations, nearby trips, hikes, etc. Take your pick, but before leaving us, please bookmark us so that you may return quickly to the other links.
See the city of Sedona's website at http://www.city.sedona.net/
This site has it all. Accommodations, art and culture, calendar of events, day trips, dining, maps, shopping, Sedona at a Glance and sightseeing and tours. You can get maps of the Sedona, Arizona, Phoenix and many more Phoenix area cities. Arizona Guide.
Sedona Red Rock News. Link to the twice-weekly newspaper. See links to several other Arizona newspapers at Interesting Pages. (Scroll down to see the listings.)
Weather, Calendar of Events, Free download of a Sedona Screen Saver and other interesting information. Sedona On-Line. Another Sedona On-Line Site showing the current movies playing in town along with additonal Sedona information. Also, five-day forecast by AccuWeather and Current Conditions including pressure, humidity, sun and moon rise and set.
Activity Guide to the Grand Canyon and Northern Arizona. Access Flagstaff. Published by the Arizona Daily Sun.
Sedona, the Film Capital. A great number of films were made in Sedona during the golden age of the movie Western. Many stars, from John Wayne, to Glen Ford, to Elvis Presley, spent a lot of time in our beautiful city during location filming. These movies are great to watch, not only as great films, but also as a unique record of Sedona's history and development over the last 60 years. Many television shows, movies, and commercials still film in Sedona. The Sedona Historical Society and Heritage Museum has a great short history of the films made in Sedona at this site.
Hiking Trails. Coconino National Forest ranger station district provides this information including a map of the trail heads. Some of the lesser used trails are highlighted so you can find out even more. Hiking, of course, is more comfortable in the spring and fall. Twenty trails are described. Forest Hiking Trails.
Experience Sedona. The Chamber of Commerce site which gives population, elevation, average temperatures, etc. You can request a 70-page Experience Sedona full-color magazine here. Chamber of Commerce.
Sedona Area Photography. Autumn in Oak Creek Canyon, Indian ruins show on the rocks, etc. Take a gander at our lovely views. Sedona Area Photography.
History. Where did the name Sedona come from? When did the first white settlers come? How many movies were shot here? Did Sedona begin 350 million years ago, or 1,000 years ago? The Sedona Historical Society.
Library. Our library is one of the few privately-run libraries in the country. In June 1994 the new 25,000 square-foot library was dedicated. An impressive statue of Sedona Schnebly greets you at the entrance. Sedona Public Library.
General Interest. Includes links to churches, nearby chambers, fire department, weather, schools, airport, etc. General Information
Chapel of the Holy Cross. This is the first building we saw when we first drove through here in 1966. An impressive building located among the impressive red rocks. Chapel of the Holy Cross.
City of Sedona. This page introduces you to the various services provided by the city. City of Sedona Home Page.
Sedona Area Attractions. Links to some of the commercial activities such as balloon adventures, jeep rentals, golf and the Rainbow Trout Farm. States that Sedona is the second most visited site in Arizona after the Grand Canyon and hosts over 4 million visitors a year. Attractions.
State Parks. Two are in our immediate area, Red Rock State Park (where I took the photos of Cathedral Rock at the top of this page) and Slide Rock State Park (has a 30-foot water slide in the Oak Creek). Check the Arizona State Parks Location Map for all 24 recreational parks in the state. Three other nearby parks are Dead Horse State Park, Fort Verde State Historic Park and Jerome State Historic Parks. These can be linked from this site.
National Monuments. There are three nearby that are spectacular. First is Tuzigoot National Monument just outside of Cottonwood, Arizona (south of us) which are Indian ruins, well preserved, with an excellent museum.. Then there is Montezuma Castle National Monument. It is really not a castle, nor was it Montezuma's, but it is an amazing series of cliffs dwellings in the side of a hill. (A 5-story high-rise building over 600 years old.) Both these Internet sites lead you to other national monuments and to the Meteor Crater. Another favorite national monument of ours (and not referred to in the sites above) is Montezuma's Well in Rimrock, Arizona, near us. it is fascinating to walk around. Don't miss looking at where this water exits in this crater lake. It supported the Sinauga Indians from 900 to 1400 A.D. About 1.1 million gallons of water a day still flow from it.
Area Sites. We are about three hours from the Grand Canyon. Here is the General Information for that, the most visited area in our state. Finally, here is the official site of the Arizona Office of Tourism.
Flagstaff and Canyon Areas. Try Access Flagstaff for a complete calendar of events and lots of information about outdoor attractions in northern Arizona. This site produced by the Flagstaff newspaper Arizona Daily Sun.
Sedona Sojourn.
An interesting site that lists things to do, places to eat, etc. Gives lots of good
information in a very little space.
What Brought Us to Sedona?
Many have asked us that question. The answer is fairly simple: we fell in love with the place. We first passed through Sedona on our way home from our family's trip to the Philmont Scout Ranch where we participated in a volunteer Boy Scouts of America training program. On the way home (we lived in Escondido, California at the time) we traveled through Sedona. We were fascinated with the red rocks, stopped and took lots of photos. Then as we drove on we saw the Chapel of the Holy Cross (see link above.) We drove up Chapel Road and toured that beautiful church. The next time we came to Sedona was when we were between our two missions in Australia which was in 1986. We visited our daughter Susan and her family who lived in Phoenix, Arizona. They took us to Sedona. One of the places we stopped at then was the Tlaquepaque shopping center. Again, we were fascinated with the beauty of the place. During the last part of our second mission in Australia Frances would say, "There is a home waiting for us in Arizona."
She was right. After our second mission in summer 1989 we again returned to Sedona. On the second day there we saw the house we wanted. Within a few days we completed the transaction and moved in toward the end of the year.
Biography of Wallace F. Gray
Biography of Frances M. Gray
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