Red Rocks & Sacred Sedona

Sedona is in Arizona’s high desert at 4300ft elevation so it can be pretty cold at night during the winter. When the weather looked good, there was no question whether we should spend the week there. We found a great boondocking spot on Forest Rd 525 in the Coconino National Forest, 15 miles outside of Sedona. Despite the fact that it took 20 minutes to drive 4 bumpy miles to the main road every time we wanted to leave, it was one of our favorite campsites so far!

Sedona is a small busy tourist town, even in the off-season. In some places, like Devil’s Bridge, there was a line for the photos! Our boondocking spot might look secluded, but jeep tours passed by multiple times every day.

The first thing we did was drive the Red Rock Scenic Byway (Route 179) to get some views of the breathtaking dark red sandstone, white limestone, and green pine landscape.

Besides its world-famous red rock scenery, Sedona is also known as a spiritual mecca. There is the traditional – like the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a tiny Roman Catholic Church built into a cliff. And a Buddhist Stupa at the Amitabha Peace Park.

Then, there are Sedona’s vortexes. These are unmarked places tucked among Sedona’s landscape said to emit healing energy. Both Cathedral and Bell Rocks are energy vortexes, but we weren’t aware of that when we visited. Since we missed those two, we were determined to find the one at Boyton Canyon. Luckily, when we were poking around there happened to be someone playing the flute on top of one formation. Must be it!!