Arizona Sedona

The Coconino sandstone formations surrounding Sedona were laid down as desert dunes 270 million years ago, then carved by water and wind into a landscape of buttes, mesas, and spires that seem architecturally deliberate. The result is a destination where the landscape genuinely overwhelms you, regardless of how many photographs you’ve seen in advance. The red rocks are not a backdrop. They are the destination.

Sedona has built an accommodation culture specifically oriented toward that landscape. Enchantment Resort sits inside Boynton Canyon, a box canyon held sacred by the Yavapai-Apache Nation, with casita-style rooms positioned to frame the canyon walls from every window. L’Auberge de Sedona places creek-side cottage accommodations directly along Oak Creek, with private terraces over the water and red rock walls rising behind. The area’s boutique wellness retreats offer meditation decks, outdoor yoga platforms, and adobe architecture that disappears into the earth tones of the surrounding landscape. This is a place where exceptional accommodation has been a defining feature of the visitor experience for decades.

Over 200 trails thread through the red rock country, ranging from easy nature walks to serious technical scrambles. The Brins Mesa Trail offers panoramic views with relatively modest effort. The West Fork of Oak Creek Trail follows a creek through a slot canyon with autumn foliage that rivals New England. Devil’s Bridge leads to Sedona’s largest natural arch across a route that includes an exposed ridgeline walk requiring careful footing. The views justify every cautious step.

Sedona is legitimately one of the world’s great mountain biking destinations. The Hiline and Hangover trails offer technical slickrock riding above Oak Creek Canyon that draws riders from across the globe. For those who prefer four wheels, the network of 4x4 roads through the backcountry, including the famous Broken Arrow Trail through Chapel Canyon, provides access to formations and viewpoints unreachable on foot, with several outfitters offering guided Jeep tours from town.

North of Sedona, Highway 89A climbs through Oak Creek Canyon: a 12-mile gorge of layered red and white cliffs, pine forests, and cold clear creek running along the bottom. Slide Rock State Park occupies a stretch of the canyon where smooth sandstone chutes create natural waterslides into swimming holes. In summer it’s one of Arizona’s most visited spots, but arrive early on a weekday and you may have it largely to yourself.

Sedona has attracted spiritual seekers since the New Age movement discovered its “vortexes” in the 1980s. Whatever your view of the metaphysics, the vortex sites are among the most beautiful viewpoints in the area, and the culture of intentional retreat that has grown up around them has produced genuinely impressive wellness accommodation. The Yavapai-Apache Nation, for whom this landscape is ancestral territory, maintains a cultural center in Camp Verde that provides essential historical context for understanding the region.