Sedona Getaway Pictures

Last weekend missus and I had a rare opportunity to get away for a couple of days by ourselves so we decided to drive up to Sedona, AZ in the mouth of Oak Creek Canyon, about 2 hours north of Phoenix. The scenery is breathtakingly beautiful up there and I took several pictures I thought I'd share.

This (above) was taken from the top of Tabletop Mountain, looking northwest just outside the airport gate, about an hour before sunset.

Same spot, looking north.

One of about half a dozen hawks looking for a last minute meal before nightfall.

After spending the night in Sedona we decided to take the long way home down route 89A through Cottonwood, then Jerome and over the top of Mingus Mountain to Prescott then route 69 back to I-17 and on down the hill to Phoenix.

Jerome is an old copper mining town that has found new life as a sort of artist colony. It is perched precariously on the side of the mountain at about 5,500 feet (I guess that must be the average altitude). It is only 10 miles from Cottonwood, which is at about 3,300 feet, so you can imagine the climb up a narrow road with numerous switchbacks and in some places, no guardrail. The road is like that all the way to the mountain top where you finaly start down again from 7,023 feet. If you are prone to vertigo, better find a diffferent route but the views are too stunning to miss.

This was taken from Jerome, looking back to the north over Cottonwood (near distance) and Sedona (about 30 miles). The mountain in the distance is Humphrey's Peak, on the northern outskirts of Flagstaff, about 60 miles away.