Sedona is Arizona’s magic town. Flagstaff is the ski town that gets a lot of snow. (Surprised? Yeah, it’s true.) Payson is the town that shows off the Mugollon Rim–the part of the state that pushed up 2,000 feet almost overnight millions of years ago, giving us the Sonoran Desert floor. Prescott is a Western Town that was the first capital. But Sedona is a town of red rocks and vortexes. The place is home to big ravens and amazing sights, big blue skies and mountains with snow tops. Sedona is at 4,000 feet, so the surrounding mountains show off snow caps in the winter.
The vortexes are areas where the veil between worlds is thin. People have different experiences there. Some feel joy, some see clearly, some feel nothing. It doesn’t matter, it’s always Sedona.
Red Rock mesas. Mesa means table in Spanish.
When you drive up to the town, you see the mesas from far away, as the limestone gives way to the iron-rich rock.
The rocks look different as the sun shifts.
There is a wonderful symmetry in the trees coming down the ridge.
The church seems to grow out of the rock.
The Church of the Cross is stark and lovely. Inside it is dark, cool, and smells of incense.
You never get tired of watching the light play across the rock face.
There is little twilight in Arizona. Once the sun sets, the earth gets dark quickly. The sky stays bright for a bit, but the earth gets shadowy. If you are lucky, the sky lights up with the same red-orange as the rocks.
–Quinn McDonald, © 2010 All rights reserved. All photos and text.
