Sedona

Following the conference my friend Noleine and I had planned a couple of days of sightseeing. I felt game enough to drive (I have driven in North America before, although it was a while ago) and so we hired a car, allowing us to travel further afield according to our own desires and timetable. For our first excursion we headed south, to the nearby town of Sedona. This necessitates driving down into Oak Creek Canyon, with the road narrow and winding until finally the valley opens out somewhat at Slide Rock (shown below).

We went for a bit of a stroll above the creek, and encountered a friendly lizard.

We stopped briefly in Sedona itself, an artsy tourist trap nestled among the spectacular rock outcrops of this particular patch of desert.

Being Arizona, there were some cliches to be expected: have some cacti.

One of the interesting sights to see was the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a monolithic structure set in and above a crevice of a rock outcrop. It’s rather dramatic, and very austere and simple on the interior as well.

The rock outcrops were quite spectacular. The feature below is known as Rabbit Ears; the following photo shows the broader context, with Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock at the right-hand end.

After lunch we ventured out into the warmth of the day, and made our way part-way up Bell Rock. We got up onto the lower flanks but didn’t venture any higher as the rock got a little steeper and smoother (there were people almost as high as the craggy bits, although they’re too small/obscured to be visible in the photo).

As for Courthouse Butte, it is pretty imposing.