Sedona, Arizona is one of those places we had heard a lot of praise for but knew nothing about. Our Lonely Planet USA – a big book about a big country – mentions that Sedona is “nestled amid striking red sandstone formations,” is “the center of ‘vortexes’,” and “offers outstanding hiking.” Partial to hiking in beautiful scenery, we decided to make the detour. This also allowed us to check off a few things on our to-do list in Prescott, make a pit stop in the old mining town of Jerome, and climb up to Flagstaff in order to pick up our initial route. I’ve reported on these destinations here.
View from the Templeton Trail
(As always, click on the photos for enlarged versions or click/hover to read the captions.)
Camping
We’d read on iOverlander about a plethora of boondocking sites in Cococino National Forest, about eight miles NW of Sedona. We started on the bumpy dirt road from the west. Much to our surprise, it was extremely busy with campers. Five miles in, we finally scored the most incredible site and we discovered that there was a quicker way out. We spent three free nights here to explore this side of the city.
