Sedona.
Ooof. It's been a while since I've written on this thing. Let's see if I still know how to do it...
A few months back, when I was feeling the onset of the Chicago Winter Blues, my friend Amanda asked if I wanted to join her and Arizona for a weekend. Of course I said yes! She was going for a field hockey tournament. Originally we thought we'd have plenty of time to explore together, but when their schedule came out, we realized that the opposite was going to be true. When she told me their schedule, I thought for a split second that I might just cancel my flight and not go (it was through Southwest). But I decided "what the hell? I don't have anything better to do." So I went!
After landing in PHX, I quickly separated from Amanda and her crew. I got in my rental car and set off for Sedona!
On the way there, driving in complete darkness, I realized just how beautiful the stars in the sky were. I stopped for a quick photo opp to see if I could capture any! I'm still relatively new to photography, so it was very experimental. A few hours later I arrived at my super fancy Super 8 motel room and immediately crashed. The next morning I woke up to get a little exploring in! I got up early to catch the sunrise at Airport Mesa. I sat up on a little perch I hiked up to just to sit there and watch for a few hours. After I soaked in enough Vitamin D, I decided to hike up to Devil's bridge. My friend Amelia told me a had to see it while I was there. After an almost 4 mile hike, and taking photos with some strangers, I came back to my car to figure out what to do next. I picked up my phone to see there was a winter storm warning in Northern Arizona. Whaaaaa? It snows there? Apparently it does. Like, a lot. I had planned to spend most of the my day Sunday at the Grand Canyon, but because there was a forecast of over 10" of snow there, I decided to hop in a car right then, and head up!
I drove 2 hours to get there and arrived just before the sunset. It was the most surreal thing I had ever seen. I was in awe. I ran around taking photos for about an hour, chasing the sunset, before the sun completely disappeared on the horizon. Once it was gone, the temperature dropped dramatically, and I hopped back in the car to drive the 2 hours back. 4 hours of driving for an hour of daylight. It was totally worth it.
Since I was back in Sedona for an extra day, I decided to explore some more of what was around. I started off by watching the sun rise in Red Rocks State Park. After driving around for a while, I decided to check out the Chapel of the Holy Cross and hiked up to Cathedral Rock. When It started to get late, I had to pack it up, and begin the drive back to PHX. It's safe to say that I had a black in Sedona, and I'm already dying to go back. Who's with me?!
