Sedona area of Arizona

I am heading out to Arizona - Camp Verde to pick up my new puppy, in a week and a half. I was planning on visiting Red Rock Canon in Sedona before they close the park June 1st. Has anybody been there? I have only looked on a map to see what is in the area. I will only have 2 days there. The puppy's owner suggested I visit Montezuma's Castle also.

Any suggestions, comments?

Penny

Penny:

I assume you'll be flying in to Phoenix and renting a car for the drive to Camp Verde? If so, you may still be able to catch some desert wildflowers in bloom on the trip up. As of the last couple of days, the area around Bartlett Lake (just north of Phoenix) was reporting excellent displays.

Montezuma's Castle & nearby Montezuma's Well are just a stone's throw from Camp Verde and worth a couple of hours visit in my book. It is cooler in the morning, but you really should visit in mid to late afternoon. Otherwise, the cliff dwellings are completely covered in shade. Both are close to the freeway and impossible to miss on the way to/from Sedona.

As with most locations, sunrise and sunset are the best times to shoot in Sedona, and most of the iconic images take on a completely different persona depending on when you shoot them. You could pay a late afternoon visit to Montezuma's Castle and still get to Sedona in plenty of time for sunset shooting.

The Pink Jeep Tours in Sedona are famous - albeit a little pricey - but don't offer a lot of opportunity to get out and shoot. I'm sure with a little internet research you could come up with a dedicated photo tour. To be honest, though, you can find plenty of great places to shoot just driving around in your car & pulling off to the side of the road.

Just don't forget to buy a parking pass. Yes, they charge you for parking along side of the road to take pictures. Ostensibly it is to limit the environmental impact . . . BTW, if you have an NPS Golden Eagle/Golden Access Pass, you can leave it visible on the dash & they will honor it. Just be sure to shade it so it doesn't melt.

Oak Creek Canyon from Sedona to Flagstaff is also famous as a scenic drive, but I would not waste my time. Wrong time of year and the Bark Beetles have decimated the forest.

Finally, if you have time, the old mining town of Jerome and Tuzigoot NM are also great places to shoot & less than 1/2 hour's drive from Camp Verde.

If you have a polarizing filter and/or ND filter, don't for get to bring it. The mid-day sun here is hard on exposures.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your trip! Two days is awfully short.

Jim

I will agree with most of what Jim said above. Depending, however, if you are able and have the desire to hike, I would suggest a drive up oak creek canyon and a short hike up the West Fork of Oak Creek. This hike really shows all the beauty of the Sedona area starting right at the trail head.

Here are a couple of shots from within the first half mile to give you an idea.










Also, I am not sure what you mean by Red Rock Canyon. I think you may be referring to Red River Crossing - which will be closing in June. Red River Crossing is where the more iconic shot of Cathedral Rock is usually taken. My lame attempt is below.





Another shot from just outside Red River Crossing.




I hope you have a great trip. This is a nice time of year to be in Sedona.

Dave

Thank you Jim and Dave for the information. I wish I had more time to spend out there, but I am leaving my husband alone with the store and all the animals. I feel guilty just taking the 2 extra days, originally, I was flying out, getting the pup, and flying back. He suggested that even though this is our busiest time of year, I will probably never get out there again, to take my camera and an extra day or two. What a great hubby!

Dave,

Are those photos HDR? They are gorgeous! What lens did you use? I was planning on taking my D700, my little 50mm f1.8 because it is so light, and my 70-200mm VR. I have the Nikon 24-70mm in my cart at B&H but I have not hit the send button yet. Will my 70-200mm be wide enough?

Where is Oak Creek Canyon? Is it in Sedona? More importantly, can I get lost? You are talking to a person who last week on the way to an Agility trial got lost on a straight road and had to call hubby to do a "Google Map" to see where I was.
I HATE driving. (actually, I am borderline agoraphobic,and suffer horrible panic attacks.) If somebody else is driving, I am fine, no problem, I love traveling- as long as I am not the one driving.

Penny

Penny

Dave:

My comments were limited to the "scenic drive" aspect. But, truth be told, I have never hiked the West Fork of Oak Creek Trail. I cannot believe that. It is even listed as Hike # 43 in my 30 year old copy of '50 Hikes in Arizona'.

Of course my hiking days and my renewed interest in photography never did overlap. Hope I'm up to the challenge now.

Love your shots of Cathedral Rock. I do not find them "lame" at all. Now I know from where all those great Arizona Highways Calendar shots are taken. When did you take the ones you posted? I'm guessing August?

Although the clowns in Phoenix are closing down Red Rock State Park June 3rd, it looks like the trail is located entirely on Forest Service land. (BTW, Penny, although the "ghost town" of Jerome is still there, our state legislature has also closed Jerome State Park, as well.)

Jim

Penny:

US Hwy 89-A from just south of Flagstaff to Sedona follows the course of Oak Creek as it descends from the tall pines of the Colorado Plateau to the scrub oak and pinon pines of Red Rock Country. Families from Phoenix and as far away as Tucson frequently visit Oak Creek Canyon, especially Slide Rock, to cool off and play in the creek's cooling waters. AND, as Dave points out, access primo locations from which to photograph.

Long held as among the most scenic drives in the state, I have been saddened to see that its lush pine forests have suffered greatly from years of drought and bark beetle infestation. But, as Dave's photo's make clear, still beautiful.

I think it is difficult to get lost, but then again, I've got a GPS.

Jim

OH DUH! I do have a GPS, I'll have to remember to bring it ( and update it's maps)

Thanks for the info. It sounds like if I find US89-A and just follow it, I can pull off at various places and co hiking.

I can't wait, just a week and a day to go!



Penny

I just got back from Arizona. I had a ball. One of my former customers had moved out there a few years ago, and I lost touch with him. A friend of a friend of a friend got me his phone #, so I gave him a call. He volunteers for the Forestry department, radio tagging Rattlesnakes. He took me ALL over, down a whole bunch of forestry trials, goat paths and roads. I never had so much fun!

The best part! I didn't have to drive! The breeder drove the hour and a half to pick me up, then my friend drove to all these neat places, then the breeder drove me back to the airport. I can't wait to go out there again. I did get to Jerome, I had dinner at the Haunted Hamburger. Delicious dinner, but I am glad that somebody else drove. Not sure I wanted to drive back down that road. TOO many curves at 10mph! We were headed up to the Pines, but got caught in a snowstorm just as we were almost there. Flagstaff got hit with 12"









He also took me hiking into an undisclosed canyon,he wouldnt tell me the name of the canyon or the mountain to prevent graffiti. We had saw some other cave paintings that had been spray painted over. We climbed up about 1,000 feet to show me this cave. The face of the canyon walls had sheared away, destroying much of the cave, but some was left. He said it was a rare cave, in that the older inhabitants had carved petroglyphs into the rocks, and the new people, probably the Singagua, who had lived in the area from 900AD to 1400 AD, had painted above the Petroglyphs.







We also made it to Montezuma's Well, and Montezuma's Castle. Very interesting history. I can't wait to go back. My only regret is that we never made it to Oak Creek Canyon. We drove by it a couple of times going here and there.

Penny:

Glad you enjoyed the trip. Looks like you made good use of your limited time. Sorry about the snow up on the Mogollon Rim, but now you have a good excuse to come back.

BTW, how's your new puppy doing?

Jim

Thank you Jim,

Puppers is doing GREAT!! He loved his first day of work, slept quietly in his crate, didn't bark, whine or cause any trouble.





Thank you for asking! I hope to get back to see the Mollogon Rim, and Flagstaff. What little part of the Pines that I saw was breathtaking- especially with the Ponderosa Pines covered with snow.

Pj

Penny,

Glad to hear about your trip, it really sounds like you had a ball. It has been years since I have been to Jerome - I really need to get back there. That is an interesting place!

Thanks for the shots - reminds me of why I like that place so much. Really curious about where that cave is - but agree with the decision to keep it secret.

Dave

All I can tell you Dave, it is in one of the canyon/rock photos. Unfortunately, I can honestly say I do not know which one, only that I had taken a photo of it before I knew where we were going. 'll look through my photos again and see if I can find the photo. It's quite distinctive, I shot it wide enough that you can see the tumble of rocks larger than a house where the other cave had flaked off. It was down one of those side canyons and partway up the side where the cave is, in one of those cracks.

I found the photo. It is somewhere in this area down one of the large "cracks", that turn out to be smaller canyons. The canyon we were in was quite small, maybe a couple of a hundred feet deep and only 50-57' wide.



Sorry I can't give you any more info. Looking at the photos, they are all starting to look alike.

Really great photos with great color! Looks like you had some overcast skies, did you use a filter also? Sounds like you had a really great trip.

Diana

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Really great photos with great color! Looks like you had some overcast skies, did you use a filter also? Sounds like you had a really great trip.

Diana

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Hi Diana,

Thank you for the compliment. No filters, and I dodged rain and snow the whole time. The weather was miserable! Cold, windy and rainy. We were going in and out of the rain with each canyon. The weather out there took a little getting used to.