[Jim_H]

So up here in Utah, there are all these National Parks. I've been to Bryce and Zion on my way back from Grand Teton. All I can do is compare them to Sedona, and also think of how great Sedona is. I've done my fair share of things in Sedona, but now I feel like I need to do way more than I have and really get out and suck in those red rocks before I leave Flagstaff. It was especially interesting to me that a guy on the Zion bus started talking about how some of the stuff he saw today was "beautiful like Sedona". I was like, "yeah, I live half an hour from there". Awesome.

[big_load]

Yeah, it disappoints me that whenever I suggest other AZ destinations to folks too late for GC permits, everybody else tells them to visit Bryce and Zion instead. I have a long mental list of special places in AZ, and I guess only the AZ diehards can be convinced of the joy to be found in them.

[azbackpackr]

I haven't been to Bryce or Zion. Guess I should try actually hiking in Sedona sometime. I have passed through there many times, makes me want to vomit, all the frickin' pretentious honky houses sticking up everywhere. And all that idiotic airhead New Age drivel about vortices turns me off real quick, too. Plus, I hate crowds. (I know, I have some issues... )

So, I just pass through. The only place I have actually visited over there is to Palatki ruins and pictographs. Well, maybe sometime I will go hike there. I expect the three-mile rule might apply there as well--hike more than 3 miles from the TH and you will leave most of the crowds behind? Or do you have to go further?

[Rob del Desierto]

That's funny, since I've always called Sedona Arizona's attempt to have a Moab, even when I lived in Flag.

[big_load]

hat's funny, since I've always called Sedona Arizona's attempt to have a Moab, even when I lived in Flag.

It does lack the sheer scale. But it's also a lot easier and less expensive to get to, and most of the people who won't consider it have never seen anything like either one. They visualize AZ as the Grand Canyon surrounded by nothing interesting.

[chumley]

I have passed through there many times, makes me want to vomit, all the frickin' pretentious honky houses sticking up everywhere. And all that idiotic airhead New Age drivel about vortices turns me off real quick, too. Plus, I hate crowds. (I know, I have some issues... )

You and I are 100% in agreement. Probably the issues too...

[paulhubbard]

hike more than 3 miles from the TH and you will leave most of the crowds behind? Or do you have to go further?

Not even 3 miles. Just go up the canyon a ways and there's some great hikes! North Wilson Mountain http://hikearizona.com/photoset.php?ID=11466is a good one, park at Encinoso picnic area and find the trail at the north end of the parking lot. Thomas Point is another good one, up by West Fork (WF is probably too crowded for your liking).

[Jim_H]

I used to be right there with you guys until I started hiking it in early 2008. I look past the bizarre and ridiculous and enjoy the beauty of the place. I like to do the lesser used things like Capitol Butte, Morning Glory, and try to enjoy Oak Creek Canyon as well; AB Young, Telephone and the like. Oak Creek Canyon was fantastic last December after we got our first big snows, I hope to see that again. The "look at me" stuff and the tourist stuff can be frustrating when it is crowded, and the new age stuff is odd, but if you ignore that and enjoy what the place has to offer it can be a real pleasure. If there was no Sedona, Flagstaff would be way less enjoyable. What would we have? A couple of volcanoes and a pine forest, and of course a dingy town. Sedona provides a diversion from that, especially at the coldest time of year. When I leave Flag, I won't miss more than a few things, if even that, but I will miss Sedona. If how I feel right now is any indication, I won't really miss Flagstaff, the Peaks, Elden, or much else about the Flag area, but I will miss Sedona. I'll miss ponderosa pine if I don't have easy access to that, but that is a different rant.

[azbackpackr]

Plenty of Ponderosa Pine near San Diego, Tucson, Albuquerque, etc.

[jeffmacewen]

Awesome...but crowded.

[azbackpackr]

3 mile rule...

[nonot]

3 mile rule...

You can hardly ever get 3 miles away from a TH in Hippie-dona

[big_load]

I must have been lucky, or else you folks aren't waiting for it to cool off enough. Sure, I've seen a zillion people circling Bell Rock as if in Mecca, but otherwise I've been mostly alone.

[joe bartels]

Me too
Believe it's the 1/16 mi rule for Sedona

[jeffmacewen]

Must be a seasonal thing. I've really only been up there three or four times so I don't have enough data to compare...

[hippiepunkpirate]

I love Sedona in the winter, and typically my excursions are early morning and are during the week. Can't tell you how many times I've barely seen anybody. It's true that most of the hikes are on the shorter side, but most of the canyon hikes are longer and you can really get back away from everyone. I personally like the openess out in the monuments, and you generally always have to look at some part of the town. I can normally deal with this because I understand that's the price of easy accessibility. Sedona isn't somewhere I go if I have a ton of time to explore, it's just right for short trips to escape the summer cold. That's what makes it different from Moab or Kanab, it's not out in the middle of nowhere. Sedona's red rocks are incredibly unique and definitely a "must-see" for the out of towners. Sedona isn't "perfect", but no place is and you have to take it for what it's worth.

[tonyp]

While researching the hiking guide, I've found the three mile rule to be pretty reliable. Of course, the most popular trails in Sedona are shorter than that, and weekdays offer no solace. Woopies drive the RV up and stay the week. But if you keep hoofing a bit, you'll find some solitude.

I'll take hippies over rednecks every day.

Seeing the place in person is better than the postcards. I thought I'd grow weary of red rocks, but I haven't. If there hadn't been a ranch town settled in the middle of it all, this would have been a national park.

[azbackpackr]

I'll take hippies over rednecks every day.
If there hadn't been a ranch town settled in the middle of it all, this would have been a national park.

Double bingo! I've been saying that for years about Sedona, that at some point the Feds could have bought up the ranch land to make a national park, but they didn't. Either no one was pushing for it at the time, or there must have been some politics involved. I don't know the history...

I see rednecks all the time where I live. A hippie or two would be downright refreshing.

[jeffmacewen]

I'll take hippies over rednecks every day.

I completely agree; though, given the choice, I'd ideally encounter neither...