Sedona

A couple weeks ago, Erin and I joined a bunch of friends from ASU on a camping trip to Sedona. What a beautiful place! It was great to get out of the city and hang out at a campsite. We had a campfire and roasted some vegetables. I got stung by a bee, which was a bit stressful considering that when I was younger I had allergic reaction to bee stings, but I ended up being fine. The picture above follows the Sadie Hawkins picture tradition begun by Veau and Emily several years ago in Las Vegas.

Actually, everyone split really early after we woke up and packed up the campsite except Erin and I and our friend Brian. Brian had recently visited Sedona with his family and taken a guided tour. He has a pretty awesome memory, so he drove us around and recreated the tour. He remembered pretty much everything.




We can never pass up the opportunity to take a picture of a pun.





This is my friend Brian. He's in the MFA program at ASU. He's a fiction writer. I heard him read last Wednesday and I wasn't disappointed. He's really good. He's also a hell of tour guide if you ever go to Sedona.

This formation is called Bell Rock. It's pretty impressive, but somehow in Sedona it get amalgamated into the spectacle that is the overall landscape. It wasn't until I started looking at the pictures that I realized how amazing some of the rocks there really are. There's a certain sublimity about it when you're there.


Brian took us up to a famous Catholic chapel that is built on the side of one of the mountains. For some reason, we failed to take a picture. However, this pricey bit of real estate sits at the bottom of that mountain. It has an observatory. We saw the owners outside when we drove by. They had a shitload of little, white dogs.


The rocks are red because of a high concentration of iron. The iron is oxidized, so basically, the famous red color is the result of the iron in the rocks rusting. There are other sediment layers of softer material, like sandstone, which accounts for the stripes.



One of the great things about Arizona is the proliferation of authentic Native American art. This gem was in a gift shop. Notice the busty cactus cowgirl sneaking into the picture on the right.

There was so much to see, but I don't feel like inundating the blog with a million picture of red rocks that don't do justice to the actual experience. I can't wait to go back to Sedona.