Hiked March 16, 2025. After the drive down from Kingman and the visits to the Crane Petroglyphs and Montezuma Castle, we drove back up I-17, exiting again at Exit 298, AZ-179. Left turn at the bottom of the ramp and you're on your way toward Sedona. Our motel tonight was the Kokopelli Inn Sedona, although it's actually in the village of Oak Creek, a bit south of Sedona. It was priced somewhere around $250 a night, or 27,000 Wyndham Rewards Points, which is what I used.
Room was nice, the location worked, and the price, while very high by my standards, was about what other rooms would go for in the area. And I've got plenty of points, so although the value for the points was not particularly good (less than a penny per point), it did mean no out of pocket expense, which is a plus.
The price included a light breakfast. "Overnight oatmeal" was the main attraction. With available dried fruit and nuts, it was pretty hearty. Beyond that, it was toast, muffins, coffee, or juices. I grabbed a muffin, but wound up eating two oatmeals, instead. The muffin went home with me. At home, one of the cats found it, and chewed it up. Stupid cat. :D
The hike was after a late lunch. We wanted to eat at a place in actual Sedona, but the traffic was terrible, followed by the impossibility of finding parking, so we wound up driving back to where we started from and eating at Los Betos, a local Mexican food chain that we first became acquainted with about 25 years ago (!), during my wife's internship in Tucson.
After a bit of resting up, I walked out of the room, down the stairs, and headed north. My Alltrails showed an access to the trail system by just heading along the residential streets, east of AZ-179. Unfortunately, that was a lie. Accessing the trail would have required crossing a signed No Trespassing area. So I had to backtrack a bit to get back to the main highway, and approach via the large (but mostly full of cars) parking area that is the south trailhead for the Bell Rock Pathway.
I had no real destination or route in mind, other than going mostly north, and trying to make a loop of it. My intial though of going around Courthouse Butte was nixed, on account of it possibly taking too long. I only had about two hours of daylight, and, despite having Alltrails, could not be sure about the difficulty if I did start the loop and then ran out of daylight.
So I just wandered around Bell Rock. Ended up going counterclockwise rather than clockwise, as I would have preferred, just because there were some young women ahead of me who turned that way, and I didn't want them to feel like I was following them. I mean, if I knew where I was going, I could have just accelerated past them, but because I didn't know where I was going, I had to keep stopping at each trail crossing to confirm my direction.
And because this is a heavily used trail, there are a LOT of crossing trails, and a lot of unofficial trails. Even with the heavy signage, it was easy to get misdirected. Matter of fact, later that hike, I encountered an "older" couple (meaning probably a little younger than me) who couldn't find their car. I directed them to go back the way I came and make a left, and it would take them back to the parking lot. But then, about an hour later, as I made my way around Bell Rock, there they were again, heading north, rather than south. I sure hope they were parked where I thought they were parked, because, otherwise, who knows how long they had to walk after dark!
In any event, Alltrails says I walked about 4 3/4 miles, mostly flat, and got back to my room somewhat after sundown, but before it got dark. No doubt, could easily spend several days hiking the area and visiting other ancient indigenous ruins. But it was only a long weekend for me, and I had to get back.
Incredibly scenic place, but also pretty heavily travelled. Still, not hard to get some breathing space, once you got away from the road.
The next morning, before breakfast, we made a quick drive north to see the Chapel in the Rock. It was one of two things I saw pictures of before going, and wanted to see.
Turns out if you go early, the road to the top is gated, so I could only take a picture of it from far below.
I was told that around spring break is their busy time, and it surely was busy. The debacle of trying to eat in Sedona was off-putting, but, man, those rocks sure are pretty. It's as gorgeous in real-life as it was in pictures. I'd like to return again, with more time for hiking. Would also be great in a monsoon -- you could see stains where short-lived waterfalls must run, after those rains or after the snowfall melts. That would also be amazing.
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