VACATIONS FROM HOME: JEEP TOURS IN SEDONA

IT’S GONNA BE A BUMPY RIDE
The Sedona, Arizona Chamber of Commerce estimates that an average of 3 million tourists descend on this city yearly. Lured by the majestic scenery of the Red Rock Country, and the history, and the thriving art community, and perhaps the chance to espy a UFO or to seek personal enlightenment is such a draw for hikers, artists and spiritualists that it threatens to overwhelm the 10,000 residents of Sedona. Despite the traffic congestion and overcrowding it all has a positive economic impact of roughly $1 billion per year and supports 10,000 area jobs.

WANT TO GET METAPHYSICAL

There are certainly plenty of activities in Sedona to choose from. Hiking for us was the main draw of Red Rock Country and trails ranging from easy to difficult are everywhere in the immediate area. Download the AllTrails app to find a trail that suits your interests.

AllTrails

Not to get into the details of Sedona’s Vortex, but these spiritual energies that evidently course through the Sedona area and the several vortices supposedly found in the area are a huge tourist draw. Whatever your feelings about what some consider pseudo-science, people do gravitate towards these phenomena and claim to experience tingly skin, or vibrations emanating from the ground whenever they enter a vortex. They come here for spiritual healing or rejuvenation and these “emanations” generate a lot of tourist revenue.

In Sedona there are plenty of crystal shops and healing centers and tours that support those on these spiritual “new-age” hadj and all it takes is a couple of keystrokes in an internet search to find that cure all tour.

FOLLOW THE RUGGED ROAD

Spiritually sound we opted instead for a good old standard rugged jeep tour to help us explore this beautiful Red Rock Country and in Sedona there are plenty of tour companies to choose from. The ubiquitous though oddly named Pink Adventure Jeep or Pink Jeep Tours was recommended to us by friends, so we went with them, and were happy for the choice.

Pink Jeep Tours is a massive presence in Sedona, with the main “office” in the heart of Uptown, though we booked our Scenic Rim 2.0 tour for Thanksgiving Day at their kiosk at the Tlaquepaque Arts and Crafts Village. The company is well organized and courteous. When we had to postpone our tour until Saturday it took just a phone call and it was done. In writing this article I had a question and phoned the main number of Pink Jeep Tours. They were gracious and had all our information and necessary answers at the ready!

Worlds colliding, Sedona, AZ

Pink Jeep Tours is one of several tour companies in Sedona, but they also operate at the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas and in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee, and would consider them for any future excursions.

PINK JEEP TOURS

HIGHWAY TO HELL!

Perhaps the most fascinating part of Sedona is that everything is RIGHT THERE! Despite the crowded Uptown area of Sedona with all its restaurants and shops and art galleries, you don’t have to go very far to get away from it. We had parked our car at the Los Abrigados the sister resort to our Sedona Summit Resort and walked up to the Pink Jeep tour center and all along the way the beauty of the Red Rock Country was off to our right, the Oak Creek below. Across the street commerce brimmed, but to our right were the rock formations that have lured outdoorsmen like Kit Carson, and artists like Max Ernst, although you would be hard pressed to find Sedona represented in this surrealistic painter’s art, but it was easy to see how all this beauty made for great scenery in countless Hollywood westerns.

MOVIES SHOT IN SEDONA, AZ

The beauty we admired as we walked was the Bear Wallow Canyon and it was where our jeep tour went.

The tour went on a road that was once used to transport goods to and from Flagstaff. It’s called Farm Road 153 or Schnebly Hill Road, which starts innocently enough in Sedona at a traffic circle, but soon becomes a steep, twisting unpaved road of rocks, ruts and washboard ripples. It’s definitely only for high clearance 4-wheel drive vehicles especially in the lower part of the road.

SCHNEBLY HILL ROAD

Schnebly Hill Road was first laid out as a way of getting produce and wares to Flagstaff and this road eventually does connect with Route 17 which is a major highway, but those 12 miles are as treacherous as the scenery is spectacular.

Our tour took us as far as Merry-Go-Round Rock (one of them there vortices), which is evidently a great place to see sunrises, sunsets and stargazing, although I would not want to drive on this road at night. We snapped some pictures, although they would never do the vista justice before picking our way along the rugged road back to Sedona.

Along Schnebly Hill Road, Sedona

We purposely sat in the back of the Jeep and as we bounced in our chair and drooled over the stunning landscape our guide told us the history of the area, the different animals and the varied uses of plants by the indigenous people. The trip was fun and educational. It was a Saturday on a holiday weekend though, so there were a lot of vehicles also enjoying the late afternoon drive. There were several other tour jeeps, and people in their private vehicles, either OHV (Off-Highway) or 4-wheel drive plying the road. There were smiles everywhere, although we did pass one disabled vehicle and the owner looked despondent because it looked like a broken axle!

The Pink Adventure Jeeps are specially outfitted for the terrain, so we had no such concerns.

PRICKLY PEAR
Prickly Pear Cactus

Afterwards we waded into Uptown and had drinks and dinner at 89Agave Cantina. We had margaritas, but instead of tequila we had them mix our drink with smoky mezcal! Janet had her “mezcal margarita” with Prickly Pear syrup, which they called the “Funky Cacti!” Our tour guide had mentioned the Prickly Pear and how the fruit of this flowering cactus makes a sweet drink. They made guacamole right at our table and street tacos for food. A nice way to end the day.

89Agave, Sedona