A day off from internship rotations and mid-high 70 F weather made for a perfect hiking combination today!

Since moving to Phoenix in late October, I have been eager to explore the city and nearby towns. Kevin doesn’t return to Colorado until next week so we decided to take a day trip to Sedona, a town about 120 miles north of Phoenix, and hike the town’s most famous landmark – Cathedral Rock.

We left Phoenix about 8.30am and stopped off at the Rock Springs Cafe for a late breakfast.

The cafe

is apparently known worldwide for their pies, but being only early morning we decided to skip the pies and instead I ordered steel cut oatmeal with cranberries and pecans while Kevin ordered a country style breakfast skillet. The cafe has some great history to it so it was fun reading about how the business developed from a canvas-covered store in 1918 to the operation it is today that also has a gift shop and saloon attached.

After breakfast we continued onto Sedona where we planned to hike Cathedral Rock. The landscape and views were truly awe-inspiring.

Once we got to the trail head we read the map and decided to take Baldwin trail which would then meet up with the steep climb to Cathedral Rock.

The scenery changed throughout the hike from red dirt to a calm running creek to greenery and shrubs

Although we didn’t have the correct hiking gear to get all the way to the top of Cathedral Rock, we made it about 2/3rds of the way before taking a short break, snapping  a few pics and heading back down.

Sedona is very famous for their “vortex’s”, areas of the land that are said to bring energy and peace. Kevin and I joked about ‘feeling the energy from the vortex’s’ on the hike.

Personally, I think you could find peace and gather energy just by enjoying and marveling at the views, no vortex needed for me!