Courthouse Butte Loop Trail

Yesterday we hiked one of the iconic hikes in Sedona, Courthouse Butte Loop Trail.  The trail loops around Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock.  Bell Rock is known as a powerful metaphysical “vortex” in Sedona...Sedona is known for it’s healing and special properties to create wellbeing.The trail was 4 miles, with some ups and downs equaling about 400’ elevation gain but it felt very level.  Most of the hike the weather was overcast but with the sun breaking through occasionally.  Even without the sun the colors experienced on this hike were exceptional.  We hope to go on more of these beautiful…

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Review, L’Auberge de Sedona

We have spent the last 2 days at L’Auberge de Sedona for our anniversary. https://www.lauberge.com/ This is a sister hotel to the Hotel Jerome in Aspen where we stayed last month.  As you drive up to the reception area there isn’t much to see, it seems rather bland but that is so misleading!  Once at reception we could see the outside dining at that point we knew we were in for a very memorable couple days.  We were upgraded to a Garden Cottage (complements of AMEX Platinum Fine Hotels) and directions given.  When we arrived at “Cottage 12” we looked…

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Fossil Creek Hike

Monday we hiked to our first waterfall in the southwest.  To reach the trailhead we drove about 16 miles on a 4WD road.  The drive took about an hour to go 16 miles because of rocks!  Once at the trailhead the hike started by continuing up the dirt road about 1/3 mile before it turned into the woods.  While hiking, Carol said she saw a sign that the gate closed at 4pm; so we picked up the pace to get to the falls and back to the car before the gate was shut.  I never hiked so fast...it was about…

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Verde Canyon Train & Grand Canyon

We have decided to spend the next 9 days in the Sedona area.  On Thursday we went on the Verde Canyon Train which explored the Verde River and remote canyon.  The  tracks were built early 20th century to haul copper from Jerome where one of the largest copper mines in the world was located.  It was a fun outing, https://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-jerome/On Friday we took a daytrip to visit the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.  When we got there a rush of nostalgia overcame us from when we hiked rim-to-rim and from when we rafted 8 days on the Colorado.  We truly…

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