This is the first of what may be a couple of long-overdue post, about trips we took in the last couple of years.

In October of 2022, Brice participated in Javelina Jundred, a 100miler race down in Phoenix Arizona.

Accommodations in the Sedona area were quite pricey, so after looking around for an airbnb, we chose one in Cottonwood, a town 20min south. In hindsight I’m really glad we stayed there and not in Sedona proper. It turned out that Cottonwood was a much cuter small town.

The town of Sedona itself was quite underwhelming. There’s the main road that goes east-west and is lined with strip malls, and then the “center of town” is no more than a couple of blocks of tourist shops and restaurants, none of which appealed to us whatsoever.

The appeal of the town lies in the incredible landscape around it. Impressive rock formations that seem to have sprouted in the middle of the desert, and the easy access to most of these spots, pretty much off the side of the road, makes it a very, very popular tourist destination.

After reading a bit about hikes and scenic spot in the area, I learned that to really enjoy Sedona, you have to get up early. Catching the sunrise on top of one of the iconic rocks is a pretty magical experience, and certainly the best way to avoid the bulk of the crowd. Trail heads start getting busy at 8am and by 9am the parking lot to some of the most popular hikes is full.

With all that said, we really did enjoy our trip a lot, even if we had to adjust our morning routine. Getting up a 4:30 or 5am everyday, to drive out to a short hike and catch the sunrise from a elevated vantage point.

As always I planned a bit of a trip itinerary, and tried to keep our sunrise and day hikes within the same areas.

We flew out on December 24th, and landed in Phoenix around 12pm. We had rented a car with an online service called Turo – basically like airbnb but for your car – which turned out to be very effective, especially in saving us the wait time at the airport car rental counter.

After stopping to get groceries, we drove out to Cottonwood and made it there just after sunset.
Since it was Christmas eve, I had looked ahead at restaurants for dinner, and we opted for Merkin Vineyards.

Day 1

Sunrise: Little Sugarloaf Summit
Hike: Soldier's pass Cave and Loop
Sunset: On the road

On Christmas morning, we headed out early so we could catch our first sunrise.
We drove to the Thunder Mountain trail head, and hiked 1.8km to Little Sugarloaf summit. The first sunrise did not disappoint.

Afterwards, we headed out to a bakery to grab coffee and breakfast, then we drove to another trailhead, this time for a longer hike.
We hiked/ran a 15k loop on Soldier Pass trailhead. The first half of the loop was the busiest, because it lead to one of Sedona’s classic attractions: a cave.

Caves are all over Sedona. Some are more accessible than others, but all are appealing because they make a great backdrop for photos. And of course they attract a lot of visitors.

What’s funny about all those cave shots you see on social media is how different the caves often look in real life. When you get to the cave, you realize how the photo seen online only shows a very specific angle of the cave, or had to be taken with a wide lens from a specific spot in order to get that result.

Soldier Pass cave was down a small spur off of the main trail. It was definitely busy, and also, a lot more challenging to access than most people probably expected. You had to climb short but quite steep and technical slope to get there. After we left the cave and returned to the main trail, we kept going around the loop, and pretty much left all the crowd behind. We only passed one other couple of hikers in the whole rest of the way after that.

We did have a fun wildlife sighting, an actual pair of Javelinas, which look a bit like wild boars that eat cactus.

By the time we were done, it was just after lunch time (so really a lot of daytime left :P)
We had brought sandwiches which we enjoyed at the trailhead, then decided to head out to the town to see what it was all about.

We drove through the main intersection then headed south on 179. We drove down a bit and then stopped at a store off the side of the road, which had just the most eclectic assortment of every trinket imaginable. We spent some time just wandering the various parts of the store.

The store was near another Sedona landmark, the Chapel of the Holy Cross, listed as one of the popular spot to catch sunset. And yeah, popular it was, just parking was a bit of a zoo actually, but we were there so we found a spot and walked the short distance up the road to the Church plaza. The view was definitely worth it, especially seeing the minor effort it took, but it was still a bit early for sunset, and we didn’t feel like hanging around the crowd, so we left and drove out to a more residential area.

The nice thing about Sedona is that those massive rock features are visible pretty much every where you look, so we parked on a quiet street and watched the warm light slowly go down behind one of them.

After that we continued South on 179 and eventually turned off onto a couple of smaller country roads, taking us back to Cottonwood.

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Day 2

Sunrise: Doe Mountain
Hike: Boyton Canyon & Subway Cave
Sunset: On the road

Another early rise, this time we headed out to Doe Mountain for Sunrise. the hike was only 2.4k return, with 156m elevation.
the top of Doe mountain is really a flat plateau, with wide open vistas towards the south east.

As the sun was coming up, we also saw witnessed another tourist favourite: the rise of hot air balloons, in sync with the sun. It was really beautiful.

Doe mountain trail head was a bit more remote from the main road, so we planned on doing another hike nearby, without going into town. After some breakfast by the car, we headed to Boyton canyon.

The trail was a difference experience than the day before. Running through a narrow canyon, it was definitely cooler and more humid. the vegetation was completely different from the desert, it was like a microclimate caught between high rock walls.

We went all the way to the end of the trail, where the canyon walls meet. Our timing was pretty impeccable, as we arrived at the end just in time to see the sun start to rise over the wall, and we could sit for a minute in the warm light, after running in the shade for a bit.

On the way back, we took another detour to another cave. This one is probably one of the most popular and photographed on Instagram: Subway cave

The cave was actually for the most part, a natural path carved into the side of the wall, snaking around a few bends. It was wide enough to walk safely but also wide open to the outside.

We had to climb, once again a bit of a steep section to get there.

As expected it was quite crowded, but we managed to capture a few people-free shots.
The shot that the cave was most famous for was a narrowing of the walls on one end, with a wider opening in the center.

After we finished the hike, we had some food off the side of the road, then went to look for a coffee shop to just relax for bit. We found a spot in one of the strip malls of the main road and enjoyed some quiet time there for a bit, then we went back out to find a spot for sunset.

It was a bit overcast, so we didn’t get a clear view of the sun going down, but it was still really cool to see the colours change over the rocky landscape.