We arrived in Sedona a week ago, on January 17. Sedona is not only a beautiful place to visit, it is a metaphysical hub of spiritual activity. Many people call Sedona "The Vortex". It's really a bunch of different vortexes, and the town is filled with psychics (300, we're told), metaphysical healers, yoga instructors, aura experts, meditation centres, crystal shops, and vortex and UFO tours. (Vortexes are areas of highly concentrated energy conducive to prayer, meditation and healing.) Apparently, the earth's crust is normally 50 miles thick before you hit lava, but here it is only 15 miles thick, hence closer to the swirling lava and negative ions (which cause a state of positiveness).

Sedona has some interesting rules - no buildings over 2 stories, and all buildings must be painted in the natural Sedona colors (muted oranges, light green, tan, etc) . They have no big box stores, and tons of thrift and consignment stores and local businesses. They actually had a bylaw against having a Walmart. It has since been repealed but it's a mute point, as there isn't a piece of land big enough for a Walmart. ;o) They do have a McDonald's, but the building conforms to the color code - even the M is teal green instead of golden. They have one little Ace Hardware store, and it does a thriving business with no Home Depot or Rona stores around.

We have spent our time here so far in awe of the place. Besides the red rock formations, which are due to the presence of hematite (iron oxide, otherwise known as rust) that stains the sandstone, Sedona is full of giant sycamore and cottonwood trees. I especially loved the sycamores, whose smooth white bark glows in the morning sunlight and evening sunset at our RV park.

The afternoons here are beautiful, with temperatures in the high 60's F (~18 C), but as soon as the sun goes down between 6:30 and 7, it cools right off and goes to around freezing at night . Our evenings are spent playing cards, reading, or watching TV or movies. We had purchased a new digital TV in Surprise to replace our analog TV, which could no longer receive the digital cable feeds. The RV park has 68 cable channels and a little library of DVDs. On Tuesday night, we went to the Brad Cummings Show, a comedian and ventriloquist who is on tour in the U.S. and has been on David Letterman.

Our RV park, Rancho Sedona, is great. It's a quiet park set along a creek in the valley below the red rock formations. We have a private fenced site at the end of our row, with a nice patio and a grassy area. We are a short walk to town, and to amazing hiking trails. We spend time walking, hiking, biking (my front tire tube went flat on our first outing - a craft for Roger), exploring, and doing chin-ups (def'n: the act of pushing one's chin up with one's hand, thereby closing a gaping mouth that had dropped open in awe of something).

Many of the rock formations here are named for what they resemble (e .g., Coffee Pot Rock, Chimney Rock, Cathedral Rock, Castle Rock, Steamboat Rock). One of my favorite formations is Snoopy Rock, which looks like Snoopy lying on his back on his doghouse, complete with a chunk of rock for his nose! We spend time pouring over the map while touring around, trying to find the various formations. From Airport Mesa (a flat area - mesa - on the road up to the airport that has amazing views of the red rock formations overlooking Sedona), we got a panoramic view of the main string of formations (the tallest is over 7,000 ft) overlooking Sedona. We returned to Airport Mesa to see the sunset light up the rocks, and got an unexpected treat when the sunset refracting off the wispy clouds lit up the sky in brilliant reds, pinks and purples.

Early in the week, we drove over to Oak Creek and stopped to see the Chapel of the Holy Cross,
a Roman Catholic chapel built into the buttes. It was built in 1955 in the Frank Lloyd Wright style, at a cost of $300,000 .  In 2007, Arizonans voted the Chapel one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of Arizona. It is also the site of one of the Sedona vortexes.

On Wednesday, we took a tour with the Pink Jeep Tour company, which was established in 1960 and is the original off-road tour company in Arizona. We did the "Scenic Rim/Broken Arrow Combo", which involved climbing to the Mogollon Rim for some amazing views, and some heart-pounding off-roading on the Broken Arrow trail and the "Road of No Return".

Within walking distance of our park is Tlaquepaque (pronounced T-lockey-pockey), a landmark here since the 1970's. Named for a picturesque suburb of Guadalajara, it is an arts and crafts village built to emulate Mexican artisans and builders, with arches, fountains, plazas and verandas. It was fun to walk around Tlaquepaque in the afternoon sunshine. We had lunch at Javalina Cantina, a Mexican restaurant recommended by a local we met at the Airport Mesa . Wonderful food. We loved the Gambel's Quails hanging around in the creek bed below our outdoor table - they have a cute little "cuck" on their head that made me giggle.

On Thursday, we took the road north through the Coconino National Forest and Oak Creek Canyon, a 16 mile scenic drive climbing to 6,000 ft with 2 miles of extreme switchbacks (and snow in the ditches!) :oP. Along the way is Slide Rock State Park, named after the famous Slide Rock, an 80-ft slippery shoot worn into the sandstone. Adventuresome folks slide down the slick natural water chute when it's warmer than 47 degrees F (8 C). Brrr.

Our time here so far has been wonderful. We have 3 days left, so I will likely report once more from here before we head out.