Sedona

Sitting at a comfortable 1,326 metres (4,350 feet) elevation right where the high ponderosa-pine rim of the Colorado Plateau drops 600 vertical metres into the Verde Valley of central Arizona, Sedona is surrounded on all four sides by 1.8 million acres of protected Coconino National Forest. Unlike national parks where you drive inside a gate to view cliffs from afar, Sedona is a town built directly among dozens of 300-metre-tall crimson, orange and cream sandstone buttes, spires and mesas, coloured by iron-oxide (hematite) coatings on 275-million-year-old Permian Schnebly Hill and Coconino sandstones that glow like hot coals at sunrise and sunset on the ancestral homeland of the Yavapai and Apache Peoples.

Along scenic Red Rock Byway (Highway 179) rise the twin icons of Bell Rock, Courthouse Butte and the modernist concrete Chapel of the Holy Cross wedged directly into the cliffs, across from the spired fortress of Cathedral Rock. In Dry Creek basin to the northwest, trails lead to the natural sandstone arch of Devil's Bridge, the hidden Subway Cave in Boynton Canyon, and the sinkhole of Soldier Pass and the Seven Sacred Pools. North of town, Oak Creek Canyon (Highway 89A) winds past the natural rock chutes of Slide Rock State Park, while sycamore trees shade the Mexican-style courtyards of Tlaquepaque Arts Village. Start with our before-you-go briefing and top things to do in Sedona.

Sedona sits almost exactly halfway between Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX, 190 km / 2 hours south down Interstate 17) and the Grand Canyon South Rim (175 km / 2 hours north via Highway 89A through Oak Creek Canyon and Flagstaff). While Groome Transportation runs daily shuttle vans from Phoenix Airport to Sedona, hiring a car is strongly recommended for exploring Oak Creek Canyon, Red Rock Crossing, Montezuma Castle and Jerome. For the five most popular hiking trailheads (Cathedral Rock, Devil's Bridge / Mescal, Soldier Pass, Little Horse and Boynton Canyon), park your car for free at one of the municipal Park & Ride car parks and ride the complimentary 'Sedona Shuttle'. See getting to Sedona and how the free Sedona Shuttle and Red Rock Pass work.

Sedona's hotels are spread across a Y-shaped intersection formed by Highway 89A and Highway 179: stay in Uptown Sedona if you want to walk to over 30 restaurants, jeep-tour depots and Tlaquepaque Village with panoramic eastern rock views; stay in West Sedona (2 to 4 miles west on 89A) for better hotel value, organic supermarkets (Whole Foods and Natural Grocers), top local restaurants and instant access to the Posse Grounds Shuttle Hub for Devil's Bridge and Soldier Pass; stay 6 miles south in the Village of Oak Creek for quieter suites directly facing Bell Rock and Cathedral Rock; or splurge on a canyon resort inside Boynton Canyon or along Oak Creek. Compare all four zones in where to stay in Sedona.

Scramble up the red sandstone saddle of Cathedral Rock and photograph its reflection in Oak Creek at Red Rock Crossing, walk across the 16-metre natural sandstone arch of Devil's Bridge, step inside the cliff-wedged 1956 Chapel of the Holy Cross and hike around Bell Rock, find the hidden Subway Cave in Boynton Canyon, see the Devil's Kitchen sinkhole and Seven Sacred Pools on Soldier Pass, ride a Pink Jeep 4x4 over Broken Arrow slickrock and watch sunset at Airport Mesa, drive through Oak Creek Canyon (Slide Rock & West Fork Trail), stroll Tlaquepaque Village, and visit 800-year-old Palatki and Montezuma Castle cliff dwellings. Full list in things to do in Sedona.

Sedona is the culinary jewel of Northern Arizona, pairing modern Southwestern cuisine with panoramic cliff-view terraces and local Verde Valley wines: fire-roasted corn with spicy mayo and cotija cheese at Elote Cafe, Latin-inspired steaks on a bluff facing Snoopy Rock at Mariposa, tables under the sycamore trees right beside rushing Oak Creek at Cress on Oak Creek and Hideaway House, prickly-pear cactus margaritas, and crisp Arizona Syrah and Malvasia Bianca along the Page Springs Wine Trail. Read more in our Sedona dining and wine guide.

Inhabited from 650 to 1400 AD by the ancestral Sinagua people (who left multi-storey masonry cliff dwellings and thousands of rock pictographs) and still home to the Yavapai-Apache Nation, Sedona evolved from 1902 homesteader Sedona Arabella Miller Schnebly's apple orchards into a 1940s Hollywood Western movie set, a fine-arts colony and an International Dark Sky City.