Sedona: Red Rock Country

On our return from the Grand Canyon, we stopped for the night at Sedona. We got an early start the next day and spent the morning taking in the sights and photographing as much as we could.

Sedona is a beautiful, small town located in the northern part of Arizona. It is one of the more popular tourist destinations in the state and also home to 10,000 permanent residents.  Sedona’s main attraction is its array of red sandstone formations. The formations appear to glow in brilliant orange and red when illuminated by the rising or setting sun. The red rocks form a popular backdrop for many activities, ranging from spiritual pursuits to the hundreds of hiking and mountain biking trails. Sedona is a haven for spiritualism. People travel there to experience the sense of well being associated with exposure to Sedona’s vortices. For those who believe the earth to be a living organism, a vortex is a place in nature where the earth is exceptionally alive and healthy.

I go there to enjoy the scenery and take pictures. I’m still working on the vortex idea.

Moving on, my first few pictures are typical scenes from the area, beginning with this one of the peaks and cliffs to the west of the town. Of note are the different colours of sedimentary layers in the rock, red and white.

Another view to the west, this time with greater inclusion of the foreground to illustrate the variety of plant life in the desert environment and of course the richly-coloured red soil.

This next shot features a landform very common to this part of the US Southwest, a mesa. A mesa can be confused with a butte, which is much narrower at its top. The confusion is understandable. How wide is a mesa at its top? How narrow is a butte? This one is a mesa and it’s red.

This next landmark is a mountain, Thunder Mountain to  be exact, photographed from its south end in the early morning.  The sun is quite low in the sky and only partially illuminating the area. Lots of shadow.

I particularly like this next photo, also shot in the early morning. The light is again only partially illuminating the scene creating strong contrast, particularly between the brightly lit grasses on the ridge and the shadowy background.

Walking back toward the car after shooting all those red rocks, I came upon an interesting and attractive Utah Juniper. The fact that it was backlit made it more interesting and certainly more challenging to photograph. It’s shape and the texture of its bark makes it an appealing subject. I positioned myself to avoid direct light from the sun in the picture and later adjusted the shadows in Photoshop to bring out the colour and texture of the bark and needles.

I’ll wrap up today’s post with this picture of the Chapel of the Holy Cross, a Catholic chapel built on a mountainside. This picture was taken from the road below as we were leaving after our visit there. Do you see the eagle soaring above?

I very much enjoyed this visit to Sedona (and the Grand Canyon), accompanied by Rolande and her nieces, Marie-Josee and Nadine, two very good photographers and fine company.