Sedona and the Grand Canyon

I visited the beautiful town of Sedona and spent a little less than 24 hours in the Grand Canyon at the beginning of February. This trip was something my husband and I did annually for several years but it had been about five since our last trip.

We decided a while back to do this and we booked one of the nicest suites at the El Tovar lodge in the Grand Canyon; it has a large deck that overlooks the Canyon and is just a stunning place to stay. We also got lucky in that our stay coincided with a full moon - actually, one of the special moons - the Snow Moon. This allowed us incredible night views of the canyon.

One of the best parts of traveling at this time of year is the general lack of crowds. I guess word has gotten out - we had the most “crowded” visit ever this time around. Not to say it was really crowded. Parking was easy and so was getting in to eat. However, the dining room at the El Tovar, usually only partially filled, was filled to capacity. We saw more folks while we were out hiking as well.

We noticed that Sedona also seemed busier, especially on the hiking trails. During previous visits we might only see one or two other groups of hikers. This time we saw quite a few. We also took our mountain bikes on this trip. In the five years since our last visit mountain biking has really taken over Sedona. The town has catered to it - there is a bike park and several new trails have been created with mountain biking in mind.

We took advantage of the new trails - several of them were within a couple of blocks of our resort and we could simply ride out the door and hit the trails. A couple of times we put the bikes on the car to explore other areas but we found the best riding out the back door.

Overall, it was a great trip. We rented movies and got to see several of the Oscar nominated ones. We mostly cooked our own meals, but twice went out for late lunches - once at the airport and once at Mariposa, a restaurant new since our last visit. We also went to the movie theater on our last night to see Parasite after it had won so many awards.

We had beautiful weather for most of the trip and have come home to more gorgeous weather. It is, of course, a mixed blessing; we really need it to rain. The spring-like weather is bringing out some new listings, which is good. The inventory has been low for most of the winter, so it is good to see that picking up. While we enjoyed our days away, it’s always good to be home.