Mr. & Mrs. Vandebilt + kids

After our time in Vegas we headed back to Arizona to catch some of the highlights in the northern part of the state. We booked ourselves a place in Flagstaff because it was pretty central to what we wanted to see – Sedona and the Grand Canyon – but didn’t cost a fortune. Our little cabin in Flagstaff worked out just perfectly.

We had this wonderful little cottage nestled in a huge pine grove. It reminded me so much of lakeside – if just slightly bigger – and with no beach in sight. We thankfully had this place booked for 6 nights, an eternity by our current standards, which gave us plenty of time to hang around home, rearrange the van, plus take a couple of trips into Sedona. What we maybe didn’t realize (again, planning multiple concurrent trips means we have done very little research) was that Flagstaff was at over 7000 feet in elevation, which meant it was still very much winter where we were staying.

Thankfully, just 30 minutes down the road in Sedona, it was decidedly not winter. We managed to squeeze in two different trips to this magical little place. On our first trip in, we quickly realized that it is now Spring Break season, and Sedona is a popular spot. You are required to take a shuttle to the hike we wanted to do at Cathedral Rock, so after grabbing some lunch at the only blue McDonalds in the world (it tastes just the same if the arch is blue), we instead decided to do a less busy, but still spectacular walk.

We were slightly better prepared our second trip in to Sedona and got ourselves to the right parking lot for the shuttle to Cathedral Rock. Unfortunately for us, the upper half was closed for maintenance, but we got to walk down to the creek instead. We also managed to get stuck in a rain/hail storm that caused nearly endless whining and moaning for the trip back. I personally thought it was super cool as the rocks look completely different, and the volunteer at the trailhead confirmed that it is super rare to get to hike Cathedral Rock in the rain.

After a quick pit stop for ice cream and coffee in downtown Sedona we headed to the airport for some fabulous city views before saying goodbye to Sedona.