For several years now, I have had the habit of making it a point to travel somewhere new to ring in the New Year. Sedona is known as being one of those places that feeds your soul, so it appealed to me on reputation alone. Sometimes, you go some place and you find that it is a sort of sterile destination that looks just like some other place you just got back from. The moment you get close to Sedona, you know you have seen nothing else like it in the world. The red rocks surround you and the entire town.
Enchantment Resort
Enchantment Resort was home base, and was luxe and perfect and all of that, but truthfully a little over the top for us. We did enjoy a private guided tour into Boynton Canyon where I made a point to ask about the tarantulas. I had not seen even one of them yet, so I was concerned about where they might be hiding. I was told that they run in September, so I made a note to myself to stay the hell out of Sedona during September.
Shopping
The best shopping excursion we took was meandering through the Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village. We easily spent a few hours here. The Renee Taylor Gallery literally almost made us cry. Everything in there was so beautiful, and believe me, they were passing out the champagne to loosen purse strings! We had never seen so much fine contemporary art that we liked all in the same place. In particular, there was an artist who was working with steel, but the work was so fluid that you thought it was glasswork.
Hiking / Vortexes / Aura Photos
On New Year’s Eve Day, we saw all of the vortex sites. The map for them can be found at www.lovesedona.com. Sedona is known to have four main vortexes. The claim is that they are centers of energy that strengthen people. Well, we went to all of them and were not cognizant of feeling any energy. However, when we got to our last stop at Bell Rock, we did have a wonderful experience. It began snowing lightly, and we enjoyed about a two hour quiet peaceful hike with some light rock climbing sprinkled in. The red rocks were magical looking with a little snow on top. (Although slightly resembling a giant plate of blue cheese potato chips, if you ask me).
We kept seeing heart-shaped rocks being placed in trees. Then we started noticing them everywhere. I don’t know what the story is on this, but they are fun to spot.
Almost immediately after our long hike on Bell Rock, I was drawn to Center for the New Age. I insisted that Bob pull over and we went in and asked about having an aura photo taken together. We were the last appointment of the day for Jamie Jones-Hoaglund. Amazingly, the photo came out with us showing the same colors. Lots of white, and we were told that we had the highest spiritual colors. It was a very touching and moving experience for both of us.
We loved Sedona.
Further reading:
http://reneetaylorgallery.com/
Jamie Davis Writes 
March 25, 2014 at 4:52 pm
Between the Sinagua ruins, Oak Creek Canyon and the beautiful red rock views there are many varied things to keep you coming back to Sedona again and again. Sedona green