Sedona - Cathedral Rock hike

Saguaros looked absolutely amazing (click here to see - Saguaro National Park - King Canyon and Gould Mine hike) but we got toasted while hiking there. We also had other plans and wanted to explore somewhere cooler, so the next day we drove north to explore the Sedona area. Located at 4350 feet (shut up those who live in a mile high city, I know how you feel about such silly elevation ;) ) Sedona offers a pleasant coolness (compared to Phoenix). Known for its red sandstone formations and vibrant colors...

 

Even though the temperature here was lower than in Phoenix, we were still unsure of a long and heavy hike, so we decided on Cathedral Rock trail. Relatively short, easy and beautiful and... we had no regrets. Just look at the rock we were walking towards!

And the view down the valley was also astonishing. The combination of red rocks, green leaves and red-ish roofs looked very attractive...

The trail weaved up between the rocks and our destination looked even more impressive as we got closer.

Honestly, we couldn't make our mind, which view we liked best, Cathedral Rock in the southwest or down the valley in the northeast...

Even hiking above the treeline we still saw a lot of greenery (but mostly thorny plants). The trail can hardly be called boring...

At some point we looked down, trying to track a trail that brought us nearly 1,000 feet above the starting point, and we were surprised to see it - the path was well beaten by the soils of thousands of hikers and was easy to find on the red stones.

On the way up, the trail made two sharp turns, marked with signs to keep people from falling off the cliffs.

Believe it or not, but we spend quite a lot of time here, sitting on the warm rocks and looking down at Sedona. The view was absolutely mesmerizing.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross was built in 1956 (look at the bottom of the image to see it). What a pity we didn't have time to visit it but... what about doing it virtually? Click here to learn more about the Chapel - Chapel of the Holy Cross

 

Stairway to the stars... Actually, despite the fact the stairs were steep, it wasn't the hardest part of our journey. Previously we had to climb even steeper slopes without the help of steps... But this was the last stretch of the path before we found ourselves on the edge of the cliff overlooking the valley on the other side of the Cathedral Rock...

But before getting there we turned around to enjoy the valley that we left just an hour ago. Now we can clearly see the road and the parking lot at the trailhead...

I love this secluded butte and have taken tons of pictures of it ;)

Finally we stopped at the narrow isthmus separating two valleys...

The northwest valley looked just as incredible as the other... What a view...

It was the real end of the trail ;( so we had to turn around and come all the way back... A little over three hours (two for hiking and one for taking pictures and admiring the valley down below ;) )... just over 4 miles and 1380 feet of elevation gain. And it wasn't as hot as the day before! The temperature was actually around 75-80F there, which was perfect (compared to the over 100F we experienced the previous day).

Click here to see the trail on Google Maps - Cathedral Rock Hike

Wanna to see something different? Click here - Jerome AZ, the town with a story...

Pictures were taken on May 01, 2023.