On our week long Arizona road trip, we spent our last day in Sedona. That morning we drove three hours from Page, Arizona, leaving us with only half the day left to explore. While this is in no way enough time to experience all that Sedona has to offer, here is what we were able to fit into our short time:

Our first activity in Sedona was hiking the Cathedral Rock Trail. Overall the trail is only 1.4 miles round trip, but in that short time the elevation rises 608 ft. It was definitely more challenging than expected with parts of it being more similar to rock climbing than hiking.  Overall the climb was moderately difficult as a novice hiker who is also afraid of heights but the views from the top made it all worth it!

Next we made a quick stop at the Chapel of the Holy Cross. High on the red rock hill, the simple design of the small Chapel of the Holy Cross looks out over the town of Sedona. The chapel is run by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix and was built in 1956. The interior of the chapel is unadorned and filled with ruby red candles for devotion. The unique chapel was voted by the citizens of Arizona as one of the Seven Man-Made Wonders of Arizona in 2007.

To round out our day we decided to unwind in the nearby town of Cottonwood at a winery located on the Verde Valley Wine Trail. While there were a few different ones to chose from on Main Street, we decided to do a tasting at Arizona Stronghold Vineyards. The menu was broken down into 4 flight options: white wine, two red wine flights and a mixture of colors. At $9 each we chose the mixture of red and white plus an all red flight. Jay served us our flights and gave us lots of information about each wine and where the grapes inside came from. All of the wine we tried was delicious and we got to keep our tasting glasses!

Overall, we wish we had planned more time in our trip to explore Sedona and the surrounding areas but we were very happy with everything we did get to see in the area. Hopefully some time soon we’ll make it back to Sedona to see more of what the city has to offer!