Kay Travels
A deep, wide canyon of red and cream cliffs under a clear blue sky, with a river winding along the bottom and snow on the rocks in the foreground.
The Colorado River from Desert View, the last viewpoint on the South Rim.

Winter 2018 · Arizona

Rim and Red Rock

Four winter days in Arizona: dinner at El Tovar, snow on the Grand Canyon rim, and red-rock hikes in Sedona.

When
Route
Phoenix airport → Flagstaff → Grand Canyon → Desert View → Sedona
Length
4 days, 3 nights

The week after Christmas we flew to Phoenix and drove north for dinner at El Tovar and a night on the Grand Canyon rim. Then came snow along the rim road and two nights among the red rocks of Sedona, with a little drone along for the hikes.

The route

Route of Rim and Red Rock Arizona Grand Canyon Mogollon Rim Verde Valley from Sacramento home to Sacramento 1Phoenix airport 2Flagstaff 3Grand Canyon 4Desert View 5Sedona 025 mi

Drive Ferry Flight

  1. 1Phoenix airportDec 28–31
  2. 2FlagstaffDec 28–29
  3. 3Grand CanyonDec 28–29
  4. 4Desert ViewDec 29
  5. 5SedonaDec 29–31

Day 1

Cloud over the canyon

1Phoenix airport2Flagstaff3Grand Canyon

A great bank of cloud sat over the Grand Canyon when we reached the rim, and we took turns posing at the low stone wall while the mist settled into the canyon behind us.

Two girls seen from behind lean on a low stone wall and look out over a vast canyon under a large bank of cloud.
At the rim wall soon after we arrived.
Two girls in purple and pink jackets pose by a stone wall, one with a peace sign, with dark cloud over the canyon's buttes behind them.
Storm clouds still hanging over the canyon's buttes.
A smiling man in a navy jacket with his arm around a girl in glasses and a pink jacket, a towering white cloud over the canyon behind them.
At the rim, a towering white cloud behind.
Two girls stand against a tan brick wall beneath a wooden sign reading Kachina Lodge with room numbers and arrows.
Under the Kachina Lodge sign.
A man and two girls stand at a low stone wall, with cliffs, pines and mist filling the canyon behind them.
Cliffs, pines and mist as the cloud settled in.

Getting there was the long part: a dawn flight out of Sacramento, a truck stop in the Verde Valley where the little drone went up, and snow in Flagstaff, with some clowning around in a wet parking lot. Then we reached Grand Canyon Village in time to look around before dinner.

Aerial view of high desert with patches of snow, a dirt yard, a cell tower and big trucks parked along a highway under white clouds.
The Verde Valley stop from the drone, snow still patched across the high desert.
Two girls in winter jackets clown for the camera on wet pavement, one with peace signs and one with her arms out, a Del Taco and snow-dusted cars behind them.
Clowning around in a snowy Flagstaff parking lot, a Del Taco behind.

We had a table for four at the El Tovar dining room, on the edge of the canyon. Before dinner we warmed up in a lodge lobby with a tall Christmas tree and a fire under the stockings, and after sunset the canyon went pink and grey.

A tall Christmas tree with red and gold ornaments and white lights rises past a dark wooden balcony with cut-out railings hung with garlands.
The lobby's tall tree, hung with red and gold ornaments.
A woman in a white knit hat and two girls stand in front of a stone fireplace with a fire burning and Christmas stockings on the mantel.
Warming up by the fire, stockings on the mantel.
A woman and two girls stand at a stone wall, the canyon's purple and red layers stretching away behind them.
The canyon's purple and red layers in the last of the afternoon light.
The canyon under a pink and pale blue sky after sunset, with a pale limestone point and pines in the foreground.
The canyon after sunset, pink and pale blue over a limestone point.

The practical bits Southwest flight from Sacramento to Phoenix; Budget rental car from Sky Harbor. I-17 north to Flagstaff, then west via Williams. Dinner at El Tovar (table for four, reserved ahead). Night at the canyon; the Kachina Lodge sign, next door to El Tovar, made a good backdrop for a photo.

Day 2

Snow on the rim, red rock by dusk

3Grand Canyon4Desert View2Flagstaff5Sedona

Sun was just reaching the tops of the buttes at eight, with frost on the garden path in front of El Tovar. Breakfast came under the dining room's hanging lanterns.

Early sun lights the tops of the canyon's buttes while the depths are still in blue shadow; a trail winds down a slope below the rim.
First light on the buttes, a trail winding down the slope below the rim.
A dark shingled hotel with dormers, a turret and a long log porch at first light, with frost and a little snow along a garden path.
El Tovar's turret and log porch, frost on the garden.
A woman and two girls at a white-clothed table under hanging lanterns, one girl raising a patterned coffee cup and the other making peace signs.
Breakfast under the hanging lanterns: a raised coffee cup and peace signs.

At Mather Point we posed at the park sign and joined the crowds on the railed promontory. Farther east the plowed snow beside the road was good for a snowball fight, and we paused at Grandview Point.

A woman and a girl stand at one end of a stone sign reading Grand Canyon National Park and another girl beside the Park Service arrowhead, under a clear blue sky.
At the Grand Canyon National Park sign.
People line railed walkways out onto a rocky promontory, with the canyon spread out under a cloudless sky.
The railed walkways at Mather Point, full of visitors.
A woman in a white knit hat and two girls in bright pink and orange coats pose at a railing, the canyon behind them in clear morning light.
Bright coats against a clear morning.
Two girls in red and pink coats throw snowballs by the plowed edge of a road under bare oaks and pines.
Plowed snow beside the road was all it took.
A woman in a white hat and green scarf with her arm around a girl in a red coat at a snowy stone wall, the canyon behind them.
The snowy wall at Grandview Point.

Desert View, the last viewpoint on the South Rim, had snow along the path to the stone Watchtower, and the Colorado River ran far below.

A paved path between snowy banks leads toward a round stone tower under a deep blue sky, with people walking along it.
The snowy path out to the Watchtower.
A woman and two girls in bright winter coats stand in front of a tall round tower of stacked stone, with a twisted bare juniper and snow on the ground.
At the foot of the Watchtower, a twisted bare juniper alongside.
A painted orange disc with a turquoise lizard hangs above a clay bowl on a rough stone wall under log beams.
A painted lizard over a clay bowl.
A round stone building with big windows and a small turret on top, snow and icicles along its walls, under a clear blue sky.
Icicles along the walls of the round room at the base.

By afternoon we were in Sedona, with snow on the red-rock spires above Midgley Bridge. The drone went up over the bridge, and all four of us hiked red-dirt trails until the last sun lit the peaks. Dinner was a takeout cheeseburger in the hotel lobby.

A steel arch bridge spans a red-rock canyon, seen from a rocky path with prickly pear cactus in the foreground.
Midgley Bridge from the path, prickly pear in front.
A woman and two girls stand in a dirt parking lot with parked cars, below red-rock spires streaked with snow.
Snow streaked the red spires above the parking area.
Aerial view of a red-dirt parking area among pines beside a steel arch bridge, with snowy red-rock ridges and spires above.
The bridge and its parking area from the drone, ridges and spires above.
Two girls in pink and red coats, one giving the other bunny ears, with pines, scrub and snow-streaked red rock behind them.
Bunny ears on the trail.
Two girls and a woman in a wide-brimmed hat walk in single file along a narrow red-dirt trail through scrub and pines.
Single file on a narrow red-dirt trail.
A man and two girls on a wide red-dirt path, a red-rock ridge and pale cliffs behind them in late sun.
A red-rock ridge and pale cliffs in the late sun.
Red-rock peaks glow orange in low sun above snowy slopes and bare cottonwoods.
The peaks glowing orange above snowy slopes.
A stone-and-timber restaurant with turquoise patio chairs and heaters, the red rocks lit by the last sun behind it.
A restaurant patio in Uptown Sedona at dusk, the rocks lit behind it.
A girl eats a cheeseburger from a yellow wrapper at a table in a hotel lobby with brochure racks and a framed map on the wall.
Dinner: a takeout cheeseburger.

The practical bits Breakfast in the El Tovar dining room, then Mather Point, Grandview Point and Desert View along the rim road. Down through Cameron and Flagstaff to Sedona. Arroyo Pinion Hotel in West Sedona, the first of two nights.

Day 3

Up to Chicken Point

5Sedona

The Little Horse trail climbs through juniper under a flat-topped butte and a pair of tall spires.

A grinning girl in a red coat, pink gloves and a white star-print hat stands among scrub, with two red-rock buttes and trail signs behind her.
Setting off from the trailhead, two red buttes behind.
A woman in a striped sun hat with her arms around two girls in winter hats on a rocky red trail, a big red-rock mountain behind them.
A striped sun hat on the rocky trail, a big red mountain behind.
A man and two girls in hats on a wide stretch of red gravel, with a flat-topped red butte and twin spires behind.
On a wide stretch of red gravel, the flat-topped butte behind.
Sunlit red-rock cliffs and two tall pointed spires rise above juniper and scrub under a deep blue sky.
The butte and its twin spires from the trail.

At the top, Chicken Point is a saddle among the red cliffs, with a stone cairn, red boulders to stretch out on, and banded slickrock to scramble over with everyone else who had come up.

Two girls stand next to a stone cairn with a trail post at the foot of a pair of layered red-rock spires.
At the cairn below the spires.
A girl in a red jacket lies on a big red boulder while another girl waves beside her, below two tall layered spires.
One flat out on the boulder, one waving.
A wide red slickrock slope with a person in red climbing it and two others sitting on the rock, cliffs and forest beyond.
Climbing the broad slickrock.
A woman and two girls hug on smooth red rock, with other hikers gathered on a rock ledge behind them.
A hug on smooth red rock.

The drone, a little DJI Spark, flew along the cliffs, over the slickrock dome with a pink tour jeep beyond, and at sunset once more over Capitol Butte.

Aerial view over a round, banded red slickrock dome with a few hikers on top, a pink jeep parked beyond, and red and white cliffs across the valley.
The slickrock dome from the drone.
Aerial view at sunset of a red-rock mountain glowing orange above trees, houses and a curving road.
Capitol Butte glowing above West Sedona, from the drone.

The practical bits Parked at the Little Horse trailhead south of town; about a mile and a half each way. Second night at the Arroyo Pinion Hotel.

Day 4

Bed of nails, then home for New Year's Eve

5Sedona1Phoenix airport

The last morning began early on the Airport Mesa overlook, with the lights of West Sedona still on below Capitol Butte.

A woman in a white knit hat stands by a coin-operated viewer while two girls look out over the lights of a town below a big red-rock mountain at dawn.
The town lights still on below the mountain at dawn.
A woman and two girls in winter hats stand on a gravel overlook, with the town and red-rock ridges behind them under grey cloud.
West Sedona and its red-rock ridges under grey cloud.
A man in a navy jacket and track pants stands with two girls on a gravel overlook in early morning light, red-rock ridges behind them.
The same overlook, a minute later.

Phoenix filled the afternoon: lunch at a Wendy's, then the Arizona State Capitol, with a photo under a tall saguaro, a look up into the rotunda, and the model of the battleship USS Arizona in the museum.

Two girls eat at a fast-food table, one with a red chili cup and a big drink, the other with a salad, Wendy's posters on the wall.
Wendy's: chili for one, salad for the other.
A woman and two girls stand under a tall saguaro cactus with one arm, on a path beside a lawn on a grey day, an Arizona flag in the distance.
Under a one-armed saguaro on the Capitol grounds.
A man and two girls stand on a plaza before a stone capitol building with a copper dome, U.S. and Arizona flags and tall palms.
The old Capitol and its copper dome.
A brass chandelier of glass globes hangs from a skylit dome ringed by a wooden balcony.
A brass chandelier under the rotunda's skylit dome.
Two girls look at a large model of a gray battleship in a glass case.
The model of the USS Arizona.
A woman and two girls lean on a round wooden railing under a chandelier, with a Christmas tree and flags on the far wall.
A Christmas tree still up behind the rotunda railing.

The Arizona Science Center downtown was busy with holiday crowds. There was a turn on the bed of nails, and a ride on the bicycle along the high wire, strapped in with the floor far below. We were home in time for New Year's Eve.

A woman and two girls walk through a crowded lobby with concrete columns and a sign reading Inspire them. Support us.
The Science Center lobby, crowded with holiday visitors.
A girl in a pink fleece and leopard-print leggings lies flat on a bed-of-nails exhibit, holding a control handle.
Flat on the bed of nails, holding the control handle.
A girl in a harness sits on a yellow bicycle at the start of a high wire while a staff member in yellow checks her in; the busy floor is far below.
Strapped in for the high-wire bicycle, the floor far below.
A long, nearly empty airport concourse with a striped floor and a branching chandelier of small lights hanging from a wood-slatted ceiling.
Home through a nearly empty Sacramento terminal.

The practical bits Checked out of the Arroyo Pinion and drove to Phoenix by way of Cottonwood. Car returned at Sky Harbor; Southwest flight home to Sacramento in the evening.