Arizona Dreaming - Sedona

How do I begin to describe this area?  I am awestruck by the grandeur of the huge, red stone fortresses which surround this valley.  Rocks the size of mountains loom up against a clear blue sky.  Rocks which are orange and rust and red with spots of green where tenacious high desert plants cling to the red soil.

These mammoth 'structures' have been carved by wind and water and weather.  Some of them look like huge sentinels guarding the valley below.  If I look closely I see features, shapes, castles, doorways - only my imagination limits what I see.

As I look out and up at these rock formations I am filled with gratitude that I can stand in the presence of such rough hewn beauty and natural grandness.

"The finest quality of this stone, these plants and animals, this desert landscape is the indifference to our presence, our absence, our coming, our staying or our going. Whether we live or die is a matter of absolutely no concern to the desert". –Desert Solitaire - Edwart Abbey

Flying to Sedona

We're off to spend a week in the desert community of Sedona, Arizona.  I can hardly wait!  In all the years that we lived in the west I never once got to see the Grand Canyon -- so that will be one of our side trips. 

I am imagining the red rocks around Sedona, the deep blue skies and the clear air.  In my mind I am already walking along paths that take me into the quiet, vast desert.  I'll have a sketch book in hand and my camera by my side and hopefully my mind will be filled with pictures and designs and inspiring thoughts. 

If only I could climb aboard an accommodating bird - instead of a big metal one that is not always that accommodating -- this would truly be a trip of a lifetime!

"For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return". - Leonardo da Vinci