Trip to Sedona... Spirituality... and the Bell Rock trek

Pondering Courthouse Mtn, and the Vortex...

Hey folks, welcome to 2013.  I'm way behind on my writings, so I'll get right to the adventures.

Tanya had some time off for Christmas so we decided to take a little jaunt over to Sedona, Arizona to see what that was all about. It was a fitting trip, considering our planet's passing from the Piscean Age into the Aquarian Age, and that Sedona claims to be one of the spiritual power centers of the universe. They claim that there are 3 vortexes of spiritual energy that converge in Sedona. And indeed, Sedona's 'New Age' tourism industry is doing very well.  I am very sceptical when artists and hippies and religulites start talking like frootloops about whimsical things that cannot be scientifically proven. Spiritual energy vortexes? Crystals and minerals, gemstones with metaphysical properties with which to heal the physical world? There's absolutely no scientific proof to prove nor disprove any of it. So like all spirituality and blind faith, if you believe it to be true, then it is.  And in this day and age, or course, it all comes with a price tag attached to it.

There were many crystal and gemstone shoppes in Sedona, each stone having a detailed description of the metaphysical properties that it holds and what it could do for you. The descriptions were so wild and varied, so artsy and whimsical that I just have to shake my head at it all. A peddler at one of the shoppes we were in was having fun with a little kid, trying to explain to him what the energy of the gemstone would feel like in his hand, "a slight vibration," she said. His older sister exclaimed, "Yeah! I feel it!". And the little boy kept saying, "its not doing anything..." After the saleswoman tried some more convincing, his mom chimed in to defuse the little boy's frustration and asked her husband, "David, is Tony left handed?" as if maybe he was using the wrong hand.  I think the kid had it right. But who knows. I purchased some stones for myself that had descriptions of the metaphysical properties I'd like to work on in my life, wondering if maybe they'd help me envision a better future for myself. My new blue goldstone is supposed to help me develop my telepathic abilities and attract success and fame. I also got a Lapis Lazuli, the Philosopher's Stone, which I'll let you read about if you follow the link. I can't even begin to summarize the powers that the lapis holds. But I have it, so I'll let you know if I suddenly am able to do miraculous things :)

Its a 4hour drive to Sedona, a really nice drive. To sum it all up, it was like we had a mini-trip across Canada, just across the border into Arizona the highway begins to climb and soon you are passing through high mountain passes and then out onto great plains of golden-silvery grasses as far as the eye can see, dotted with clumps of green trees. On and on, an hour of straight, flat highway across the desert prairies. Eventually we started climbing higher and higher into another mountain range. This is what is referred to as the high mountain desert, higher and higher, until snow appeared in the shadows of the mountains and the trees started getting bigger and bigger and closer to the highway. And then, before long, snowbanks(!) appearred where the plows had pushed it off the highway! You folks back home won't get any kicks out of this, but for my desert-adjusted eyes seeing nothing but boring brown for the last 9 months here in Vegas, the snow was quite a welcome sight. Especially at christmas to counteract the freaky Vegas christmas phenomena, which is a whole other story. There were cars stopped all along the highway with the tourists getting out to take pictures of themselves in the snowbanks. When we reached Flagstaff, Arizona at 7370 feet above sea level it was certifiably winter! We stopped at a park to let the dogs out for a run and test my tires on the icy park road. There were lots of families out with their kids in full winter-gear, building snowmen, sliding, snowshoeing. The dogs loved the snow and I found out my car isn't equipped for winter driving, which is good to know. I still had my sandals on, so I wasn't dressed for this at all. It was cool to find winter so close, but at an arm's length away.

We left Flagstaff and noticed our onboard navigation system displaying a most unusual road pattern that resembled a small intestine. We soon found out why as we started down a steep, narrow, curvy mountain road that hugged the cliffsides, a quick drop of 3000 feet down to the valley on the other side. Down and down we went, and I couldn't shake the thought of a boulder landing on our car as there was rocky debris on the road everywhere. Eventually the road straightened into a deep valley and came out of the mountain's shadow to skirt along a deep gorge with bright orange cliffs and lush greenery surrounding us on all sides. Then we came into Sedona.

What a beautiful place! Sedona is nestled snuggly into a lush valley landscape, so neat and tidy. Its a small town, about 15,000 people or so, and it seemed to my eye that many of the buildings are built into their landscape setting as to not disturb the scenery. As such, there were lots of earthy colored houses camoflauging themselves into the landscape with big windows to take advantage of the magnificent views. The whole valley is so lush and green and the mountains surround it with a bright spectrum of orange cliffs on all sides, everchanging with the day's light. There were lots of wow moments, I couldn't imagine living here. I would love to have the time and money to play and explore this area. There are about 150 hiking/biking trails so its very much an outdoorsy, artsy lifestyle sorta place.

We stayed at the King's Ransom hotel which thankfully accepted dogs. We're always wary about bringing the dogs with us, but we wanted to go on a hike while we were in Sedona and wanted them with us. They were pretty good. They got a good dose of 'mommy and daddy don't care if you're howling' sorta treatment when we left them in the car for several extended periods of time. They work each other up and explode in a howling two-part harmony. Its funny, but also annoying.

Sedona seems to value their small-townness, and they seem to want to keep it like that.  As such, their buildings are reminiscent of a long gone past, an old farmtown existence, very natural.  There are three main streets and very few traffic lights.   Most intersections still rely on traffic circles to direct the flow, which were quite annoying.  I'd hate to see it at peak traveller season.  They also had slanted parking which I haven't seen in a long time.  It is also a haven for artists to come and set up shop, so there are a ton of studios selling art that no normal working person could afford.  It seemed to me that the powers that be want to keep the town small and endearing while keeping the prices extraordinary to maintain the high value of their community.  It was very inspiring to visit all these shoppes and galleries, and made me wonder once again why the hell I am not making art that sells for thousands of dollars and setting up shop in Sedona.  In a lot of the galleries the artists were present if you wanted to talk to them.  It was a really cool experience visiting all those art studios, some of the artworks we saw were absolutely amazing.

Sedona truly found its stride as a community when Hollywood came to town to film the old western movies.  Then it became a destination, and the big names started passing through and taking up residence.  On the whole, I got a mix of a ritzy sorta country vacation feel to Sedona.  Touristy but not trashy and plastic-like.  Touristy more in the sense that this was a spiritual trip to experience a lot of art and enjoy the nature of the area.

We visited the Chapel of the Holy Cross that overlooks the valley. It is a magnificently simple building that, standing at its altar and looking out, ... I've never been to the holy land, but the stillness and the peace and tranquility that pervades the whole scene at the Chapel is a very moving experience. The building is so simple and magnificent, a giant concrete box built into the mountain with a long curving walkway leading up to the rear main level and full, building-height doors that humble you as you enter. And then there was the high pitched, two-part harmonized howling coming from our car and echoing off the canyon walls. Beautiful. But that cross... its sooo massive and imposing, built into the front wall of windows so it extends through both sides with a most impressive view of the valley. Its very impressive.

Then we took a hike out to Bell Rock, one of the supposed Vortex sites. For a nice December 23rd day, the sun was really warm and the worn down orange-dirt trails were screaming for mountian bikes, which we seen a lot of. Thankfully we packed a lot of water for the trek. Tanya has finally learned not to depend on me for her own water consumption. I packed a trail pack with food and bottles and a first aid kit, but I forgot to put it in the truck when we left Vegas. So all we had were Tanya's water pack and Reese's Xmas chocoates. We rounded Bell rock and explored its trails and climbed atop the gentle giant. Zuma, for his 12" height, is a mighty little trekking dog! He doesn't stop for anything, unless one of his pack starts lagging behind. He will always wait to make sure the last person is still coming or he'll go back to find you. Clancy is our forward scout and hardly ever looks back unless you tell him to wait.  

Bell Rock is supposed to be a tranquil spot with unusual spiritual energy, and it was tranquil and beautiful but the only energy that was ever-present was that of the tourists everywhere climbing and playing on the mountainside. Other than the incredible views at Bell rock, I can't say that the Vortex had any affect on my day or my perspective. It was just so nice to be out hiking with Tanya and the dogs, that was my ultimate satisfaction. But then, as has so often happened in our lifetime, my sense of adventure and direction once again led us astray and the hike ended up being much, much longer than expected. I figured there was a connecting loop, there wasn't. The only connecting loop was around another mountain, Courthouse Loop. 2hrs into the trek, we stopped to consult the internet (!!!). At that point, we found ourselves to be directly in the middle of the big loop, 2miles to go in either direction, and so we forged onward around Courthouse which was a much more rugged trail and the right decision. The change of landscape was awesome around that mountain, very harsh and frozen in the shadows, then around to the sunny side where the sun beat down on us, eventually winding out into great wide plains of golden grasses. What an awesome day! A 4 hour trek with the family that left us all winded and tanned and needing to sit for a while to recouperate.

That night we decided to go to an Irish Pub beside the hotel for a final capper to the weekend. There were only 4 people in the bar including us and one of the patrons was a cowboy who tipped his hat to us upon arrival to say hello with a big smile. He reminded me of one of the north shore boys up home. He left and said his goodbyes but then a short time later he came back into the place and made a beeline for us and asked me who I was, which was very strange but not unwelcomed. He said I looked like the type of guy who enjoyed a smoke every once in a while and dropped a christmas present into my palm. Wow! I can't even describe how much I appreciated that. What a great capper to 2012!

We left Sedona the next day with the threat of a snowstorm in Flagstaff, so for the first time in a long time, we had to actually tune in to a weather program to see what we'd run into at the top of the mountain. We knew we had to get out early to beat the storm, so we grabbed a quick breakfast on the way out of town and began our ascent into the mountains. So strange to go from the orange desert environment of Sedona into the winter wonderland of Flagstaff, what a dramatic change. We gassed up in Flagstaff and standing out alongside the car with the ice cold wind relentlessly whipping through my cotton pants, I was right back in Campbellton NB. We left winter behind over snowswept highways, through the mountains, back across the wide open plains, and down down into the sunshiney, dull, boring desertscape of Las Vegas. Home, our home away from home.

Thanks for reading!

TRJ