Thursday, February 23, 2017

We heard, we heard… it was sunny and hot in Canada! Good for you! Here, it is sunny or cloudy (these skies are surely temperamental), very cool and sometimes windy. It is the world upside down! Luckily, the sun heats up the day, making it pleasant to walk around.

We started the day with a drive to Cathedral Rock, but both trailhead parkings were full. We decided to leave the place to more “fit” hikers and come back later… In the meantime, we took a lesser travelled road and stopped at the Schnelby Hill Vista (off Schnelby Hill Road) overlooking the Merry Go Round rock formation.  Very pretty under sunny skies! We started our walk on a very steep trail towards the river below, but turned back after a while… that was enough cardio for the day!

As we headed back to Uptown Sedona, we stopped at Tlaquepaque, a distinct community built to capture the vibrance of Old Mexico. As you know, I am not a shopper at heart, but this was very pleasant because of the many interesting art galleries and high-end merchants, not to mention a coffee shop with scrumptious pastries! Raymond and I took a gentle stroll among shops, arches, iron railings, ceramic tiles, bronze sculptures, flower pots full of pansies, and verandas. The sun made all the difference!

We stopped at El Rincon for… you guessed it… Mexican food! I would rate it as just as OK because we experienced better in Canada. Reasonably priced, though, so no complaints there.

Remember Cathedral Rock? That’s where the real magic happened! We were hoping to witness the Golden Hour on this magnificent rock formation… and we did! There is a lot of things that you need when you do photography, but the most important one is probably… patience! Raymond is a master at it and me… well… not so much (hum!). So I am grateful for my patient husband! We followed the locals advice and drove to a remote spot called Crescent Moon Ranch, where the view of Cathedral Rock was awesome. Set by a river and a large bed of dry flat red rocks, the spot was ideal for photography. Then, the sun hit the rocks and… there are no words…you had to be there! It was also neat to see other serious photographers share tips on best angles. That was amazing!

We drove back following the Upper/Lower Red Rock Loop until the night set in… Loving it!