My First Time in the Southwest: Part 2

This post is Part 2 of my first time in the Southwest. If you haven’t read the first part, go here!

The next morning, we all groggily woke up and headed out to breakfast at Scramble. Their food was so good! And the coffee was much needed. We got to enjoy the beautiful outdoors while sitting on the patio.

After eating, we headed out to Sedona. Driving through the desert is so beautiful. I fell in love.

These mountains don’t even look real…

It was about a two hour drive and on the way there, we researched about the energy vortexes.

Our first stop was Bell Rock. We didn’t do this hike, because we did not originally plan on hiking. We stopped at the parking lot and took pictures like typical tourists. It was so beautiful to see the the contrast between the red colored mountains and the deep blue skies.

The next stop was Chapel of the Holy Cross. This was a truly magical place. The spiritual energy inside the chapel was strong…I’m not sure how else to describe it. I sat in one of the back pews and soaked up the energy while praying. The outside walkway for the chapel had amazing views. You could see for miles. Parking at the chapel is a nightmare, but we made it happen with patience.

We decided to head into downtown Sedona and we stopped at the first New Age store we saw. It was a neat stop, but very overpriced. I wished we would have stopped at a different New Age store farther into town. After driving around downtown, we decided we liked the natural landscape better and started to head back.

Before we officially left downtown Sedona, we stopped at the Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village. The architecture of the buildings was absolutely beautiful. We loved walking around and exploring. There were a few restaurants that smelled really good too, but we weren’t hungry yet.

Courtney mentioned that we should stop at Cathedral Rock as our last stop before heading back to Phoenix. We decided we would do the easier part of the hike and paid the $5 to park.

We slowly made our way up while taking pictures.

But then, we kept going and it included actual climbing. I tried to convince Brian and Courtney that we didn’t need to hike all the way to the top. Especially since I wasn’t prepared for this kind of hike. Surely enough, we kept going and climbing. I was terrified. I’m a little bit afraid of heights, but they kept encouraging me.

I don’t know how long it took – maybe an hour? – but we finally made it to the top and it was totally worth it.

Clearly that’s not me hanging out on the ledge. It’s Courtney, the daredevil.

A local told us to continue past the crowd of people and there was a secluded spot. As terrifying as it was, we climbed over there too.

It was truly an amazing view. Pictures do not do it justice, ever. I wish I had enjoyed the moment a little more than I did. I felt so accomplished, but I could feel my body panicking about how in the world I would make it back down. I sat there, at the top, and I felt as though my body could self-combust from the fear I had. Tip: Don’t be scared, you will be okay. I want to hike it again and truly enjoy every moment. I learned a lot about myself on this hike.  I have a lot of resistance to new things and I let fear hold me back.

According to Snapchat, we were at about 4700 feet. Truly incredible.

Getting back down was way easier than I thought it would be. I basically crab walked the whole way down since I’m not very steady on my feet. I joked that there should be a pizza and beer waiting for me at the bottom…sadly, there wasn’t. I felt extremely accomplished and blissful when we reached the bottom…must have been the vortex energy 😉

The look of accomplishment for conquering my fears

During our drive back, we watched the sun go down. We stopped at Sunset Point Scenic Overlook to take a break just as it was getting dark. We couldn’t believe how cold it had gotten! They say it gets cold in the desert, but I didn’t realize.

When we were about 20 minutes from our hotel, I placed an order online for pizza from Lou Malnati’s Pizzeria. I’ve never had Chicago style pizza before, but it was so good! It was definitely worth the price and pizza never tasted so good as it did that night haha.

Before we decided to call it a night, we took an Uber to a local bar to have a drink. There weren’t many places near our hotel, so we ended up at a bar in a strip mall. It was actually a chill environment and Brian got to play pool with someone.

We got about 3 hours of sleep before we had to get up for our flight in the morning. I’m not sure I really slept lol. We had a connecting flight in Charlotte, and then we finally made it back home.

I was sad to go back to the cold, gloomy weather. I absolutely adored my time in Arizona and I’m already itching to go back. I never had a desire to go to the Southwest until this trip. There are so many beautiful places to see and everyone is so darn nice! I wouldn’t be sad if we had to move to Phoenix ;), but I think I need to experience their summer too lol.

Don’t forget to check out Part 1 if you missed it last week

Have you been to the Southwest? What did you think?