Sedona 2024 Weekend trip to Sedona, jump to: Montezuma's Castle National Monument Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte Boynton Canyon and Subway Cave Mariposa and Church of the Holy Cross Sunset and Auroa Borealis Devil's Bridge Hike Tlaquepaque Arts and Shopping Village Antiabha Stupa Peace Park Slide Rock State Park A quick stop to see Montezuma's Castle National Monument on the way to Sedona from Phoenix. This is a well preserved cliff dwelling built by the Sinagua poeple sometime around the year 1000 AD.   Driving into Sedona from I17 via route 179, some of the first iconic Sedona formations encountered are Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. Here we stopped for a quick hike before continuing into Sedona and having dinner at The Vault. The view from the terrace at The Vault resturant The next morning, we hiked Boynton Canyon up to the famous Subway Cave. I ended up going into the cave three times by three different routes and then spent some time as a tour guide offering the pros and cons of the various routes up and down to other hikers. First view of the subway cave and someone walking around the upper ledge going into the cave   The other way up is via the rock ramps where you can see some people sitting. People suggested that this was the harder way up, but it is far less scary then walking around the ledge which you can also see in the upper left of this picture. To get to the subway cave on this upper route, you have to walk around the ledge to the right of where Sheila is standing. It looks dicey because it is. My first time into the cave via walking around that scary ledge... Here I started up the rock ramp for my second entrance, not realizing I was leading the rush hour traffic that just materialized behind me   The first time I went up the ramp, I went all they up the left side, but that gets a little tough. The optimal route is to start left and then cut over where that rock and tree is. The third time with Sheila we went up this way. After the Boynton Canyon hike, we had lunch at Mariposa's one of the resturants in Sedona owned by Lisa Dahl and enjoyed the resturant's fabulous views. After lunch we ventured over the Church of the Holy Cross which was built seemingly into the side of a rock cliff. Few will see this view of the Church as it requires you to have explored a nearby residential neighborhood   We caught the famous Sedona sunset from a viewing area right next to our hotel off of Airport Road overlooking the town of Sedona. Then after a wonderful dinner at Dhal and Di Luca Ristorante Italiano we went back to the hotel where we learned that the aurora borealis might be visible all the way down to the southern united states. So we ventured back out close to midnight and got some shots at the Bell Rock parking lot! h The next day we ventured on another hike, this time to Devil's Bridge via the Chuckwagon Trail from the Dry Creek trailhead. On the bus to the trailhead we met a very nice English woman currently living in Los Angeles who we shared the hike with. First view of Devil's bridge. From this angle, it does look scary and we had to look away several times as people performed various stunts such as standing on one leg or sittting down near the edge. There was a line of people wating to walk out. Weather moving in...   Later that day we enjoyed exploring the Tlaquepaque Arts and Shopping Village aand took in some wine tasting of local Arizona wines View from the airport grill where we had dinner including a faint rainbow... On our last morning, we visted the Amitabha Stupa Peace Park and then ventured out on a short 4x4 drive This McDonald's location is the only location in the world with torquoise colored arches! Last on our itineary before heading home was a visit to Slide Rock park north of Sedona... Bonus picture of Sheila's favorite appetizer at Houston's resturant, a resturant we enjoyed when living in Boca Raton decades ago...