Sedona (SEZ) worth a visit?

[peevee]

4 day weekend ahead, and the wx looks decent to try and get around the rockies and somewhere warmer for a couple days, is sedona worth a visit? I had considered santa fe, the grand canyon, something like that. All depends on the wx, stupid ice....

[flyboy0681]

Oh yea.

[FlyDave]

Bring your Birkenstocks, a bag of weed and get your dreadlocks done up....you'll fit right in.

[jsimmons619]

I'd highly recommend taking the Broken Arrow tour with Little Pink Jeeps in Sedona.

[N201MKTurbo]

What do you want to do there? I go hiking there a few times a year. Mountain biking is awesome. The shops and restaurants are tourist traps and overpriced. I've never taken the Pink Jeep Tour, but anything that gets you out in the countryside will be great!

[peevee]

Just now, N201MKTurbo said:

What do you want to do there? I go hiking there a few times a year. Mountain biking is awesome. The shops and restaurants are tourist traps and overpriced. I've never taken the Pink Jeep Tour, but anything that gets you out in the countryside will be great!

We'll probably hike and just explore a little. It's only a couple nights. But being close to Xmas I don't know if they get slammed with rich folk like everywhere in Co does, so I'll have to call the fbo and make sure they have room for us too I guess. 

[N201MKTurbo]

This is not the high season. About the only special attraction is the lights and displays at Tlaquepaque. If you are there in the evening, drive up to Flagstaff and walk around Downtown. I think there is a lot more to do and the restaurant and bar situation is much better. 

[peevee]

59 minutes ago, N201MKTurbo said:

This is not the high season. About the only special attraction is the lights and displays at Tlaquepaque. If you are there in the evening, drive up to Flagstaff and walk around Downtown. I think there is a lot more to do and the restaurant and bar situation is much better. 

you make it sound so inviting, lol

[29-0363]

In Jan 2015 I spent 3 nights in the lap of luxury at the Enchantment Resort a few miles out of Sedona, and would return there in a heartbeat.  Plenty of restaurants and tourist traps in around - I'd avoid the cowboy place on Jordan Road however. 

Downtown Flagstaff is worth a visit, and if you're in Phoenix the  Musical Instrument Museum is a must see.

[peevee]

21 minutes ago, 29-0363 said:

In Jan 2015 I spent 3 nights in the lap of luxury at the Enchantment Resort a few miles out of Sedona, and would return there in a heartbeat.  Plenty of restaurants and tourist traps in around - I'd avoid the cowboy place on Jordan Road however. 

Downtown Flagstaff is worth a visit, and if you're in Phoenix the  Musical Instrument Museum is a must see.

That place looks fantastic, but 335 a night a little more than I want to drop.

[peevee]

How about kgcn? Fuel is nosebleed high but we might hop there then back to sez 

[N201MKTurbo]

The approach to KGCN is spectacular because you are near the edge of the canyon. There is nothing to do at the airport, if you can get a ride to the south rim, it is very cool. About 10 miles away. If you are a hiker, you can hike down to Indian Gardens and back. 

Flying the corridors across the canyon is spectacular! If you haven't flown the canyon, I would cross one corridor, fly to the next one and fly back across. Then land at the airport, get a ride to the south rim and have lunch at El Tovor. 

[kmyfm20s]

1 hour ago, peevee said:

How about kgcn? Fuel is nosebleed high but we might hop there then back to sez 

If you go to KGCN and want to go to Williams, flagstaff and Sedona, I would fly into Valle(40G). They have reasonable rental cars and fuel. The Grand Canyon Railroad is do the Polar Express rides right now if your into that. If you are try to get night tickets.

[29-0363]

3 hours ago, peevee said:

That place looks fantastic, but 335 a night a little more than I want to drop.

It is fantastic.

I'm spending the children's inheritance while I still can.

[cliffy]

Can you spell WINTER?

Lots of snow now. Do you like snow? Do you like cold? It's the low season for a reason, (I'm a poet and don't know it :-)

I live at Page  KPGA/Lake Powell just north of KGCN Flying across the canyon is spectacular Make sure you have a GC Chart

Sedona is colorful and expensive. Not much at the airport in GCN in winter. Santa Fe is cold also. All of the places mentioned are COLD!

If you are looking for warmer you won't find it where mentioned. 

I'm going further to Palm Springs CA for warmer  :-)

[kmyfm20s]

Buurrrrrrr!!!

[N201MKTurbo]

Just a bit of disclosure. My ex wife's parents lived in Sedona. She grew up there. I spent way, way too much time there. If I never go back, my life won't be lacking.

[peevee]

9 hours ago, kmyfm20s said:

If you go to KGCN and want to go to Williams, flagstaff and Sedona, I would fly into Valle(40G). They have reasonable rental cars and fuel. The Grand Canyon Railroad is do the Polar Express rides right now if your into that. If you are try to get night tickets.

thanks for the tip!

I like being in the middle, park there and drive to the canyon and sedona if we want. I really don't care what we do I'm just going for the flying, lol

[peevee]

12 hours ago, cliffy said:

Can you spell WINTER?

Lots of snow now. Do you like snow? Do you like cold? It's the low season for a reason, (I'm a poet and don't know it :-)

I live at Page  KPGA/Lake Powell just north of KGCN Flying across the canyon is spectacular Make sure you have a GC Chart

Sedona is colorful and expensive. Not much at the airport in GCN in winter. Santa Fe is cold also. All of the places mentioned are COLD!

If you are looking for warmer you won't find it where mentioned. 

I'm going further to Palm Springs CA for warmer  :-)

it's warm compared to CO

I don't think I can get the SFRA chart up here and I don't have time to ship one in, I'll stop for fuel in FMN or somewhere cheap and grab one if wingx doesn't have the data. After flying the corridors is it worth going over to see from the rim?

 

THe long range forecast is partly cloudy, hopefully high clouds so I can stay out of them. Did I mention I hate ice?

 

Anyways, thanks for the input guys, I don't get to go on long trips often so I'm pretty excited.

 

edit: for you wingx guys the grand canyon chart is there, in vfr chart options scroll down and overlay it like the TAC charts, neat.

 

 

[kmyfm20s]

The Zuni point and Dragon corridor are the most sceanic in my opinion and make for an easy round trip.

[peevee]

thanks, I'll file over PGA or somewhere and then just cancel and fly that corridor.

[Amelia]

Flying over Sedona is jawdroppingly beautiful. Landing at SEZ can be exciting, especially if the wind favors the downhill runway 21 with that mountain hard by the approach end of the runway. Great for slick Mooney descents on a bumpy hot day. Float-oof-float-oof-float. Departing traffic will almost surely be taking off in that direction. If it's a crosswind, though, or only light southwesterly breeze (as far as I know, there's always a wind) consider landing to the northeast, slightly uphill on 3! And don't expect any Unicom advisory. Found a fellow sitting within arm's reach of the radio, who'd refused to answer this inbound tourist. Something about 'insurance.'  You takes yer chances with the wacky traffic. Returning to the airport later that afternoon, we found a pretty RV balled up on that downsloping runway, who'd apparently learned the fun way about all that, especially with the mesa's aircraft-carrier sight picture. When we were there, a couple of years ago, we had lunch at a restaurant there on the field, the Mesa Grill, that was outstanding, packed with locals, and there's a decent motel within a short walk. The surrounding country is beautiful, rental cars readily available, but I took a pass on the tacky magic-crystal, airy-fairy gift shops downtown.

I've landed a couple of times at GCN, even got to fly nearly all the way to the dam below the rim, once long, long ago. So lovely... and my kids slept through it all, despite my entreaties. Next time I'm going to investigate the airfields on the north rim.The corridor advice seems excellent.

[peevee]

thanks, on advice above I'm thinking we'll go into 40G, split the difference and drive to either end, not guaranteed. Now there's snow in the forecast for our return so I'm 50/50 on going. Stupid winter.

[chrisk]

I visited the area a year or so ago.  I based out of KFLG.  It's close enough to make a quick trip to the canyon.  I ended up driving to Sedona because the winds had picked up and I already had the car. It was a great drive on the way there and hiking was nice.  Traffic was awful on the way back, as it seems every tourist had discovered Sedona.  In retrospect I would have flow there.

[peevee]

Isn't winter flying grand?

The forecast until a few hours ago was great (longer range, partly cloudy)

Now everything from GCN to 40G to FLG and SEZ are forcasting snow. We're trying to head out tomorrow and back on wednesday. I have to work xmas eve.

I can ride Frontier Airlines to PHX or LAS or I can try for PGA where the weather looks a little more favorable. Sounds like I'll be spending a night in vegas and driving a lot on this trip. Dammit.

If I was only FIKI