Our Road Trip To Sedona And The Grand Canyon

Last Thanksgiving, my husband and I decided to take a road trip to Page, Sedona and the Grand Canyon. If you follow me on social media, you may have seen photos and videos of our trip as it was happening as I shared a lot of it on Instagram and Facebook.  As promised, today I am doing a short recap of the trip and sharing with you some of the places we visited alongside some photos below.

This was my first visit to these locations and let me tell I loved them ALL ! Our trip started in Page AZ and it was a visit to Antelope Canyon/Slot Canyons which are located on Navajo Nation land. The slot canyons in Page are the most visited slot canyons in the Southwest, partly because they are easily accessible and by far the most publicized. They are extremely beautiful, with just the right combination of depth, width, length, rock color and ambient light that gives a special feeling when walking thru them.

We took a half day, guided open air safari bus tour, which was perfect for seeing this area. The 15 minute bus ride to the canyon was a bit rough as it goes over all the hills but it is well worth it because once you arrive at the canyon, they are just so breathtaking and beautiful.

The second stop was Horseshoe bend, again another breath taking location to stop and get out and walk around and take photos. I have to admit this was my favorite part of our trip as I had never experienced anything like these places ever and I highly recommend.

Although the weather was very nice and sunny, it was quite cold and as you can see in the photos I was bundled up, especially in the canyons. When you sign up for this tour, they suggested to bring a blanket since it gets quite cold in the canyons and the car is open on the sides. I will say I was glad I brought mine! 

We were dropped off back at our car after the tour ended around 3.30pm and then we started our drive toward Sedona. We made a stop in Flagstaff for dinner at a quaint small restaurant called Brix Restaurant and Wine Bar which was really nice and then continued the drive down to our hotel in Sedona.

Our first day in Sedona started with a visit to the Tlaquepaque Arts and Shopping Village. This little shopping area is so cute and at the time it was all decorated for Christmas which made it even more festive and fun. I bought a fun taupe color hat in one of the shops here and wore it throughout our trip as you can see in the photos below.

After our shopping excursion at Tlaquepaque, we drove up to Airport Mesa Overlook which has amazing 360-degree views of the Sedona valley which is simply stunning. Afterwards we drove down into town and had a nice light lunch on the patio at the Hudson, which is a nice restaurant with amazing views of Sedona right from your table.

In the afternoon we were excited to take a sunset Pink Jeep Red Rock Ridge tour of the Sedona which is a great way to see Sedona’s iconic red rocks, but you must hold on tight while your vehicle crawls over the rough terrain. We both enjoyed this tour very much and it was nice to get off the beaten path in the "outback" of Sedona. You can choose different terrains which determines how rough the rides get. We finished off our first day with a nice steak dinner at Steakhouse 89.

The next day was Thanksgiving, we decided to make it a leisurely day and started it off with a drive to the Chapel of The Holly Cross Church which is built right into the buttes of the red rocks in Sedona. It is a stunning church with beautiful views of the surrounding area.

A big part of the lure of Sedona are the huge amount of hiking trails and of course we could not leave without experiencing a walk through a canyon filled with steep rock faces on either side and hear the wind whistling thru the trees for a couple of hours. Our hike was special and we both enjoyed our adventure feeling the energy of Sedona, it was very relaxing and we worked up a healthy appetite for our Thanksgiving dinner.

Whole foods was luckily open, so we stopped by and picked up a pre-prepared  Thanksgiving dinner to take to our hotel. A lot of restaurants were closed for Thanksgiving so we didn’t have any other choice. Our hotel had a nice kitchenette so it was super convenient to heat up our food and have a glass of wine. We ended the night packing up, relaxing and watching a movie on Netflix!

The next day we got an early start for our drive to Grand Canyon, which was a lot more crowded that Sedona especially in the scenic areas where everyone stops by to take photos. We spent the whole afternoon walking the Rim trail taking photos and taking in this wonder of the world, ending up watching the sunset which was just beautiful. We ended the day back at the Grand Canyon Hotel relaxing and getting ready for our drive back to Los Angeles the next day.

Overall, it was such a great trip and I really enjoyed the outdoors. I loved that the weather was a bit cooler so I could wear winter type pieces which I don't normally get to wear in LA. As you can see from the photos I had to wear my puffer black jacket, beanie, shawl and gloves most of the time.

I did manage to wear a few items from our shop which I have included below in case you are interested in purchasing them.

Cream Shrug Cardigan with Pockets - Click Here

Pumpkin Spice Boucle Plaid Pull On Poncho - Click Here

Have you been to any of these destinations and how did you like them?