America’s most beautiful city is unlike anywhere else

The walk through what was once Crescent Moon Ranch, now part of Arizona’s Coconino National Forest, leads to Oak Creek. The battle to ford the creek here, with numerous attempts washed out over the decades, has long been abandoned.

These days, Red Rock Crossing in Sedona is a frankly irresistible swimming hole. A series of rock shelves with small cascades provide slides into the cooling pool under the beating Arizona sun.

Cooling off at Red Rock Crossing,Credit: Visit Arizona/Roger Stumbo

What elevates Red Rock Crossing from enjoyable swimming hole to an experience that sticks in the memory for a lifetime, however, is the unimpeded view of Cathedral Rock. The rich, red sandstone butte, 1514 metres high, soars above the landscape with a majesty that the builders of Europe’s great cathedrals could only aspire to.

This swim with a privileged view isn’t alone, though. It’s just off the 19-kilometre Red Rock Loop Road, an implausibly scenic drive that acts as a fine introduction to Sedona.

For some mountain destinations, it’s about the height. For others, it’s the colour, the strange shapes or the proliferation. In Sedona, it’s about all four.

The colours of Sedona.Credit: iStock

Necks crane at every turn, taking in grand mesas, buttes and cliffs and beguiling formations. Fire-red rock dominates, but all through the panorama there are white, black and yellow slices of ancient strata. Erosion over millennia has created domes and bulges, jags and needles.

There are constant reminders of other stunning destinations. The flat-topped mesas evoke Table Mountain in Cape Town, a looming sugarloaf recalls Rio and chimney-like rocks conjure up a more sunburnt Cappadocia. Elsewhere, the Pinnacles of Western Australia get supersized, and freestanding towers resemble those in Utah’s Monument Valley.

This greatest hits package means Sedona can justifiably claim to be the most beautiful city in the United States. And the best way to explore it is on foot.

The moderate 5.8-kilometre loop trail around Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock, exposed to the sun and rocky in places, acts as a taster for the tougher trails in Red Rock State Park while getting hikers up close to two of the strange, towering formations.

Courthouse Butte looks like a giant’s molar planted into the ground and Bell Rock a terracotta tagine, but on closer inspection, they’re made up of thousands of pieces. Time and weathering have created a great, fragmenting cake, its crumbs compressed in uneasy coexistence.

Courthouse Butte looks like a giant’s molar planted into the ground.Credit: iStock

Those who don’t come to hike come to meditate. Sedona is renowned for its supposed vortexes – centres of swirling, healing and life-giving energy. At Boynton Canyon, Cathedral Rock, Airport Mesa or Bell Rock – the four vortexes regarded as most powerful – there’s a high chance of encountering someone practising yoga.

For the sceptical – it’s a strange coincidence that the most beautiful places are the most spiritual, isn’t it? – this merely adds to the city’s distinctiveness.

Sedona’s buildings look strikingly different, too. The shops and restaurants in Uptown Sedona adopt a deep red uniform in their paintwork and signage, designed to blend into what nature has provided. The Chapel of the Holy Cross rises like a bonus pinnacle between two red rock domes. Even the McDonald’s has turquoise arches to compliment the surroundings, rather than the more familiar golden.

The local McDonald’s was not allowed to use its regular golden arches and instead uses turquoise in Sedona.Credit: iStock

A determination not to be like anywhere else is Sedona’s secret weapon.

An evening at Judi’s Restaurant and Lounge typifies this. Glass art lamps hang from the ceiling, while the rooms are decorated with sculptures, paintings and crafts from around the world. A grandfather clock chimes for dinner as House of the Rising Sun on wafts in from the folk duo’s flute.

Beauty is instantly apparent, then Sedona’s eccentric character adds to its overwhelmingly seductive spell.

THE DETAILS

VISIT
Sedona is a two-hour drive north of Phoenix. Most of Sedona’s best walks and swimming holes are in Coconino National Forest or Red Rock State Park. See fs.usda.gov and azstateparks.com

FLY
United has one-stop flights from Melbourne and Sydney to Phoenix, changing planes in Los Angeles. See united.com

STAY
The El Poco Diablo Resort in Sedona comes with a pool, spa and obligatory splendid red rock views, costing from $US179 ($267), room only, including taxes and resort fee. See pocodiablo.com

EAT
Judi’s Restaurant and Lounge cooks to order for about $US25 ($39). See sedonarestaurants.com

The writer was a guest of the Arizona Office of Tourism. See visitarizona.com