Driving, Sedona

Wow! I should have listened to some of the other posters.
My first drive into Sedona, AZ from Ohio, being overwhelmed by the beauty, I missed an unusual drop (speed trap?) in the speed limit. I was immediately pulled over and given a ticket. My town would give an out-of-towner a warning...not here. This was my first ticket ever, in over 30 years of safe driving. The $200 fine that I gave to the city was just $200 less that I had for shopping and restaurants, and next year I will spend my money elsewhere.

Make sure that when you take the pink jeep tour, you let them know that you are pregnant so that they can give you a non-rough tour! The Broken Arrow tour is heart-pounding so this is not advisable for pregnant women! The jeep tour descent down the "Road of no Return".

The have made some modifications on the roads. They put in these round abouts, which it makes it easy for everyone and gives everyone equal right away. So be careful especially if someone does not want to give you the right away. There are two of them on 89A.

VISITOR INFORMATION CENTER:
331 Forest Road, Sedona, AZ
Call (800) 288-7336 or (928) 282-7722

Driving a vehicle off the designated roads is prohibited in Sedona. This is one of the information that visitors needed to know. The National Forest and Wildlife staff will get you if you don't drive on designated areas. This one way Sedona's wilderness is being protected.

However, there are many primitive dirt roads that offer recreation for high-clearance vehicles.
If you have an ATV (All Terrain Vehicle) or 4X4 and wanted to go on dirt roads, make sure to check or call the following first so you know whether to bring them or not:

Arizona State Parks OHV Program Coordinator - 1-800-285-3703
Arizona State Association of Four-Wheel Drive Clubs - 1-602-258-4294
Arizona Lands Information Center- 1-602-417-9300

or check www.pr.state.az.us

If it's your first time in Sedona, make sure to arrive during the day, or it could be much more difficult to find your accomodations.

Sedona is a low-light town -- meaning that there are barely any streetlights -- due to the Lowell Observatory located in Flagstaff, a half an hour north.

Therefore, we found it difficult for a few days to get around town at night, as save for a few streetlights, the streets are very dark and it's hard to find addresses or locations of restaurants. You do get used to it after a few days, but by then, you are probably on your way out of town.

Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus, the catchy title of the 1992 bestseller by John Gray, succinctly expresses an ancient dilemma. What--if anything--do men's and women's brains do differently?

The general statement that men and women respond and behave differently under the same circumstances is true; For example, from the crib, male babies tend to be more aggressive and females more passive. As adults, in spatial operations, men have the edge in such skills as negotiating a maze, reading a map, and quickly discriminating between right and left. Men also perform better than women when asked to visualize an object and imagine rotating it. On the other hand, women tend to perform better than men when asked to look at objects of different shapes, sizes, and colors, and then to group them in some order.

This still doesn't explian why Relinde turns the map all around when I'm asking for the road to travel, while I like the map at one point so I can better visualize our position. Help!

Ok. Two hours before your flight time now, right (for the love of all that is holy)? More than likely you'll end up sitting at the gate, eating your own brain. However, you know that the one time you decide not to give yourself the suggested time, you'll need it.

Let it sink in that Sedona is two hours from the airport in Phoenix.

Check out my transportation tips for advice on how to make this trek painlessly if you don't have a car.

My pain..er main point here is that you're talking about a four hour prior to flight time depature for the airport! Add that to my insane crack-of-dawn, time paranoid parents (at least I normally don't travel with them) and plans for breakfast and suddenly that 10AM flight isn't so reasonable.

Just a tip.

The main freeway between Phoenix and points north gets jammed up pretty quickly on holidays. Our ride from Sedona to Phoenix lasted forever on Labor Day weekend - easily twice as long as it took to get there!

If you are driving to or from Sedona, be VERY careful. It's a difficult highway by day... terrible by night.