Grand Touring to Sedona

Of course originally the phrase, coined in Europe, meant “touring in a grand style” which I loosely interpret to mean spending money on all the luxuries.

So I tried it. Unfortunately I couldn’t obtain a sports car on short notice, that short notice caused by the sudden approval of a stay at a nice hotel in one of my favorite towns in Arizona, at virtually the same time four collector car auctions would be taking place in Phoenix.

Now I had a business reason to go on the mission plus the anticipation of enjoying myself afterwards in one of the most beautiful towns I know–Sedona.
I lined up a Chrysler Sebring convertible which I figured would give us maximum viewing capability of the “vertical scenery.”

What is Sedona you ask? A former small village, now a full fledged city, on a huge mesa roughly 100 miles NE of Phoenix.

To get there is extremely easy—if starting from Los Angeles, you get on route 10 and head due East. About five hours later you are in Phoenix and then simply head North on 17 for another two hours to the Sedona exit.

We had to stop at the auctions first, but that meant we would arrive in Sedona in the dead of night. That meant that I would be able to enjoy the discovery of Sedona by my photographer, François de Pouqueville. He wouldn’t have a clue as to what he would see when the sun came up. Sedona delivers more-than-merely-spectacular “vertical” scenery—the drama deriving from iron rich rocks that tower several thousand feet over the village and are a gamut of rust colors.

The beauty of Sedona is that you can see the scenery in all directions almost from wherever you are in the village and it costs you nothing, unlike some other tourist areas where, to get up to where the main attraction is, it costs you successively more.

A hotel in Sedona is going to set you back anywhere from $100 on up, with our hotel, the Sedona Real, providing a suite for $160, including a free Continental breakfast. The high point of the hotel was the gas fireplace in each room, and the full-time concierge, who spent considerable time slotting us into available opportunities like the Pink Jeep tour. The concept of a pink Jeep may be a mental contradiction but don’t let the color put you off. These things are exciting.

Sedona has sun 300 days a year and, having been there in the summer, I have to warn you it can be a bit uncomfortable at 90 deg. Plus, I knew if I went in winter, I’d still have sun, it would be cool and I would feel like a skier again, being out in the air and sun. Plus I was hoping to catch pictures of the red rocks wearing crowns of snow.

The PR lady for the Sedona Chamber of Commerce arranged for us to take the Pink Jeep tour which I would highly recommend especially if you have never been offroad. The Jeeps are long wheelbase Wranglers, which will hold at least six, and are driven up and down exceedingly narrow trails that wind around the base of some of the mesas. The drivers have driven these routes thousands of times so know just when it’s safe to “thrill” their tourist passengers by powering up a hill at a 45-deg. angle. At least three times I was separated from the seat at the same time as my Stetson was separated from my head!

We also toured the art galleries, mostly in what’s called the “Gallery District,” along Highway 179, first the large Exposure gallery which had some great sculptures, but which was heavily commercial in feel, and then the galleries in Tlaquepaque, a self-contained arts district designed to look like a Spanish village and has art that is not just giving the tourists the usual red rock paintings but venturing into real art both realistic and abstract.

Incidentally we tried to add the “grand” to touring at points here and there, such as indulging in a one hour bracing back message at the Spa at Sedona Rouge, and also opting for outdoor dining wherever possible. Those with imagination and a larger budget could no doubt insert some “grander” experiences such as lunching along the Oak Creek River at the gourmet L’Auberge hotel, which would have no doubt set us back about $45 apiece depending on the wine selection.

You really can’t mention “Arizona” without at least thinking of Indian silver and turquoise jewelry and we shopped for it, but found that the promise of finding lower cost items at Indian-only sales points along Oak Creek wasn’t fulfilled. The jewelry was spectacular but so were the prices! Still, we feel that native jewelry makes a great souvenir because they are so thoroughly Western.

As much as we enjoyed the scenery around town, our drive back to Los Angeles was more enjoyable than the drive there because we took Highway 89A out of town, headed toward the Grand Canyon, but turned off toward Highway 40 once we cleared Flagstaff. Highway 89A is only a “sports car road” in a grand touring sense. That is to say, you can enjoy luxury touring, but it is not at all a road that you can drive at speed because of the abundance of lollygagging tourists. And though our Chrysler Sebring convertible was comfortable it did not inspire spirited driving.

In sum, if it’s fall, winter or spring, and you find yourself in Los Angeles with four or five days available, and an interesting luxury car to drive, I strongly recommend headin’ for Sedona. By the way, it would be a special treat for any European visitor who always wanted to see the “real” old west….