A creek on the road down to Sedona.

Situated in a valley beneath towering mountains, the town attracts arts and adventure types from the world over. From the advent of American cinema and up through the 1970s, its distinctive red rock formations, notably Cathedral and Chimney Rock, became some of the most recognizable exteriors in film history. Even if you don’t think you’ve seen Sedona, you’ve seen Sedona.

Once in Sedona, the one place I knew to go was the Airport Overlook. Looking out from there you can see a number of mountain faces, spanning the length of the town. Viewing it from this vantage point gives the town the mythical, ephemeral quality of Rivendell from Lord of the Rings. It’s that stunning. After taking my shots from the outlook, I decided to take the advice of the parking attendant and hike the Summit Trail down from the Airport Road Overlook. While I didn’t necessarily inquire into this trail specifically, I did want to know what a “vortex” was in the Arizonan context when I paid the $3 dollars to park. She explained that it was the place where the magnetic fields on earth clashed (or something like that) and were widely reported to have healing properties based on the location of the vortex. The one I was in apparently provided a “caffeine-rush” that could be more strongly felt the closer one got to the nucleus of the vortex. “Can’t you feel it?”, she asked with confirmation in her eyes. I closed my eyes and tried to connect with my inner ki, imagining the energy rising up around me like something out of an anime. Sensing more of a migraine than energy, I replied “I don’t”, visibly disappointing her.