Vortex Area

Grasshopper Point

Stinky Jeep carried us into Sedona. I think he was feeling his oats because finally there were Jeeps around that were painted a color less macho then his lapis blue. Pink Jeeps were everywhere! Our plan was to glide on through the town on highway 89A and do a little sightseeing up the Oak Creek Canyon. I didn’t get to look around yesterday during the drive in and the Jeep provided a great way to see the red rock country.

Bell Rock (left) and Courthouse Butte (right).

The highway snakes up the canyon and provides some great views of the many rock formations.  One that everyone stops and photographs is called Grasshopper Point. We stopped at the side of the road and captured the red of this area and then moved up the canyon past Slide Rock State Park.

We turned around shortly after this and drove on back into Sedona stopping and taking pics all along the route. When we got into town we came upon the first roundabout and for some reason old Stinky Jeep hugged left and we found ourselves heading out on highway 179.

Near the VORTEX! No really!

As we got to Bell Rock, Stinky pulled left again and we found ourselves in one of the vistas facing Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. Things got a bit strange then. A pyramid shaped doorway stood before us. We exited the Jeep and walked toward the door. As we did, it moved away! Linda said that it was a vortex because she saw it listed on the map we got from the Sedona Chamber of Commerce Visitors Center. A VORTEX! At Bell Rock! Being drawn in its direction we moved closer, but it kept moving just out of our grasp. Linda looked at me and said, “It isn’t our time, I guess!”  We jumped back into Stinky and drove back toward downtown. It was all so strange; I can’t be sure what was imagined and what was reality.

We took a left on Morgan Road and drove out and watched the Pink Jeeps drive up the Broken Arrow Road. There we got some pics of Snoopy Rock. We made our way back down and followed Schnebly Hill Road out and looked at some viewpoints there.  It was a very rough road; we had been told that a rancher used the road to drive his cattle herd into Sedona a long time ago. There has been no improvements since. It also was used as  the old highway into the town, but now it is just a rough Jeep road. When we both got our fill of being jerked about we turned around and headed back to downtown and found a place for lunch.

The map from the Visitors Center.

Note the Vortex Area near Bell Rock. 

Map legend.  See!