5 Days in Grand Canyon and Sedona

Sedona's rocks are layers of red sandstone, and the first ones you meet when you drive in from the south are Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte, standing just off the highway outside the Village of Oak Creek. It is the gentlest introduction to the town: a flat path circles the base of Bell Rock, and the colors are best in low light.

Walk the path rather than climbing. The easy path gives you the whole shape of the rock and a long look at Courthouse Butte next to it. If you are fresh and the weather is mild, scramble a short way up the lower ledges for the view, and turn back when it gets steep. The ledges are smooth and unforgiving when wet. Bell Rock is also one of the vortex sites: since the 1987 Harmonic Convergence, New Age followers have said the area concentrates spiritual energy. That is a belief, not geology, but the rock is worth the walk either way.

The Chapel of the Holy Cross is a Roman Catholic chapel built from 1954 to 1956 into the red rock buttes. A local rancher and sculptor, Marguerite Brunswig Staude, commissioned it, and August K. Strotz of the architects Anshen & Allen designed it. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

It takes half an hour. The inside is plain, small and quiet, and people are praying, so keep your voice down. The view from the entrance across the valley is the real reason to come.

Tlaquepaque is Sedona's pretty shopping village: stone courtyards, sycamore trees, bells and bougainvillea, built in the style of a Mexican arts town beside Oak Creek. It was founded in 1973 by Abe Miller as an artists' commune, and it still has galleries rather than T-shirt shops, though prices are high.

Come for lunch and a slow walk, not for souvenirs. It is also where you take your first shade of the day, so this is the place to sit down while the afternoon heat peaks.

Cathedral Rock is the most photographed rock in Sedona and one of the most climbed. The trail is short but steep, a scramble up smooth sandstone where you use your hands in places. The reward is the saddle between the two towers, with a view back over Oak Creek and the red valley.

Do it late in the afternoon, when the light is warm. Take water and shoes with grip. The rock is polished by thousands of boots and dangerous when wet.

Airport Mesa is the sunset spot. A short drive from the center, a flat-topped hill beside the airport faces a ring of red buttes, and at sunset the rock goes from orange to deep red. The viewing area is a short walk from the lot, and the crowd is part of the show.

Arrive 45 minutes before the sun goes down, take a jacket, and stay for the afterglow, which is often better than the sunset itself.

Elote Cafe is Sedona's best-known restaurant for food inspired by the markets of Mexico, and it is run by the chef Jeff Smedstad. The menu is built on Mexican street and market dishes, not the usual Tex-Mex.

It is a dinner place and it fills up. Book ahead, or ask about a seat at the bar. If it is full, Sedona has plenty of Southwestern kitchens, but this is the one worth planning for.

Devil's Bridge is Sedona's biggest natural sandstone arch, and the most popular hike for visitors who want a photo on top of it. The trail is a moderate climb, and the arch is wide enough to walk on, though people have fallen, so stay back from the edge and let the queue move.

The distance depends on where you start. The Forest Service lists about 1.8 miles round trip from the trailhead at the end of rough Dry Creek Road, which needs high clearance; about 4 miles round trip from the Mescal trailhead; and about 5.8 miles from the Dry Creek Vista lot. Most visitors do the Mescal or Dry Creek Vista route, and the lots tend to fill early.

Slide Rock State Park is in Oak Creek Canyon, 7 miles north of Sedona, and takes its name from a natural water slide formed by the slippery bed of the creek. In summer it is the cooling-off place for half of Arizona, and it fills up.

Outside summer the water is too cold to swim, but the walk along the creek past the red cliffs is worth an hour. If the lot is full, you can wait or skip it; this is not the part of the trip to fight for.

Oak Creek Canyon is the gorge north of Sedona that you drive up on the way to Flagstaff, on Highway 89A, a road of switchbacks with red cliffs overhead. At the top, Oak Creek Vista is a roadside viewing area.

For lunch on the way, Indian Gardens Cafe and Market is a long-time roadside stop under the trees with sandwiches and pastries. Take the road slowly, and look for the pullouts: the creek is below you for most of it.

Flagstaff is a railroad and college town sitting at about 7,000 feet among ponderosa pines, just south of Arizona's highest mountains, the San Francisco Peaks. Historic Route 66 runs through it, and the old railroad tracks run beside the downtown, with freight trains passing through, so expect to hear horns at night.

The old center, around the Weatherford Hotel and Hotel Monte Vista, is a good place to walk for an hour, and to find a coffee or a bookshop. Flagstaff feels like a real town, not a resort, which is the reason to sleep here.

Mother Road Brewing Company is a Flagstaff brewery on Route 66 at 7 South Mike's Pike, named for the road and sold across Arizona. It is a taproom, a good place to start the evening with a local pint.

Eat early so you reach Lowell by sunset, and ask the server for the local beers. Flagstaff's brewery scene is one of the best in Arizona.

Lowell Observatory was founded in 1894 by Percival Lowell, a Boston astronomer. It is where Pluto was discovered in 1930 by Clyde Tombaugh, and it still uses a 24-inch Clark refractor built in 1896 for public viewing. It is a National Historic Landmark and sits on a hill above the town.

Go in the afternoon for the exhibits and tours and stay for the telescopes. They open around sunset, which is about 4:30pm in winter and about 8pm in summer. Flagstaff was the first city in the world named an International Dark Sky City, in 2001, and the dark is a real reason to stay here.

Williams was the last town on Route 66 to be bypassed. Interstate 40 opened around it on October 13, 1984, and Williams was the last Route 66 town to be bypassed. The historic business district and the stretch of Route 66 through town are on the National Register of Historic Places, and the old main street works as a small museum you can walk through.

Stop for a coffee, walk the main street, and look at the old signs. Williams is also the home of the Grand Canyon Railway, which is the other way to reach the rim, and the town has cheaper rooms than the canyon.

Cruiser's Cafe 66 is a diner in the old Route 66 style, with real mesquite-smoked barbecue and steaks cooked on site, a full bar, and its own craft beer and spirits from local makers. It is open daily from 11am to 9pm, according to its website.

Order a burger or a barbecue plate and eat it before the last 60 miles to the rim. It is a tourist stop and it knows it, but the portions are generous and the food is better than it needs to be.

Mather Point is the first look at the canyon for most visitors, a few minutes' walk from the Visitor Center, named for Stephen Mather, the first director of the National Park Service. Take your first look slowly. The canyon has a way of stopping people mid-sentence, and the railing is crowded for good reason.

Do not rush off to the next stop. The layers are readable if you look: the pale band is the Kaibab limestone, the rim rock, and the dark gorge at the bottom is much older, with the river a thin green thread. In summer the light is flat at noon, so come back at dawn.

The Rim Trail follows the edge for miles, and the stretch from Mather Point west to Yavapai Point is about three-quarters of a mile, flat and paved. At Yavapai there is a geology museum that explains what the layers are.

Walk it for the shifting views, not for the miles. If you are not up for it, the Kaibab Rim shuttle (the orange route) runs between the two. Keep to the path and stay well back from the edge, particularly with children.

Hermit Road is a 7-mile rim road with nine viewpoints, and from March 1 to November 30 it is closed to private cars and served by the free Hermits Rest (Red) shuttle. The bus runs from the Hermit Road Transfer Station, stops at every viewpoint on the way out, and on the way back stops only at Hermits Rest, Pima, Mohave and Powell Points. A round trip without getting off takes about 80 minutes.

For sunset, get off at Hopi Point or Mohave Point. The NPS names both as popular spots for sunrise and sunset because of their wide views, and from Mohave you see the Colorado River below. Ride out about an hour before the sun goes down.

Hermits Rest is the end of the line. Mary Colter, the architect who shaped the look of the South Rim, designed it in 1914 as a rest stop for coach tourists, a rough stone building meant to look like part of the rim. It is named for Louis Boucher, a prospector the tourists knew as the hermit. There is a small gift shop and a snack bar, and the Hermit Trail starts about half a mile west.

Stay for the last light if you can. On the way back, Pima Point is one of the places on the rim where you can sometimes hear the river on a quiet day.

Yaki Point is a quiet rim lookout east of the village, reached only on foot, by bicycle or by the Kaibab Rim (Orange) shuttle. That means no car park crush, and a clear view east over the canyon at sunrise.

In fall, the first Orange bus leaves the Visitor Center at 6am, with buses every 20 minutes until 9am. Check the first bus against the sunrise. In summer, when the sun comes up earlier, you may be late for the sun, and Mather Point is the better choice.

The South Kaibab Trail follows a ridgeline, so the views open up almost at once. Ooh Aah Point is 0.9 miles down, about 790 feet below the rim, and takes 1 to 2 hours round trip. Cedar Ridge is 1.5 miles down, a drop of about 1,120 feet, with pit toilets and no water, and takes 2 to 4 hours round trip, according to the NPS. Skeleton Point, 3 miles down, is the furthest the NPS recommends as a day hike.

The old ranger line is that down is optional, up is mandatory. Going down is easy, and the climb back, in thinner air, is the hard half. Turn around early, when you are still fresh. There is no shade and no water on this trail, so carry plenty, and the NPS says to avoid hiking between 10am and 4pm in hot weather. Heat-related deaths happen here every year, and the bottom of the canyon can reach 100 F or more from early May to late September.

This is the other choice, not an extra. The Bright Angel Trail starts by the village at Bright Angel Lodge and runs along a fault line, which gives it more shade and, in its normal season, water. The Mile-and-a-Half Resthouse is 1.5 miles down and a drop of about 1,120 feet, with a 2 to 4 hour round trip.

The same rule applies. It is more crowded and shadier than South Kaibab, but in winter the upper two miles are often icy, because the sun never reaches the trail. As of October 2026 its water stations are off after the flood, so bring all your own.

Bright Angel Lodge is another Mary Colter building, a log-and-stone lodge by the trailhead that is the historic center of the village. As of late October 2026 the Harvey House Cafe was serving breakfast and lunch (8:30am to 3:30pm, no dinner) and a grab-and-go counter was open, and there is a small history room.

Eat early and keep it simple: after the trail, hot food and a seat are the point.

Hopi House, built in 1904, was the first of eight Grand Canyon projects designed by Mary Colter. It is a stone building in the style of a Hopi pueblo and works as a craft shop. Close by is the El Tovar Hotel, the grand lodge of the village, right on the rim.

Walk around the outside and step in where it is open. Together they are a lesson in how the railroad built tourism here.

Kolb Studio hangs on the edge of the rim at the start of the Bright Angel Trail. It was the photographic studio of the brothers Ellsworth and Emery Kolb from 1904 until 1976. A short walk west is Lookout Studio, built in 1914 by the Santa Fe Railway, with telescopes on its terrace.

They are the two best-placed buildings on the rim for a late afternoon view down the Bright Angel fault.

After dark, the South Rim is one of the better places in the US to see the Milky Way, and the park runs ranger and astronomy programs on a weekly calendar. Check the programs page for the dates that match your visit.

If there is no program, walk to any viewpoint away from the village lights, take a red flashlight if you have one, and let your eyes adjust for 20 minutes. It is cold, so dress as for February.

Desert View Drive is the 23-mile road east from Grand Canyon Village to the park's East Entrance, with a string of viewpoints on the way, including Grandview Point, Moran Point and Navajo Point. No shuttle runs here, so you drive, and you can stop where you like. Unlike the village, the canyon here opens east towards the Painted Desert, and the river is much more visible.

Pick two or three stops and skip the rest. Lipan Point, one of the best, is closed for repairs from June 22 to December 23, 2026 (the park's notice), so use Navajo Point then. Tusayan Pueblo, a small ruin on the road, is open on Thursday to Monday from April to October, weather permitting.

The Desert View Watchtower is a 70-foot stone tower finished in 1932 and designed by Mary Colter, whose design draws on Ancestral Puebloan towers. Murals by the Hopi artist Fred Kabotie decorate the interior. It is a National Historic Landmark and the best place for a long view over the eastern canyon.

Climb to the top for the views. The stairs are narrow and crowded, so be patient. The coffee and ice cream counter at the Trading Post closed for winter on October 19, 2026, so bring your own.

Cameron Trading Post stands in Cameron on the Navajo Nation, near the Little Colorado River bridge, on the way between the canyon and Flagstaff. It is a traditional trading post, a restaurant and a craft shop in one.

Order a Navajo taco: fry bread topped with beans, meat, cheese and lettuce. Fry bread is a flat dough, deep-fried, of the Native peoples of North America, and a Navajo taco is a full meal. Remember the time change on the Navajo Nation.

Wupatki National Monument is rich in Native American archaeological sites, the pueblos of the Sinagua and their neighbors, who farmed this dry country. Sunset Crater erupted around AD 1085 and buried the land in ash, and the monument was set aside as a national monument in 1924. Wupatki Pueblo, the main ruin, is a short walk from the visitor center.

Stay an hour. The scenic loop road from Wupatki to Sunset Crater is a good drive through black cinder and red rock. One fee covers both monuments.

Sunset Crater is a cinder cone north of Flagstaff, the youngest in the San Francisco volcanic field. The black lava, the red cone and the pines are a short walk from the road. It makes a good last stop of the trip, about 14 miles from Flagstaff.

Walk the short trail across the lava. It is sharp, so wear shoes.

Satchmo's started in January 2009 as a 250-square-foot drive-through building with two employees and now calls itself Flagstaff's favorite Cajun and barbecue restaurant. It is a casual place, call it comfort food, with smoked meat and a few Creole dishes, such as jambalaya with andouille sausage.

End the trip with a plate of smoked meat, or a jambalaya if you want something from Louisiana. It is at 2320 North Fourth Street, a short drive from downtown.