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Activities in Sedona - Hiking

Episode 30 - 'Spiritual Things to Do in Sedona' Series

· Meditation Video,Sedona Activities

Episode 30

Looking for spiritual activities in Sedona that are safe during the pandemic? I guide meditations for visitors to Sedona and they often ask me, “What there is to do in Sedona?”

 

I’m happy to tell you that there are loads of things to do in Sedona. For this week’s Sedona Meditation Adventure, I begin a series of episodes to share some of these activities with you.

 

The first thing on my “To Do in Sedona” list is hiking. Get out on the land. Spend time in nature. This is what Sedona is spectacularly good at. Just you, the trail, and all kinds of fabulous scenery to climb on, look at, and meditate amongst.

 

In fact, you’d be hard-pressed to find so many amazing trails in the same geographic area as Sedona. And the variety of lengths and difficulties AND year-round hiking weather will spoil you forever.

 

Sedona has hiking trails that allow you to climb up high on a mesa, stretch your legs on a long hike down a canyon floor, switchback up a mountain, explore caves, swim in the creek, circumnavigate iconic red rocks, and walk out on a natural bridge. And, oh yes, bask in the vortex energy.

 

Here are a few things to consider when planning your hiking activities in Sedona.

  • Many of the trails have limited parking.It’s a good idea to get an early start to beat the crowds or consider taking an Uber or Lyft to the trailhead.
  • You will need a Red Rock Pass displayed in your vehicle to park at many of the U.S. Forest Service trailheads (which includes pretty much all of the trails in Sedona).You can purchase a day, week, or annual pass at the Sedona Chamber of Commerce, the Red Rock Ranger District visitor center, and many grocery stores around town. More info: https://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/coconino/recarea/?recid=54892
  • Be prepared.Know the length, difficulty, and challenges of a trail before you get on it.Always bring a BIG bottle of water, a sun hat, sun protection, and appropriate footwear.Do not “just wing it”.Sedona is high desert.It’s dry, the sun is blazing hot (even when the air is cold), and the 4,500 foot elevation means you may struggle to catch your breath.It also means that the atmosphere is thin and sunburn is all to easy.Here is a good topo map to help you plan: https://www.maps.com/collections/all/products/sedona-arizona-outdoor-recreation-map-with-topographic-shaded-relief-ev_bp_sedona
  • Bring a journal along.Make a mini-retreat of your hiking excursion.Spend time focusing on your inner self while out in nature.This is truly what Sedona is best for.

And when you are out on the trail, find a quiet spot to sit, get yourself grounded, and meditate! If you’d like to join me for a Sedona Meditation Experience – one of the best spiritual activities in Sedona (if you ask me 😊).

 

Here are links to my previous Sedona Meditation Adventures at the four vortex sites:

Transcript

Hi friends it's Michele Mattix of Sedona Meditation Experiences with another episode of Sedona Meditation Adventures.

This week I'm near the Village of Oak Creek on a trail called Turkey Creek. I'm just going to do a panorama so you can see all around me is beauty it's a gorgeous November afternoon, actually i think it's still morning, and in this direction you can kind of see cathedral rock out there yeah it looks a little smaller from this perspective but you can see I'm out in the wilderness it feels very far away from civilization. It's not of course - here in Sedona we have a lot of beautiful hiking trails and gorgeous open forest service land and to me hiking is one of the very finest activities that you can do in Sedona.

And that's what i want to talk to you about today. As a meditation guide i take a lot of people out on the red rocks and do meditation experiences and people often ask me - "What other activities should we do while we're in Sedona?" They want to do something spiritual and something safe during this time of pandemic.

So I'll share with you over the series of the next few videos some of my favorite things to do in Sedona and with an eye towards staying safe during the pandemic. I'm not going to promote any kind of large group activities where you're going to be around strangers crammed together in tight spaces. That's not my style. I'm going to share with you things that i would truly recommend that you can do safely and really enjoy the beauty of Sedona.

The first thing is - I've already mentioned it - it's hiking! It's getting out into this beautiful back country of Sedona. To me that's always been the magnificence of sedona. Yes the energy here is tremendous - absolutely. But the energy wouldn't be here if it weren't for this amazing land and these red rock formations and just the beauty of this high desert area.

There are many trails that you can do in Sedona many activities that you can do on those hiking trails I'll share with you kind of the big picture overview of hiking in Sedona. First off there's trails that are right in Sedona itself. Those are usually going to be the very popular ones. The vortex sites which i've done video series on- i'll link to them below in the notes for this episode. The four vortex sites are airport mesa, cathedral rock, bell rock, and boynton canyon. All of those are fabulous hikes right in town and they're going to be probably crowded even early in the morning.

When i first moved to sedona back in the late 90s i could spend the day on top of cathedral rock and see maybe two or three people. Those days are long gone! These are popular hikes. You're going to have parking challenges. There's a lot of people who do their experience of nature differently than maybe what you have in mind. I'm not saying don't do those - I'm just saying if you're looking for some quiet back country experience you're probably going to be a little disappointed simply by the number of people that you're going to have to share the trail with.

Now having said that it's usually possible to find you know an offshoot trail where you're not trampling all over the desert. Be respectful of the desert but you can find a spot away from the crowds of people where you can sit down and do like i'm doing here - you know - have a quiet meditation spot. Now i'm not on one of those trails - i'm quite far off any known trail well it's a known trail but not a popular one but that's what you're going to find in town now even within those in town trails some of them are climbs that are quite steep not so steep that you need equipment but still if you're concerned about heights you want to be sure to make sure you're getting into a trail that's within your comfort zone if you're afraid of heights you know you're often looking down over very steep ledges and it's possible to slip it does happen so if you're concerned about that maybe don't choose to climb up a tall height trail like for example climbing to the top of cathedral rock or to the top of bell rock having said that there's trails that skirt around those those particular places so if you don't want to climb but you still want to be near those monumental rocks look for a trail that is flat and easier so there's that and with that comes what time of the year is it you definitely don't want to be out hiking in the heat of the summer if you come in the summer you'll want to hike in the mornings and in the evenings and leave the daytime for other activities unless you're going to be hiking by the creek of course in the winter it's usually not an issue it's nice and temperate so you can enjoy those climbing hikes a little more comfortably the other type of hike is a canyon type hike where you basically are hiking into a canyon with the walls of the canyon and maybe some elevation change but not climbing a rock and there's loads of trails like that in sedona as well boynton canyon one of the vortex sites is a prime example soldiers pass is another beautiful canyon hike so there's loads of options and you just want to kind of think about your ability and what it is that you want to achieve are you wanting to go on a long hike just to get some exercise are you wanting to see some spectacular images and take pictures and just enjoy the scenery do you want to climb do you want to go back a canyon do you want to be by the creek you know there's really something for everyone and if you're staying for a few days you can scatter it around and experience different environments here so when you go out hiking of course i always recommend that you do find a quiet spot and take some time to tune into nature i'm telling you this is the number one activity in sedona it's really what it's all about yeah you can spend a lot of money and do all kinds of tours and this and that and that's fun but if you're coming here to really tune in and get in touch with your spiritual side there's no better way to do that than just come out on the land and you know get real meditate get quiet practice some of the healing techniques that maybe you've read about but haven't fully given a try or maybe find you know a healer or someone to help you out but for uh basic sedona activities you can't beat hiking so i'm going to get us ready to do a little meditation here i hope you'll join me and wherever you are if you're outside or inside i hope you'll take a few moments just to stop what you're doing step away from you know the computer screen if you can if you can still hear me in the video definitely don't be driving or operating any heavy equipment when you meditate you want to give it your full attention as if to say there's nowhere else that i need to be there's nothing else that i need to be doing this is what i'm devoting my attention to and i'm 100 here so make yourself comfortable i'm gonna get my tinctures which if you've seen my videos you know these are my favorite outdoor sort of bells to ring to lead us in and out of the meditation and we'll meditate for just a few moments and i'll share some of this beautiful sedona energy with you in this meditation so go ahead and close your eyes and as always we'll start with a few long slow deep breaths breathing into your belly

and then fully exhaling

and just take a few breaths like that at your own pace letting go of all the static

letting yourself be fully present

and now allow your breath to become natural

and just take a moment to notice where the energy feels like it is in your body

wherever it is consciously drop it down into your chest

you can use your breath to help bring your attention and your awareness down into your chest

drop down lower into your belly

down into your hips and just let the energy continue dropping down into the earth even if you're in a high-rise building you can still let your energy connect and ground with the earth

and just take a breath or two and feel that groundedness anchor you in your body to the earth

and from this grounded place just take a moment to clean the energy around your space just imagine your aura field extending out maybe an arms radius around your whole body and just imagine that energetic space around you being cleansed you can see it bathed in radiant light you can see any kind of static or confusion or you know energy that's not for your highest good just see it being swept away

and just feel fill that space with brightness light

and if it helps you can imagine kind of a barrier around your energetic space like a field of energy that's supporting your energy and keeping it contained

so you consciously decide if you want to let other energy in or not just take a moment to breathe and feel the security of this space around you

and now from this space around you notice the environment where you find yourself i'll tell you what i'm experiencing and you can notice what's true in your environment

i feel the warm arizona sun shining on me i can hear a little insect buzzing around me

i can hear the airplanes flying around sedona

birds chirping in the distance

i can feel the rocks below my feet

and i can feel the dry desert air filling my nostrils

and the gentle smells of pinyon and juniper trees

and i can feel that beautiful sedona energy lifting my heart beckoning me to go deeper within

and i'm going to allow myself to bask in this energy for a few minutes so meditate with me in silence

and just let yourself bask in whatever energy is present in your environment energy that you welcome in remember you can keep that kind of energetic force field up to not let energy that's not supportive for you in just bask in the good vibrations

and we'll meditate like this in silence for a minute

you can continue to stay in that meditative space for as long as you want but if you're ready to come out just go slow and just stay with that feeling of the energy around you let your energy merge with the energy around you

so if you're coming to sedona my friends i hope you'll come into a meditation experience with me it's the meditation experience of a lifetime and i think it's one of the very finest spiritual experiences that you can do in sedona it combines hiking a little bit of hiking and a lot of meditation so thank you for joining me today please check the notes below this video for links to hiking resources in sedona thank you for joining me this is Michele Mattix saying goodbye for now