I have been blessed to grow up almost within sight of that beauty since I was three years old. In Jerome we only had to walk maybe a quarter mile up on Sunshine Hill to see that amazing view. From Clarkdale, you could ride out from the 'hollow' where the lower town sat in any direction and find the view. And while I was in Flagstaff, I made many trips up and down through that canyon.
Over the years I have seen the town of Sedona grow from a tiny village or hamlet to the urban overkill "Mecca" (IMHO!) that it is today. I always knew it was magical but then the New Age folks "discovered" it and now half the wonder is obscured in a plethora of head shops, fortune tellers, snake oil salesmen, those who will conduct sweat lodge cermonies (talk about cultural appropriation!!) and jeep/plane/drone trips to get photos and have alleged adventures. Do I sound cynical? Yes, I expect I do. To me all change is not progress but that is just an old lady's jaundiced eye... I liked the old Sedona much better than what I saw my last few visits.
Anyway, those red rocks. I am not a geologist and now wish I had paid much more attention to several scientific subjects when I was getting my schooling. It was foolish and short sighted to shun math and scince as I did and I regret it now. But it is not too late to do some research and seek to learn. So I did some searches on Coconino Sandstone and a few other related topics and learned a lot.
The exact colors of Oak Creek (and Sycamore Canyon) are really not perfectly matched anywhere else. The iron in the sandstone is the main ingredient but probably a few other trace minerals blend to create that palette. Eons of erosion by wind and water have shaped the ledges, crags and monoliths. However "Coconinio Sandstone" is spread across the Colorado plateau. It appears in many places; there are red bands on Woodchute Mountain on the northwest edge of the Verde Valley and on Black Mountain which forms the lower southwest edge of Sycamore Canyon. It breaks out near Ashfork, a small town on the I-40/Old 66 highway and the former ATSF main line tracks where ledges have long been harvested for the beautiful colors of flagstone used in construction all over the west. Of course it appears in Utah, the Moab area and Bryce and Zion National Parks particularly and in northern New Mexico, poking from the mesas and ridges as you wind down from Glorietta Pass on I-25. And of course the Grand Canyon, a real geological map of the ages where layers of many types of stone and past epochs are spread out to everyone's wonering view.
Of course the area around Sedona has been photographed to death. It is immortalized in some three quarters of a century of monthly Arizona Highways magazines, appeared in numerous cinema views and captured in a million visitors' stills, videos and cell phone snaps. I really do not have very many photos in my collection; it was almost taken for granted by my dad and later even me because it was always there and at that time I never expected to be very far from it.
Today I am in far southeastern Arizona and that particular phenomenon is not found here. I do miss it although Cochise County has the rusty red around Bisbee, which is rather similar to some of the hills around Jerome and appears to be a feature of many areas rich in copper--need to research that too! We also have the granite conglomerate in rounded boulders and crags like on the western side of Cochise Stronghold and through Texas Canyon. Oddly this is also found near Prescott on the Granite Dells area.
All that being said, Red Rocks is truly Absolutely Arizona and a trait of my adopted home state that I enjoy, cherish and revere. It is unique and amazing but then much in Arizona fills that description!
Photos--first two commercial or not mine. 1) A slice of the Grand Canyon showing layers. 2) Cathedral Rocks, famed Sedona formation. 3) Dad's photo for an article 4) My photo of red bands on Black Mountain from VCRR 5) My photo of bands on Woodchute from above Jerome
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