Burrowed among Sedona’s impressive red rock formations and blazing blue skies are a surprising number of alternative healers, spas, art galleries, new age shops, and coffee houses–surprising, perhaps, if you once thought of Sedona as just another place to hike and spend some time in the great outdoors.

It’s definitely a mecca for hikers and outdoorsy types, but Sedona attracts visitors for a different reason as well.

The city and its surrounding area are thought to sit among a number of energy vortexes–centers of intense spiritual energy that facilitate healing and meditation.

Mystics, spiritualists, holistic healers and alternative thinkers flock here in droves, and it shows in the culture. The downtown area is home to a number of shops where you can purchase incense, crystals, taro cards and pendulums–if that’s your kind of thing.

In case you’re wondering, that’s definitely my kind of thing. One of the activities I was most excited about when I visited Sedona during our Southwest road trip was a tour with Sedona Sacred Earth–a personalized, private tour company that focuses on healing and spiritual education through visits to sacred sites and creating a connection with the earth.

I’m not sure what I was really expecting before embarking on this journey, but to this day it remains one of the most fascinating travel experiences I’ve ever had.

Our tour began in the morning and lasted most of an entire day. Clint, our tour guide, acted simultaneously as our personal spiritual coach and walking encyclopedia. Throughout the course of the day he took us on a number of easy-peasy hikes (something I was quite thankful for), focusing on the nature around us rather than the difficulty level of the trails.

I’ve met quite a few intelligent people in my lifetime, but never have I ever met someone quite like Clint.

He spoke slowly and kindly, and with such confidence and ease. As we walked, he would casually point at a towering red rock cliff and say “300 million years ago, this rock was under the sea. 25 million years later, as the ocean dried up, rivers began to flow across the sandstone and carved out the canyons…” and so on.

About every. single. rock.

He would nonchalantly scoop up a handful of scrubby plants and pop a stem into his mouth, mentioning that it was great for digestion. He would pinch off buds of leaves and offer them to us, instructing us to chew on them and experience a greater sense of clarity.

When you picture an “enlightened” person–one who is fully connected to life and the earth and the spirits–I have a feeling that you are picturing someone almost exactly like Clint.

From the start, I could tell that this was going to get interesting.

One of our first stops on the journey was at a river; a sacred river, no less, and also a very, very cold river.

He asked us to remove our shoes and set aside our valuables, and led us into the middle of the river where we all sat on a large, flat rock. He told us about the healing properties of the water, and cited stories about Native American tribes who once used the river as a location for healing ceremonies.

I tried my best to imagine what it must have felt like to be a Native American female my age in those days, and between the untouched surroundings and Clint’s detailed tales, it was easier to envision than I would have guessed.

We bathed in the river (clothes on) to wash away pain and skin ailments, cupped our hands and drank from the water to cleanse ourselves, and sprinkled a superb-smelling handmade tobacco blend into the water as we each said our own quiet prayers.

Yes, an interesting experience indeed.

We spent a fair amount of time at the river, reflecting and listening to Clint’s words of wisdom, before heading off on another hike to dry off. The scenery, in typical Sedona fashion, was absolutely epic. I don’t believe it’s possible for a sky to look bluer than it does silhouetted against a red rock canyon, and Clint’s knowledge of the land only deepened the experience.

We spent the better part of the day exploring and roaming the land, and as the sun began to sink lower in the sky, Clint asked us if we would like to come to his house and participate in a traditional medicine wheel ceremony.

Hmm–that sounds…unique.

And unique it was. We were actually joined by Clint’s wife and toddler son (after Clint politely asked our permission for their company, of course).

Clint explained the workings of the medicine wheel to us as he lit a smoky, smoldering fire in the center of the wheel. He handed us each some more of his special-blended tobacco and we entered the wheel, slowly circling through it and scattering the tobacco leaves as we walked.

He instructed us to say our own quiet prayers, thinking especially about our current circumstances and challenges we may be facing or blessings we may be especially grateful for. He also instructed us to stop at any point in the wheel that we felt “called to us”–a spot that we felt most connected to.

Thinking it was somewhat difficult to feel “connected” to any one spot on the ground, I did my best to choose the stopping point that appealed most to me.

Once everyone had made their choices, we took a seat right there on the ground and Clint began telling us each the meaning of the particular spot we had chosen. Each region of the wheel correlated with an animal of some kind (I think mine may have been a hawk or an eagle?) as well as a specific stage of life.

I’m pretty sure I had chosen to sit in the Eastern section, which signified birth and new beginnings–made sense, considering that I was just about to graduate from college and begin a new chapter of my life (although, as with horoscopes, I’m sure I could have made just about anything Clint said relate to my current circumstances). He asked us to reflect on how the spot we chose could tie into our lives, and suggested that we share a personal story, emotion, or prayer with the others around us.

These kind of things are actually usually pretty awkward for me–as much as I love sharing my feelings and partaking in meaningful and intimate conversations, I don’t normally do it out loud and with a group. However, I was not going to wimp out on any part of this experience, so I sucked it up and shared with the people around me some of the hopes and fears I had surrounding graduating and beginning this new part of my life.

The current circumstances made sharing these personal thoughts easier; the air was growing cooler as the sun set behind the jagged red rocks, the fragrant smoke from the bonfire was billowing up through the dry evening air, and the only sounds around us were the sounds of the cracking fire and the wind in the trees.

It was almost impossible not to be drawn in by the natural, spiritual vibes around us.

Luckily, my family members who were there backed me up and shared their own personal thoughts and wishes, so as hokey as it sounds, it was definitely a moment that brought us all closer together. As we wrapped up with the medicine wheel and prepared to return our cabin rental, I felt both exhausted from a long day in the Arizona sun and refreshed from being unplugged and out in nature all day.

Like I said, I had no idea what to expect when I began this adventure–the most “spiritual” occurrence of most of my travel experiences is usually visiting temples and churches, but needless to say, this particular experience is one that I’ll remember for a lifetime.

Have you ever experienced anything like this? Would you like to?

Note: Normally all photos shared on this blog are my own, but these particular pictures come (mostly) from our family camera, which means that while I did take a few of these photos, most of them were taken by my step-mom, and some likely by my dad and both of my sisters as well.

The post Getting Spiritual in Sedona, Arizona appeared first on The Wandering Blonde.

The southwestern region of the United States has a reputation for being a bit…barren.

And it is–but in the best way possible. The vast emptiness–the mind-blowingly open space–is in my opinion what makes the southwest so absolutely freaking beautiful.

One of my favorite travel memories is a family road trip we took at the end of last summer, from Houston, Texas all the way to Sedona, Arizona (exactly 1234 miles from city center to city center!)

We spent the first part of the trip traveling fairly quickly, making stops in Carlsbad, Roswell, Santa Fe, and Albuquerque within the first few days, and spending the greatest amount of time in Sedona and the Grand Canyon.

During this trip, we passed the widest assortment of landscapes and environments: forested hills, grassy plains, barren deserts, rocky mountains, and red rock cliffs. It got me thinking about how big the United States is, as well as how beautiful it is. As many amazing sights as I’ve seen abroad, the scenery that we passed that week was no doubt just as unique and just as beautiful. I can’t think of anywhere else in the world I’ve been where you could drive for miles and miles, and hours and hours and not see one single soul–not a car, not a person, not even a tree. Just flat, empty land wherever you look. It was a side of the States that I had never seen before, having grown up on the East Coast–and it was almost surreal.

I had never before seen such endless, flat plains. Nothing but blue skies and the horizon, no matter which way you looked. There were almost no towns or other cars during this trip. So strange!

We stopped by Carlsbad Caverns in the Guadalupe Mountains of New Mexico. They were some of the coolest caves I’ve ever seen, and they were huge! But, they confirmed my suspicions that I am decidedly an above-ground kind of girl–after a while underground, I was ready to get back on the open roads and be surrounded by blue skies and endless plains again.

We also stopped by Roswell, New Mexico, a city known for its connection to aliens and UFO crash landing sites. There’s not much to see here other than all things alien-themed. Tacky souvenir shops, restaurants, and public art all center on the UFO stories and conspiracy theories that put this place on the map in 1947. We made a quick stop here, and were soon back on the open roads and traveling through no man’s land.

Of course, you know I can’t stay away from the cities long! We had one full day to explore Santa Fe, “The City Different.” And different it sure was! We visited art galleries, farmers markets, colonial-style churches and chocolate shops.

Seriously, any city that takes chocolate and farmers market food as seriously as Santa Fe is a 10/10 in my book. Needless to say, I was in love.

As we made our way across New Mexico, cruising the empty highways in the middle of nowhere, we were surprised to see an elderly man on a motorized scooter decked out with flags and signs making his way down the other side of the road. As my stepmom put it “That’s just too weird to ignore”–so we made a quick u-turn and pulled over to have a chat.

Turns out, the man–Raymond M. Black–had quite the interesting story to tell. He had set out on a solo cross-country scooter journey from Utah to Florida, in order to raise money and awareness for Vietnam War veterans.

Definitely not what you expect to see on the side of the road after hours of driving without passing another living soul! We wished Mr. Black luck on his journey, left him with some of our extra water bottles, and bid him adieu.

As we journeyed west, the terrain slooowly began to increase in elevation. Rocky peaks and rough cliffs began to appear across the grassy plains.

Our next official stop was the Petrified Forest…which, if you haven’t guessed based on the preceding scenery, is not a forest in any sense of the word.

I still remember the sense of awe I felt as we drove through the Petrified Forest. I was absolutely captivated. I kept having to remind myself that this was my country, that we were still in the United States and not on some foreign, sterile planet. I’ve always had a tendency to prefer rugged landscapes over perfectly polished ones–for me, a scene doesn’t have to be flawless, polished, or luxurious to be beautiful–it just has to be unique. And I don’t think it gets much more unique than this!

Possibly the most unexpected sight on our road trip (aside from the 71-year old veteran scootering across the plains) was when thickly forested hills came into view. It was such a sudden change–and so drastic from the majority of our trip.

The sheer greenery didn’t last long, and eventually the landscape gave way to the sights we had been aiming for: red rocks.

Our ultimate destination, Sedona, greeted us with colorful sandstone cliffs, scrubby trees, and the bluest skies I’ve ever seen. It reminded me yet again that there was so much to be seen within the United States–so much wild beauty to be appreciated.

Traveling to foreign lands is one of my favorite things in the world…but this road trip helped me discover that my own land was pretty damn great as well. The rest of the world may have us beat on historic sites and charming old towns, but if there’s one thing the United States excels at, it’s wide, wide, wide open spaces.

Have you ever traveled to the American Southwest? What’s the most epic road trip you’ve ever taken?

Note: Normally all photos shared on this blog are my own, but these particular pictures come (mostly) from our family camera, which means that while I did take a few of these photos, most of them were taken by my step-mom, and some likely by my dad and both of my sisters as well.

The post The Beauty of Nothing: Road Trip Through the American Southwest appeared first on The Wandering Blonde.