1 Week Near Sedona, AZ – Here’s What We Did

Back in April (yep, I’m a little behind on posts!) Shae’s mom and stepdad came out to visit us in Arizona.

They were keen on visiting Sedona and Jerome, so we booked an Airbnb in Prescott Valley as that was fairly close to both locations. We had a great time while we were there as Sedona is stunning, there’s great hiking, lots of wineries, tons of history and so much more.

Here’s a recap of everything that we did while we were there.

Where We Stayed

We stayed at this Airbnb just outside of Prescott Valley which was simply fantastic.

It was close enough to Prescott Valley, Jerome, Sedona, etc. to have them all be within a convenient driving distance, but isolated enough that it was incredibly quiet and peaceful while also having lovely views.

Where We Hiked

Devil’s Bridge

We went hiking a couple of times while we were there, both of which were in Sedona. Our first hike was to Devil’s Bridge (see this post for more), a natural bridge that you can walk out on to. Devil’s Bridge itself was beautiful enough, but then you add the scenery behind it and you get this:

Cathedral Rock

Our second hike was to Cathedral Rock (see this post for more). It was a more challenging hike, but the payoff with the views made it all worthwhile.

Boynton Canyon Trail / Subway Cave

We didn’t hike this trail while staying near Sedona; instead, we drove back down while staying up in Flagstaff as it wasn’t too far. It was a beautiful hike, although our attempt to find Subway Cave involved taking a side trail that was in the completely wrong direction – check out this post for more about our misadventures and our eventual successful attempt at visiting Subway Cave.

What Else We Did

Montezuma Castle National Monument

We’d had Montezuma Castle National Monument on our list of places to visit while we were there, but were planning to visit it later in the week. However, on our way to Devil’s Bridge we spotted a sign for Montezuma Castle, so we decided to stop by there seeing as we were so close by.

Montezuma Castle had nothing to do with Montezuma and it’s not a castle either – it’s a cliff dwelling where the Sinagua people used to live. To preserve the site you can no longer climb ladders to explore the ruins, but it was still an interesting place to visit. See this post for more details about the site’s history and what it’s like to visit.

Montezuma Well

After visiting Montezuma Castle, we decided to swing by Montezuma Well which is a naturally occurring well containing 15 million gallons of water. Due to the fact that it was such a good water resource, it’s not too surprising that the Sinagua people built some cliff dwellings here too. Here’s more about Montezuma Well.

Tuzigoot National Monument

Tuzigoot National Monument was another historical location we visited which, as with both Montezuma sites, was home to the Sinagua people. The 110 room building was quite literally lost to the sands of time before being excavated in the 1930s. Here’s more about the site if you’d like to learn more.

Gold King Mine & Ghost Town

I had to work one day, so Shae, her mom and stepdad headed in to Jerome to explore the former-mining-town-turned-popular-tourist-stop. One of the places they visited was Gold King Mine & Ghost Town.

Shae really liked it, so the two of us headed back there with Truffles a few days later on our way up to Flagstaff. Check out this post for more details about that.

Wandering Around Jerome

After visiting Gold King Mine & Ghost Town and having lunch, we took a quick wander around Jerome. It’s a very hilly town; so hilly in fact that their jail detached from the building it was originally attached to and slid 225 feet down the hill.

Where We Ate & Drank

Cottonwood Wineries

After visiting Tuzigoot National Monument, we headed on to Cottonwood, another cute small town that has several wineries. We started off at Arizona Stronghold where we did some wine tasting in their courtyard.

They also serve tapas, so we had some lunch while we were there. We got a cheese plate, almond bowl and hummus, as well as a skewer for each of us. They have various different meats from steak to chicken to elk and more; I got duck which comes with grilled seasonal fruit with kalbi, smoky peach whiskey and onion fig sauces – delicious!

One of the nice things about Arizona Stronghold is that they’re pet-friendly, so Truffles was able to join us. She very much enjoyed sampling the cheeses and meats too!

After Arizona Stronghold, Shae’s mom and stepdad went off to wander the boutique shops in Cottonwood. We headed next door to check out Winery 101 as they were also pet-friendly inside. We got chatting to Jessi who was working there that day and she was lovely.

We then headed over to Burning Cedar Cellars for another wine tasting. Dogs weren’t allowed inside, but that was fine because they had a pet-friendly patio out front.

The Palace

I only did wine tasting at Arizona Stronghold rather than the two subsequent wineries as I wanted to pace myself. Shae’s mom and stepdad had mentioned they wanted to take me somewhere to drink later that afternoon as an early birthday celebration (my birthday was a week later and they’d have flown back by then).

They drove us over to Prescott which is home to Whiskey Row – a street which was once home to tons of saloon bars.

Our destination was The Palace, a saloon bar that was once frequented by Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday and more. A fun feature of the bar is that you get the experience of entering through old-style saloon bar doors.

With Truffles still with us we headed round back to their courtyard where we had drinks and snacks. Seeing as we were in Whiskey Row, I tried a couple of whiskeys I’d never had before.

Before heading back to our Airbnb, Shae and I popped inside the bar just so that we could say we’d done whiskey shots in a saloon bar on Whiskey Row.

Hideaway House

After hiking up to Cathedral Rock we went for dinner at Hideaway House in Sedona. Their food was good, but their dessert was – as Shae described it – “life-changing”. See this post to find out why.

Haunted Hamburger

After visiting Gold King Mine & Ghost Town in Jerome, we went for lunch at Haunted Hamburger which has delicious burgers and sandwiches, great sides and boozy shakes. Check out this review for more about our meal.

Final Thoughts

There’s so much to do in Sedona and that general area that we barely scratched the surface, so I certainly wouldn’t say no to heading back to Sedona at some point in the future.