When snow falls in Sedona, everyone from Phoenix will flock up north to see the gorgeous views. Not only does the snow look magical over all of the red rocks, but we also never see snow in Phoenix so this is a special occasion! And my friends and I are no exception!

In this blog, I’m going to share my budget friendly day trip itinerary for seeing the snow during the winter in Sedona!

My itinerary at a glance:
Last minute day trip planning
Food we packed
Exploring snowy Sedona
Stargazing

The morning of our day trip

The morning of this adventure was like any Saturday morning. I decided to make waffles and share them with my friends. Nothing too crazy. Though in the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to go out and do something. It was probably around 1 o’clock when my roommate Rita and I called our friend Rohini to see what she was up to. She was busy in the morning so she couldn’t come over for waffles. She came over a little bit later, and while Rita and I were waiting for her to come, we were cooking up ideas of things we could do. Somehow, we decided we wanted to drive to Sedona since it had just snowed! When Rohini came over, she was immediately down so we quickly packed so we could get on the road. We called Emma to see if she wanted to join us, but she was out so she said she’d pass.

Snacks for the road

For the road, we packed waffles, cookies and chips – ya know, only the healthiest snacks for our road trips. Luckily, Rita had recently picked up free Jersey Mikes coupons at her work so we were able to have a free dinner! Once we loaded up, we headed to Jersey Mikes to pick up our subs and then we jumped on the highway. We called Emma one last time to see if she had changed her mind, and she decided she wanted to come so we turned around to pick her up! We gave her the low down once she got in the car. Basically we had no actual plan of what we’d do when we got to Sedona, but we knew we wanted to go polar plunging in a stream. So we swung by the apartment so she could grab her things and then we headed back to Jersey Mikes so she could pick up her free sub. We probably were back on the highway around 3:30 and it took about two hours to reach Sedona.

Snowy Sedona

Once we reached Sedona, we encountered slushy roads and had to drive suuuuper slow. In Arizona, the roads aren’t designed to handle water or snow, so they were extra slick.

We decided we would try to go upstream of Slide Rock so we could polar plunge. However, there was an accident on the road so they had the whole section blocked off since it was a narrow road.

We then decided to go to Airport Mesa, which is known for being able to feel a vortex there! The hike to reach Airport Mesa from the parking lot was not long at all, maybe .5 miles at the most. Since the ground was covered in snow, the red rocks were super slick and we had to be really careful while climbing to Airport Mesa. There were ropes on the side of the trail, so I used those to help me up the rocks. You can sort of see the ropes from these pictures below.

Coordinates for Airport Mesa: 34.856, -111.780

Once we reached the top, we couldn’t really see much because the clouds we super low and moving towards us. I couldn’t feel the vortex, but I overheard some other people talking about it and I think they felt it!

Stargazing + our drive back to Phoenix

After this short hike, we decided to make our way back to campus. As we were driving in the dark and looking out the window, we noticed that there were tons of stars in the sky that night. Arizona happens to be known for having great stargazing spots! We decided to take an exit around Bumble Bee, Arizona to look at the stars. There were no street lights, so it was pitch black which means we were able to see thousands of stars that night! It was so mesmerizing, I could’ve stared at the stars for hours. But since we were in the middle of no where we decided to leave within a few minutes just to be safe.

Somehow, my phone was able to capture some of the stars! I was really impressed because usually my phone takes awful pictures of the night sky.

Finally, we returned back to campus around 10 o’clock. We returned to find out that our neighbor had baked us cinnamon buns while we were gone! These were probably the best cinnamon buns I’d ever tasted. We were super lucky to have such kind neighbors that baked for us every now and then! We would return her plates by baking or cooking something for them, so it was almost like a fun cooking/baking exchange.

This little day trip was such a fun spur-of-the-moment trip. It always feels good to get off of campus for even just a few hours. My mind always feels so refreshed from taking a break from homework and seeing the beautiful state of Arizona!

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