Magical Sedona - Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village

We love this area so much. Coming into Sedona is jaw-dropping. You cannot help but sit in awe when the vast height of the canyons comes into view as you approach this beautiful place.

Our first experience in Sedona was our hike in the Red Rocks, Boynton Canyon Trail to the Subway cave, and we ran out of time that day to explore the town and sights. So this day we excitedly made our way back to the town and shops, and it was just as special as we had heard it was.

We drove there from Camp Verde, where we were staying at Camp Verde RV River Resort. The drive was beautiful as we made our way along Highway 179, known to be the most scenic route to Sedona. There are a few viewpoints to stop and admire the canyons as you get closer to Sedona. The views are truly stunning, like nothing we've ever seen.

We pulled up to Tlaquepaque Arts & Shopping Village and found ourselves a spot to park. Parking was free, and we found a spot super easily, but then we visited during winter and can imagine spring and summer are likely a zoo in this town, so parking at that time of year might be more of a challenge.

The village is stunning and reminded me a bit of Whistler Village back home in BC, Canada, except instead of being surrounded by snow and mountains, Sedona is surrounded by sunshine and red rock canyons. It's a magical whimsy of galleries, shops, dining, beautiful architecture, archways, fountains, trees that wound into the doorways, green vines growing up marvelously tiled stairwells and surrounded by peek-a-boo views through the sycamore trees of the massive red rocks reaching up into the sky.

https://www.tlaq.com/

We popped in and out of shop after shop, eyeing the beautiful art... there is so much beautiful art in this one place. You could spend an entire day just looking at it all, which we did for a couple of hours until the mouth-watering aroma in the air of what smelled like a mushroom garlic pizza drew my attention away from the shops and put my attention on my stomach!

There were a few places to grab a bite in the village. Being the beer flight tasting connoisseurs we are, we opted to try out Oak Creek Brewing. We ordered the flight board called the 7 Dwarves, which didn't look dwarfish at all upon it's arrival at our table. We could have shared a flight board. They had a fairly good variety on the menu and I decided to order the individual size 10' "My Favorite" wood-fired pizza. Mushrooms, fresh spinach, arugula, brie and fontina, red onions, roasted garlic, and garlic olive oil...YUM! Bill had their French onion soup and an order of fries. The 10' pizza was huge for one person...looks like another leftovers pizza lunch day for us as I could only eat two slices given I was already feeling full and bloated from my little dwarf ginormic beer flight that I couldn't even finish. https://oakcreekbreweryandgrill.com/

A stop at the sweet shop "How Sweet It Is" and purchased some chocolate caramel turtles to savor for later and then we hit the road headed for home.

Bill suggested we take the long route home along 89A as it offers an opportunity to drive through the town of Jerome, which takes you along a winding route to an elevation of 7,123 ft where a light dusting of snow could be seen on the edges of the road and in the mountains. We did not get a chance to stop in Jerome, but it looked like a fun place to explore. The views were stunning as we wound our way up through the town and its hairpin turns. I don't think we have experienced a drive yet through Arizona that didn't have amazing views.

AZ has been such an unexpected place of beauty.

Bill & Cat