I’ve been photographing Sedona from the air for nearly 25 years and have taken thousands of photos of the area. The city is within a small area of red rocks and geologic formations that have been formed by volcanic eruptions, earthquake faulting and erosion. We have two real mountains in Sedona: Wilson Mountain and House Mountain. Both are inactive volcanoes. Wilson is at the north end of Sedona and House Mountain is on the south. House Mountain erupted about 13 million years ago and was part of the Colorado Plateau at the time, which is why the lava flows are all on the south side.
The north side is now the Big Park area and includes the Village of Oak Creek. This mountain is known as a shield volcano because the lava had low viscosity, and it spread outwards rather than building a tall cone. Thirteen million years of erosion have separated it from the plateau by about four miles. House Mountain is on the west side of Oak Creek Canyon, and the cone was severed by earthquakes. The photo of AZ-179 above is looking north from the Village of Oak Creek with Castle Rock on the left, Bell Rock is in the center, and Courthouse is on the right. Cathedral Rock near center on the left, the airport upper left, center the chapel area and then the rim.
Pocket Canyons is a view of the east side of Oak Creek Canyon and beautiful, you guessed it, pocket canyons. These cannot be seen from the canyon floor and are a hidden treasure.
Sedona Airport is a view of the airport on the mesa and on the left is West Sedona, above it is Uptown and on the right AZ-179 is coming up from the Chapel area, and Oak Creek flows directly at the base of Airport Mesa on its way to join the Verde River.
South of Woods Canyon is a photo of nearly the all the red rock formations, the Village and Sedona. Woods Canyon is in the foreground.
The loop area is shot from the Southwest and includes the airport and most of Sedona. Oak Creek is surrounded by green trees as it snakes it way through the area.
