Mariposa

Celebrate Like A Chef

WALTER PAULSON Tucked inside one of Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village’s smallest courtyards, Rene at Tlaquepaque has been Sedona local’s fine-dining go-to since 1978. But its tucked-away vibe, cozy booths and tiny wine bar still make…

seven canyons

It’s The Good Life

WINE OF THE TIMES Some wines transcend being a beverage and generate iconic imagery and memories, especially when savored with friends who enjoy a good story with a special wine. Place of origin has always been…

adobe grand villas

Adobe Grand Villas

Dining at Adobe Grand Villas might be Sedona’s best-kept secret, though chef Michael Merilli, who has been in Sedona for more than 10 years, does have a devoted local following. Need a staycation? Think Adobe Grand…

great southwest

Great Southwest

When we first introduced readers to Chris and Debbie Jones, owners of Great Southwest gallery, the couple had recently relocated their home and business from Colorado Springs. That was back in 2013. At the time, Great…

the nutcracker

Dance, Dance, Dance

Nothing announces the start of the holiday season like Sedona Chamber Ballet’s presentation of Phoenix Ballet’s The Nutcracker. The timeless performance takes place Dec. 1 at 2 and 7 p.m., and Dec. 2 at 2 p.m….

pine canyon

Go Flagstaff: The Luxe Life

THE ELEGANT MOUNTAIN LIFE Sophisticated mountain living comes with abundant amenities at Pine Canyon, a private community. Designed to be a place where one can escape the cares of the city to relax and enjoy the…

turkey trot

Turkey Trot 5K

Before you head to that Thanksgiving feast, burn some calories at the 9th First Annual Sedona Turkey Trot 5K at Posse Grounds Park on Nov. 22 at 9 a.m. The race, presented by Sedona Running Company,…

spanish nights

Spanish Nights

Escape to Spain this month without packing more than your handbag when Verde Valley Sinfonietta presents Spanish Nights on Nov. 18 at 2:30 p.m. The concert, the first of three in the sinfonietta’s 2018/19 season, takes…

fall colors

Go Flagstaff: Fall Colors

SOLID GOLD Since trees start changing color at highest elevations first, make sure to check out Aspen Corner early in the month. Located 6.5 miles up Snow Bowl Road off of Highway 180, this road-tripper’s favorite…

Phoenix Day Trippin’

DESERT BOTANICAL GARDEN Don’t get us wrong: We don’t think there’s any landscape on Earth that’s as beautiful as Sedona’s red rocks, but sometimes you just want to spend a little time in a quintessentially desert…

pumpkin

Halloween

Halloween is here! There is no shortage of haunted happenings in the Verde Valley for the young and the young at heart, starting with Jerome’s 2018 Ghost Walk on Oct. 12 and 13 from 6:30 to…

mesa grill

Mesa Grill

Perched on top of Airport Mesa, Mesa Grill is your place for a leisurely, scenic lunch or sunset dinner. Grab a table next to the panoramic windows that look out over Sedona Airport and watch the…

Sedona Arts Festival

Artful October

If you are an art collector – or if you just appreciate beauty – October is your favorite month. First up is the Sedona Arts Festival on Oct. 13 and 14. The 28th annual event takes…

Hideaway House

Hideaway House

By the time we left Hideaway House, we had met the couple sitting next to us, and the couple behind us. It’s a place where old friends gather at a very lively bar and new friends…

Page Regatta

Fall Festival Fever

RED ROCKS MUSIC FESTIVAL Classical music fans will want to attend all four performances of Red Rocks Music Festival at Sedona Creative Life Center. On Sept. 8 at 7:30 p.m., enjoy A Dialogue Through Music. From…

Sedona’s Moonlight Madness Concert

Moonlight Madness

Despite recent whispers of Sedona losing its small-town charm, there are still plenty of opportunities to connect with neighbors and celebrate what we love best about Red Rock Country. The Collective Sedona’s Moonlight Madness Concert is…

flagstaff community market

Go Flagstaff: Flagstaff Community Market

MARKET FRESH Teeming with Arizona-grown produce, meat and dairy products, the bountiful market also includes vendors that provide ready-to-eat, healthy foods to enjoy on the spot. Shoppers snap up items to accent their homes for fall…

grand canyon celebration of art

Grand Canyon Celebration Of Art

Artists have been inspired by their landscape since man first began scratching images on cave walls, which is why celebrating visual art at a place like Grand Canyon National Park is such a natural fit. This…

Javelina Cantina

Javelina Cantina

Picture this: It’s a balmy evening right after a monsoon storm has passed. The air is still redolent with wet sage and a subtle whiff of ozone. Where do you want to be? Outside on the…

Llowell Observatory

Go Flagstaff: Flagstaff Museums

SEEING STARS View the sun and other stars through a special solar telescope by day, and at night explore the vastness of outer space in the Rotunda Museum at Lowell Observatory. You can also experience out-of-this-world…

Michael Kollwitz

Michael Kollwitz

For most people, the first time they witness Michael Kollwitz tap out classic rock and old standards on his instrument, the odd-looking Chapman Stick, they have one response: What is that instrument and are you really…

Sedona Family Foot Rodeo

Sedona Family Foot Rodeo

Celebrate the history of Posse Grounds Park with the City of Sedona’s Parks and Recreation department during the Sedona Family Foot Rodeo. The event takes place at the lower softball field at Posse Grounds Park on…

classic car

Vroom, Vroom

Listen up car lovers! The 44th Annual Prescott Antique Auto Club Watson Lake Show happens Aug. 4-5 at Watson Lake Park in Prescott. The show takes place from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., and admission is…

Sedona Summer Colony

Sedona Summer Colony

With all of the distractions of day-to-day life, finding time to focus on an art project can be challenging. That’s why the Sedona Summer Colony has been so successful. For the third summer in a row,…

Arizona Snow Bowl

High Profile

One of the coolest (literally) spots to be this month is on top of 11,500-foot Mt. Agassiz near Flagstaff. How do you get there? Take Arizona Snowbowl’s Scenic Chairlift to the top. The chairlift takes you…

Roasted Strawberry Buttermilk Ice Cream at Rocky RD Ice Cream Co.

SWEEEEEET!

ELLIE’S CHOCOLATE PEANUT BUTTER PIE: $8 When Ellie Shugrue was a kid, her favorite movie was The Parent Trap. In the flick, the twin girls eat Oreo cookies dipped in peanut butter, so Ellie had to…

Independence Day

Independence Day

Happy 242nd birthday, America! Celebrate Independence Day with the 4th of July Wet Fest at the Sedona community pool from noon to 4 p.m. The free activity features a water slide, games, water toys, swimming, live…

Best Sushi in Sedona

Szechuan Restaurant

There’s just something about hot summer temperatures and sushi that seem to go hand in hand, isn’t there? When our appetites are light and we’re daydreaming about our next beach vacation, we head for Szechuan Restaurant,…

Western-inspired Sedona interior design

Changing Spaces

A CONTEMPORARY TAKE ON SOUTHWEST DESIGN What do you do when you want to retain your new home’s Southwest roots but also incorporate your own contemporary style? That was the dilemma presented to Stephanie Larsen, owner…

Movie theater popcorn

Let’s Go To The Movies

What happens when you combine great movies with balmy Sedona evenings? The City of Sedona Parks and Recreation Department’s new Sedona Summer Cinema Series, which begins June 6 and happens every Wednesday through the month. The…

Music festival in Flagstaff

Go Flagstaff: Festival Season

BOTTOMS UP Made in the Shade Beer Tasting Festival, one of the largest brew fests in Arizona, happens Saturday, June 9, and features more than 50 breweries and distilleries. Pepsi Amphitheater, situated in a green, forested…

Musicians on stage at the Tilted Earth Music Festival

Tilted Earth Festival

Fourteen years ago, Eric Glomski, owner and director of winegrowing at Page Springs Cellars and co-founder of Arizona Stronghold Vineyards, decided to marry two of his biggest passions, wine and music, with an annual harvest festival….

Go Flagstaff: Date Night

TAKE IT TO THE EXTREME A thrill-seeking alternative to dinner and a movie is Flagstaff Extreme Adventure Course where partners get in touch with their inner child on tree-to-tree rope courses and zip lines. The course…

Sedona Today. Adulting Tomorrow.

FLY LIKE AN EAGLE Remember when you were a kid and all you wanted to do was fly? The Hualapai Tribe, owners of Grand Canyon West, have made that possible – sort of. The destination debuted…

Kindness Blooms

Last summer, an 80-year-old, housebound man named James Bean passed away in Uptown, Sedona. He didn’t have any family, but before quietly passed away, he told his caretakers that his biggest concern was that his partner’s…

Sedona Gallery Association

Back in 2004, four art experts – Peggy Lanning, Isabelle Cozart, James Ratliff and Karen Ely – founded the Sedona Gallery Association as a way to promote Sedona’s fine art galleries. With the association came the…

Best brunch spot in Sedona

Crema Craft Kitchen & Bar

Named after the base used to make gelato, Crema Craft Kitchen & Bar is where you want to be the morning after a long night (ahem). It’s where you bring your friends for Sunday brunch or…

Children petting a gray wolf

Sedona Wolf Week

It all started with four sold-out movie screenings in April 2016 at the Mary D. Fisher Theatre. The film was Medicine of the Wolf directed by Julia Huffman, and the organizers were Betsy Klein and Timon…

Go Flagstaff: Best Wine Spots

WOULD YOU LIKE SOME SORBET WITH YOUR SYRAH? Low lighting, brick walls and floor-to-ceiling wine racks make FLG Terroir Wine Bar & Bistro Flagstaff’s quintessential wine bar. Patrons of all ages enjoy wines from around the…

Rock On

    Scott Newth pulls out several binders filled with photocopied documents from the 1800s, maps, diagrams, and pages and pages of research on rock art in the Verde Valley. You’d swear he’d been researching the…

Mountain Juniper Gallery

Mountain Juniper Gallery

Spend even a short amount of time with woodworker, furniture maker and artist Dan Taylor, and there’s one thing you’ll understand immediately: Dan respects his materials above all else. His material of choice for the past…

Sedona Dining

The Hudson

Red rock views? Check. A casual yet upscale ambiance worthy of wearing something nice? Check. A consistent menu that’s creative while at the same time cohesive? Check and check. It’s no secret that The Hudson has…

Go Flagstaff

Go Flagstaff: A Winter Wonderland

HIT THE SLOPES March is typically one of Flagstaff’s biggest snow months, and the mountain town’s local weather expert, Lee Born, assures us that there will be snow this month. Skiers and snowboarders can always count…

Space Cowboys

Space Cowboys

TODAY In the black cinder fields northeast of Flagstaff, the fierceness of the wind makes your eyes water and your nose run. Prickly brush grows from coal-colored sand, and gnarled pine trees stand sentinel. Occasionally, you…

Jane Alexander

You might say Jane Alexander’s acting career is the stuff that dreams are made of. She earned an Oscar nomination for her film debut in The Great White Hope (1970) but only after she starred in…

Petty Cache

Norman Petty is the most famous person you’ve probably never heard of. He was a music industry whirlwind: instrumentalist, songwriter, audio engineer, talent manager and, most important, an independent record producer. The 20 Top 40 hits…

R­eitz Ranch

Even though world-renowned ceramicist Don Reitz passed away in 2014 at the age of 84, his spirit can still be felt around the kilns and in the studio at his off-the-beaten-path ranch in Clarkdale. The ranch’s…

Casa Sedona Inn

Admittedly, we don’t get out for breakfast all that often, but when we do, we like to make an event of it. Think brunch à la Sex in the City. Casa Sedona Inn, a secluded, boutique…

Chamber Music Sedon­a

Now in the middle of its 35th season, Chamber Music Sedona has a winter lineup that will warm everyone’s ears. First up, the Fifth Sedona Winter Music Festival happens Jan. 10-14 and features clarinetist and festival…

Sedona Fox

The first six sound movies photographed on location in Sedona were produced by the Fox Film Corp. between 1930 and 1933. Last of the Duanes, El último de los Vargas (a Spanish-language version of Duanes simultaneously…

REDS Restaurant in Sedona

REDS Restaurant at Sedona Rouge Hotel & Spa has a modern vibe that has made it a favorite locals’ hangout for years. If you live here, it’s practically a given that you’ll run into someone you…

Azadi Navajo Rugs in Sedona

It’s amazing how many stories – and generations – can fit inside a 375-square-foot space. You’ll discover that when you visit Azadi Navajo Rugs, tucked away in one of Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village’s more hidden…

Christmas in the Southwest

35th Annual Christmas Boat Parade of Lights Put on a sweater and gather along the shores of Lake Havasu in the far western corner of our state for London Bridge Yacht Club’s 35th Annual Christmas Boat…

Garland’s Navajo Rugs in Sedona

When you think of Native American art in Sedona, some family names come to mind: Hoel, Wilcox and, of course, Garland. The Garland family moved to Sedona from Phoenix in 1970 (they had spent years vacationing…

Sedona’s Elote Cafe

Ever since Jeff Smedstad opened Elote Cafe in 2007, hungry devotees have been flocking to the restaurant. When the doors open at 5 p.m., there’s frequently a line outside (Elote doesn’t take reservations). What keeps the…

A New Take on an Old Classic

When it came time to make plans for November’s Native American Heritage Month, Ken Zoll, executive director of Verde Valley Archaeology Center, had an idea. Ken sits on the advisory board for Verde Valley Sinfonietta, and…

Sedona Open Studios

Thinking about holiday gift giving? Forgo online shopping and spend a weekend browsing local artist studios during Sedona Visual Artists’ Coalition’s Fall Open Studios Tour. The self-guided, free tour takes place Nov. 10-12 from 10 a.m….

Halloween in Sedona

It’s that time of the year when thoughts turn toward costumes and candy. There is no shortage of haunted happenings in the Verde Valley for the young and the young at heart, starting with the Pumpkin…

Sedona Arts Festival

If you love to shop and you love the red rocks, there is no better festival than Sedona Arts Festival, now in its 27th year. On Oct. 7 and 8 on the sports field at Sedona…

Sedona Reflections

  In Sedona, everything is better in October. Daytime temperatures slowly start to drop and the summer monsoon storms dissipate. It’s also an ideal time to explore Pumphouse Wash in Oak Creek Canyon. Five miles of…

Cress on Oak Creek

There is no shortage of remarkable experiences to be had in Sedona, and dining at Cress on Oak Creek at L’Auberge de Sedona has to be at the top of that list. First you have the…

Sedona’s El Dorado

When Claudio and Karla Herrera first met, they were part of a small population of Ecuadorian immigrants living in New York City. Karla was attending the Fashion Institute of Technology, intent on studying fashion design and…

Sedona Pet Lovers Gala

If what Gandhi said is true and the greatness of a nation can be judged by the way its animals are treated, then Sedona is already pretty great. In the first six months of 2017, 316…

Sedona Winefest 2017

Under a big-top tent on the field at Posse Grounds Park, wine lovers leisurely made their way from one winery to the next, sipping on glasses of red, white and rose. They nibbled on squares of…

Fiesta del Tlaquepaque in Sedona

The 45th annual Fiesta del Tlaquepaque, a celebration of Mexican Independence Day, takes place Sept. 9 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village. Tlaquepaque’s longest-running tradition will feature mariachis, flamenco dancers, ballet…

Miley’s Cafe in Sedona

For a couple of years now, we’ve been receiving emails from readers touting the hidden gem that is Miley’s Cafe. We had been to Miley’s on several occasions for breakfast, which is served all day, but…