Cathedral Rock is what you see on the cover of most brochures about Sedona, Arizona. It is usually a photo taken from Oak Creek which flows by below. We are going to hike to the base of the cliffs from the northwest side and will not see the river until we get to the top. We start, surprise, at a parking lot:

Leaving the parking lot, it looks like an easy trail ahead, but the trail isn't rising toward the cliffs, yet . . . :

We knew this was coming, didn't we? An abrupt rise marked by wire-encased rockpiles:

After some serious huffing and puffing, we have the pleasure of looking back:

But after all that pleasure, we see that we are not at the base of the cliffs yet:

So we huff and puff some more and find ourselves at the feet of vertical giants:

This little ridge between columns, above, was quite scenic:

To the extent we can, we will now look at the views, first to the southeast:

The opposite side looked northward to the higher mountains where Oak Creek canyon is:

There was a view from between several columns onto Oak Creek below. It is from that spot below that most pictures of this rock-mass are taken:

There are decent views in all directions, actually:

Small villages follow the creek, as can be seen from this side:

And now it is time to go back to the hotel and prepare to explore a hundred or so miles farther north, north of Flagstaff, the next day.

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