Sedona, Arizona – Easy to Get to but Hard to Leave

There’s a reason they call Sedona, Arizona the most beautiful spot in the United States.

Regardless of how you approach the city, there is beauty all around you.

Whether you’re looking for an outdoor adventure or a little culture, you’ll find it here:

Biking In Sedona

If you’re driving to the area make sure you bring your bike. Sedona has numerous bike trails, and they’re growing each year. The newest trails are along the Red Rock Scenic Byway.

If you do forget your bike, not to worry, there are plenty of places to rent one.

When you’re ready to put the miles in, make sure you plan your trip in October to enjoy the Sedona Century Bike Tour. It is forty miles of scenic beauty through rivers, desert views, and red rocks.

Horseback Riding 

If sitting on a bike all day isn’t your thing, perhaps seeing the countryside on horseback might be more to your liking.

Get ready to play cowboy or cowgirl as you wind your way through Red Rock Country crossing creeks and dining under the stars.

Hot Air Ballooning over Sedona

For a wider view, consider a hot air balloon ride over the canyons and ancient ruins.

An aerial view let’s you truly appreciate the scope and size of the area. There’s nothing more beautiful than watching the sun rise over the canyons from 1,000 feet in the air.

Golf or Tennis?

Once back on firm ground, consider an afternoon of golf or tennis. There are several championship courses open to the general public.

The Sedona Golf Resort, surrounded by red rock formations, is just one of the stunning courses available. If you would rather not spend all day on the course, there are also executive courses for a quick nine holes.

Sedona is a perfect location for the tennis lover.

Visitors can play year round at many of the local resorts.

The weather is always just right for tennis, and professional instruction and competition is available for those who need a little brushing up on the game or are ready to take on a challenge.

Sedona Indoors

If you’re eager to spend a little time indoors, Sedona has you covered.

The city is home to film festivals, theatres, music, and over eighty art galleries.

You’ll find festivals throughout the year, so do make sure you check out what’s happening during your stay.

You’ll also find local wineries to explore and indulge your taste buds after a day in the canyons. Restaurants run the gambit with a little something for everyone whether you are looking for fine dining or an al fresco experience.

The Red Rock Canyon isn’t the only thing to feast your eyes on in Sedona.

Going Cuckoo

Due to its elevation and climate, Sedona is a bird lover’s paradise.

In the month of May, more than a hundred and thirty different species of birds are normally seen during one bird watching outing in the Verde Valley.

During the last week of April, the yearly Verde Valley Birding and Nature Festival is held in nearby Cottonwood, Arizona.

Weddings

Sedona is also a wonderful location for that special day.

When you’re looking for an outdoor wedding, the beauty of Sedona can’t be matched.

Professional wedding planners are on hand to help you will all the details necessary to make your special day a day you’ll never forget. After the ceremony, consider riding off into the sunset on horseback or in a horse-drawn carriage.

Regardless of your interests, you’ll find what you’re looking for in Sedona. From a Wild West adventure to relaxing on the veranda, there is truly something for everyone. Coming to Sedona is easy. It’s the leaving that’s the hard part.

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Ayahuasca Retreats USA: No Need for the Amazon Ceremonies Now?

There are physical adventures, there are mental adventures, and then there is ayahuasca: a relentless spiritual-physical-mental adventure that may be one of the most intense ordeals your soul can choose to experience in this life.

If an ayahuasca ceremony is on your bucket list, you no longer have to go all the way to South America’s Amazon to reach your goal.

Thanks to religious freedoms in the USA, you can finally check-off this list item, the ayahuasca ceremony, without leaving the USA. There are a handful of legal ceremonies popping up in urban areas and far-out locations in scattered pockets across the United States of America.

According to our new section, the ayahuasca retreat directory, a Native American Church is offering ayahuasca in the United States for people interested in the sacramental ritual of an ayahuasca ceremony and the full-on spiritual practice of ayahuasca tea imbibing.

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“The tea, known as Ayahuasca, is revered as sacred by Church members. It is a sacrament serving to heighten spiritual understanding and perception, and brings the practitioners closer to God and the Divine.” — Chief Minister Steve Hupp

It seems that the religious protections invoked by the religious freedom in America have made it possible — for people acting under the auspices of a church — to recruit new members to the church’s spiritual practices, where, as a potential member, you can partake in the ritual drinking of ayahuasca.

In other ceremonies that take place in the USA, invoking religious freedoms, take the UDV, for example, where it’s typical for UDV ayahuasca sessions to include dancing all night, wearing pure white clothes, and singing Christian songs. That’s right, the UDV is Christian. During a ceremony you’ll be immersed in an alternative Christian world that — to outsiders, the uninitiated, fundamentalist, or bible pounding puritans — may seem like sacrilege.

For the Native American church in Kentucky, you’ll have contact them to find out exactly what their ceremonies entail.

This is the most unusual US ayahuasca experience to come across Heroic Adventures’ radar, and it happens to be located in the same state as one of North America’s most famous horse races, the Kentucky Derby.

Yes, you read that correctly, Kentucky.

Save the South American journey. Instead, buy your plane ticket to Kentucky.

In all fairness, probably not everyone is as excited about an ayahuasca adventure in Kentucky as they would be taking the sacred medicine, say, with a Shipibo medicine man in South America — but, the novelty of the offer can’t be disputed.

Imagine it, you can fly from New York City down to Kentucky in a weekend. After drinking ayahuasca and having a lifetime’s worth of spiritual bombardment entering your consciousness, you’ll be a new person when you go back to the office in New York on Monday.

It’s time to take a Heroic Adventure not to the Amazon but to Kentucky.

Compare the first photo from the Amazon, below, to the second photo of Kentucky, below, it would appear there is a spiritual connection between the two… Well, at least, they both have a lot of nice green plants.

The Amazon isn’t the only place to legally ingest ayahuasca. Ceremonies are now emerging commercially in the United States of America.

Looking a bit like the Amazon without the river, in Kentucky you can now legally drink ayahuasca with a Minister from a Native American Church.

And, a caveat from a reader:

“Hey Team,

I’m not one to normally send feedback on posts, but this feels especially warranted. I appreciate you giving information to the public about Ayahuasca ceremonies being held in the U.S. I believe it’s a positive move forward that Americans will have Ayahuasca as a more accessible possibility. However, as someone who has experienced Ayahuasca, I really advise against saying things like “Imagine it, you can fly from New York City down to Kentucky in a weekend. After drinking ayahuasca and having a lifetime’s worth of spiritual bombardment entering your consciousness, you’ll be a new person when you go back to the office in New York on Monday.” That’s a very, very scary thing to advise people to do. When you take the medicine, it stays in your system for a much longer period than the one or two days you’ve actually consumed it. You need to have preparations in place for how you’re going to reintegrate into your daily life after the experience, and making it sound like it’s a “no big deal, let’s go do Ayahuasca this weekend” kind of thing is not only dangerous but it’s furthermore disrespectful toward and completely underestimating the power of the medicine.

I’m not trying to be a heckler, but please understand that this is powerful stuff. For the sake of your readers, I hope you reconsider the phrasing of your post and add in how important it is to seriously consider whether they’re ready to take the medicine, as well as how important it is for them to do their research regarding preparations before and after the experience.

Thanks for your time,
Lori”

(updated August 26, 2015)

Interesting Discussion on Legality of Ayahuasca in the USA

In the Fall of 2015, a website popped up touting the First Ayahuasca Church in the USA that is open for ceremonies to anyone. Now this is a distinct organization front Mr Hupp (in the article above). After this article was published detailing why this church is not legal–it seems the site went offline, maybe it will emerge again–for your own investigations–here is the link: https://ayahuascahealings.com.

And to see the site in it’s original splendor, the Internet Archive has a stash of how the site last looked on November 20th, 2015, available here: Ayahuasca Healing Internet Archive Snapshot 

A curious story in the world of spirituality, religious rights, internet marketing, and law.

(updated April 23, 2019)