It’s Saturday morning, the day after the IQTVRA Summit in Sedona officially ended, and the clear, sunny weather is perfect for an impromptu helicopter ride. But I need some convincing. My colleagues are psyched: Marco has been giving me the hard sell on the virtues of a helicopter tour all week, and Shen is practically hopping with excitement at the thought of shooting a pano from the air. Cost is the only reason for my hesitancy; $138 per person for the Deluxe Tour seems a little steep for only 30 to 35 minutes in the air. Advertised as “the everything” tour, Arizona Helicopter Adventures promises we’ll contour-fly Sedona’s most famous red rock formations, including Bell and Cathedral Rocks, then descend into the pristine Secret and Boynton Canyons, where we’ll be able to view the ancient Sinagua Indian cliff dwellings.
Click here to view the fisheye picture gallery
As soon as the helicopter takes off over the canyons I realize my reservations are foolish. As spectacular as Sedona is from the ground, it is even more so from the air. The area around Sedona is comprised of red sandstone formations with pinyon and juniper vegetation, along with yucca, cactus, sage, and other grasses associated with high desert areas. The view is breathtaking as we carve the edges of the rock, soar over pine forests and spot hikers making their way up the cliffs. We circle around Bell and Cathedral Rocks, two of Sedona’s four vortexes, or power points, which some believe are places where an indefinable form of energy (physical? metaphysical?) freely flows from the earth.
Our pilot gives short shrift to the idea of vortexes, and people I’ve met seem to be evenly split on the subject, but it’s hard to ignore the number of people do visit Sedona for the vortexes. A Northern Arizona University study in 1996 found that 64 percent of visitors were seeking some form of spiritual experience in Sedona, and many of them stay, often finding work in the tourism industry. While shopping at the 18th century Spanish Colonial village with the unpronounceable name – Tlaquepaque (tlockay-pockay)- earlier in the week, a salesgirl enthusiastically offered to “paint my soul”. And a taxi driver who had moved to the area a couple years ago with his wife told me how the spiritual energy surrounding Sedona makes “all your stuff come up faster here”, urging me to “face it and embrace it”. Whether you’re a cynic or embrace the special energy of Sedona, you’ll love its undeniable beauty.
A Vietnam vet who has been flying tours in the area for six years, our pilot regularly points out areas of interest and keeps up a dialogue rich with historical and geological anecdotes. We see a rock tenuously balanced upon the rock beneath it, which he calls the True Balancing Rock. Slightly absurd looking, it seems like a great location for one of those commercials where a car is improbably placed atop a soaring vertical rock formation.
Midway through the flight we enter the highlight of the tour- the Anasazi cliff dwellings. Of the many mysteries in the Verde Valley, one of the most enduring is what happened to the Anasazi (Navajo for “Ancient Ones”) Indians who flourished here for nearly 1200 years. Native Americans have lived in Arizona for over 12,000 years and an estimated 100,000 Anasazi lived at thousands of sites between 1100 and 1200 AD. Around 1100 AD, the Sinaguans joined the Anasazi in the area, teaching them to build sophisticated multi-storied building in the area. But by 1300 AD they had virtually disappeared. Researchers can’t agree on the cause. Was it climate change? Warfare? Invasion?
Lawrence W. Creek, in Arizona Highways’ informative “Sedona, Official Guide to Red Rock Country” spent six years looking for evidence of the prehistoric war that killed off the Sinagua between 1250 and 1450. “There was no great war,” Creek concludes. “There just came to be too many people for a fragile environment to support – a disarmingly simple explanation that reverberates around the increasingly crowded red rocks today.”
Area ruins and inscrutable rock art conjure a people in close tune with their environment, enjoying a period of prosperity, followed by increasing signs of conflict and, finally, abandonment. As the helicopter hovers near an ancient chalky painting we try to make out its vague animal shape. The biggest thrill for me is viewing four or five of the famous cliff dwellings, which are remarkable when viewed up close and in context with the inhospitable and vast surroundings. With some of the dwellings it’s difficult to imagine how the Anasazi reached these spots and, one assumes, on a daily or regular basis: dwellings tucked high in steep rock with no discernable access that were likely built during times of war; others located closer to the ground in shallow rock were built in peaceful times. Towards the end of the flight we fly over a kiva ladder lying midway up one of the rock faces. Made of desert cedar and resting in that location for approximately 800 years, it almost looks like a remnant of modern rock climbers. How exhilarating to glimpse the last days of the Anasazi and the precarious cliffside dwellings of people desperately defending themselves from conflict.
Another theory about why the Anasazi lived in such inhospitable places was offered by our pilot: they were sacrificial lambs, thrown out of the community for whatever reasons and forced to take shelter high in the rocks.
For sheer thrills, a quick orientation of the area and a glimpse of the last days of the Anasazi, nothing beats Arizona Helicopter Adventures’ Deluxe tour. Our pilot was very knowledgeable with a specific interest in the Anasazi and was happy to answer our questions. The company also offers photo-mission tours that can be geared for panorama shots. Prices start at $750 per hour.
Arizona Helicopter Adventures www.azheli.com,
Email: fly[at]azheli[dot]com
For Reservations and Tour Information call: 1-800-282-5141 or 928-282-0904
Arizona Highways’ “Sedona, Official Guide to Red Rock Country”, by Lawrence W. Cheek is an excellent book on the subject.
