The area is pretty compact, so it's not hard to see pretty much the best of the best in a day or two. Any map shows where the big ones are, then you just weave and bob in and out of neighborhoods to get up close views. There are also plenty of scenic overlooks, but you don't get as up close and personal and just driving around. The west side of Sedona offers plenty of places off Route 89A.
Here's Coffee Pot Rock.
One of the best vantage points is at the airport....it's on top of a mesa and there are several overlooks and trails to wander.
But my personal favorite is Bell Rock...it's much smaller than many, not that imposing, but it has a certain elegance to it that I favor.A really striking sight off Rt.189 is manmade and sits high above the road seemingly wedged into a cliff. The Chapel of the Holy Cross (chapeloftheholycross.com) was built in 1956 by Marguerite Bruswig Staude to honor her Creator and in thanksgiving for all her family had received. It's now a part of the Diocese of Phoenix, but holds no Masses. It is called a Frank Lloyd Wright design, but their literature doesn't really explain what that means. Don't think he actually oversaw the construction. But it is striking.
You can recognize the Lloyd influence in the "bringing the outside in". The view from the chapel showcases the formations outside.An interesting thing to do while in Sedona, is visit the same places during different times of the day..the light changes everything. Bright daylight, when most of these photos were taken, really take out the richness of the color. One evening, we had a delightful visit with some friends from DC who moved out here about 8 years ago. This is the view from their home at about 6:30 in the evening.
Oak Creek Canyon is a highly tauted short trip north of the village of Sedona. We were underwhelmed. Very handsome....but nothing like these red rocks. The first overlook on the road up the mountain is actually the most interesting.Stopped at a very good deli called Indian Garden Deli up the road where they compose very good and pretty sophisticated sandwiches. We opted to split a Gobbler...turkey breast, avocado, sprouts. Will find a picnic spot along the way. The jewelry store next door, Garland Indian Jewelry (garlandsjewelry.com) has stunning pieces....with stunning prices! But what a treat to wander through.
Reached the summit through a series of switchback roads....do not take an RV through here! 
Found a picnic spot on the way back. But everywhere we walked we encountered billions of large red ants! This is what we had to do to avoid them.
Rick dropped an sprout from his sandwich....watching an ant cart it off the his Queeen turned out to be the best entertainment of the day!
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