Sedona: 3 Hikes and a Sunset

Sedona is a great little three- or four-day weekend getaway for us. Fly into Phoenix first thing in the morning, rent a car, hotfoot it out of town north on I-17, and voila: Red Rocks wonderful by lunchtime.

Sedona is serious hiking country, with over 100 trails to choose from.

We, however, are not super-serious hikers. We're happy to go about 8 miles a day, max, and we're happy if there's not an enormous elevation gain that makes our legs miserable the next day. We would like minimal Advil to be required after. We're maybe more stollers than hikers, come to think of it.

While there are literally 97+ other options, here are 3 hike/strolls I will do over happily, anytime, for the rest of my hiking/strolling days.

And a bonus: the best place to watch the Sedona sunset.

If you pop into Sedona for the weekend, do a little shopping and dining, and these three hikes plus the sunset, you'll be a Red Rocks convert, guaranteed.

Doe Mountain

Okay, yes, there is elevation gain here. But it's only .6 miles from the parking lot to the summit, and the trail runs on pretty easy switchbacks up the side of the mesa. This is HUGE bang for your hiking buck, my friends.

Where else can you hike so little, to terrorize your wife so greatly?

Favorite Doe Mountain story: After sunset, we headed down to the Golden Goose Grill for dinner where we snagged a two-top in the bar. A guy at the bar was talking about how freaked out he got at Doe Mountain when some idiot man was sitting, hanging his feet over the edge. I tapped him on the shoulder and offered him the photographic evidence.

Devil's Bridge

Devil's Bridge is 4 miles round-trip. The first half is pretty flat; in fact, you're walking along a jeep road for about a mile before you get to the trail head (no, you really can't take your rental down this road unless it's a 4X4). Then there's a climb up to the bridge, but it's very reasonable for another great payoff.

Once again, Andy terrified me with the foot-hanging-off business.

I swore I would not go out on the bridge, but after sitting for a while and watching many people, including children, traipse back and forth across the bridge, I decided to brave the journey myself. 

Here's what I learned: if you keep your eyes trained to the left as you walk out, keeping the canyon wall in your peripheral vision, there's no vertigo. Just don't look down or out to the right and it's all good. 

Broken Arrow

Broken Arrow offers multiple spectacular 360-degree red rocks views along its 4.5 mile length.

End of the trail: majestic Chicken Point.

Sunset

Sunset is the other really big deal in Sedona. "Where's the perfect spot?" this is the question. We like the Airport Loop trail. You head up the mesa toward the airport, and about halfway up on the left is the Airport Loop parking lot. Sunset was 6:45 on our last trip, and we arrived about 6:00, snaring one of the last parking spots. 

Sedona Sunset Pro-Tip: Turn your back to the sun and watch the colors deepen on the rocks. That's the real show! Then when the sun goes down, turn around and look at the colors in the sky.

A Word to the Wise: Travel Tips

I grew my bangs out and I knew they would bug me while hiking, so I bought a six-pack of headwraps from Amazon. Problem solved, and I got complimented in the airport and on the trail.

Also, we traveled in March, for gloriously perfect hiking weather. Light layers were all we needed for the trail. I was wearing a tank top underneath a hoody, and just switching back and forth as needed.

How we travel the world for FREE

We have jobs that we like, paying average salaries. We have a house that we like, which is pretty average. We have two used cars, also very average.

But our travel life is pretty extraordinary.

For one thing, we go to a lot of amazing places.

But the truly extraordinary thing is: it's FREE.

Our airfare is always FREE. 

Our car rental is always FREE. 

Our hotels are almost always FREE. (The best so far was the 5-Star St. Regis in Florence, Italy.)

Here's where we've flown, FOR FREE, in the past few years.

• Canada (2 people) 2012

• Hawaii Big Island (7 people) 2013

• Italy (2 people) 2014

• Canada (7 people) 2015

• Dominican Republic (2 people) 2016

• Central Europe (2 people) 2016

• Kauai (2 people) 2016

• Thailand (2 people) 2017

• Ireland & Scotland (2 people) 2017

• Slovenia & Croatia (2 people) 2018

Within the continental US during the same time frame, we also flew for FREE to: San Francisco, San Diego, Chicago, Charleston, Phoenix, Las Vegas, and more.

How does this magic happen?

One man knows.

Andy Bruner is this man.

Actually, it's not magic.

It's credit card points.

You know the kind: you sign up for a new credit card, you spend a certain amount in the first three months, and they give you 50,000 bonus points.

Turns out that 50,000 points will take you quite a lot of places, especially if you collect a lot of credit cards.

Andy estimates he's amassed over a million points in the 4 years he's been collecting.

The stack on the left is current credit cards. The baggie on the right is credit cards which have yielded their points and gone on to the great cancellation in the sky.

It's important to note that WE ARE NOT IN DEBT. 

ZERO.

Well, we have a mortgage. But that's it. No credit card debt. None.

It's important to know that using credit cards this way DOES NOT HARM YOUR CREDIT.

If you want to try it, just start slow, with one or two cards a year so you don't get overwhelmed. 

If you want to scale up, Andy learned the tricks of the points trade through the following sites:

• Million Mile Secrets

• Frequent Miler (great up to date list of the best credit card offers)

• Mommy Points

• The Points Guy 

Other pointers: 

1. You need very good to excellent credit score to qualify for most cards that offer a large bonus.  Sign up for a free account at CreditKarma.com to check your credit score.

2. If you are able to put $1,000-$1,500 per month on a credit card that will be enough to earn bonuses on most credit card offers.

3. Travel hacking (what this system is called) will increase your credit score.  

4. Keep organized with a spreadsheet.  You want to know when to cancel cards so you don't pay annual fees (if there are any).  It's also important to know which cards you have acquired and when you cancelled them because typically you don't want to apply for a card that you already had at some point in the past.  Certain cards are churnable (you can get bonuses multiple times after a certain time period has passed) so it's important to know the date of cancellation so you can know when to apply again.  (Click to download template)

5. Set a calendar reminder every month to check your spreadsheet otherwise it's useless. :-)  I generally cancel cards in 11th month. Don't cancel right away after earning the bonus.

6. When cancelling a card, avoid calling the credit card company phone number.  If possible, always use chat or secure message on the companies website.  This will help you avoid the guilt trip they will lay on you for cancelling the card. 

7. Figure out where you want to go BEFORE signing up for cards.  Once you know where you want to go then find the best cards to get you there. 

That's it, folks: how to have an extraordinary travel life for FREE!

Enjoy!