Schnebly Hill Road Overlook

Author's Comments

The thing about Schnebly Hill is that it earns its view by elevation. You are no longer looking at the red rocks from below, the way most of Sedona insists you look at them. You are looking down into the basin, and the formations rearrange themselves into something almost cartographic. Cathedral, Bell, the long spine of the rim country running south. The whole geometry of the place becomes legible from up here in a way it never quite is from the valley floor. I prefer the late October version. The cottonwoods along Oak Creek have started to turn, and from the vista you can trace the creek as a thin line of gold cutting through the red. Golden hour does what you would expect - the rocks deepen toward something closer to rust, the shadows in the canyons go long and blue, and there is maybe a twenty minute window when the light is genuinely raking rather than just warm. That is the window worth driving up for. A note on the drive itself. The lower road is rough in a way that punishes the wrong vehicle, and I have watched rental sedans turn around halfway up looking embarrassed. If you are coming for the photograph and not the road, the approach from I-17 is paved and gets you to essentially the same vista without the suspension damage. I have done it both ways. The view does not know the difference. Bring a wide lens, but bring something longer too. The compression on the distant formations from up here is its own kind of photograph, and most people leave it on the table.

Gallery