Welcome to Sedona

#1 of the The 10 Most Beautiful Places in America according to USA Today.

Red Rock Country (Sedona, Ariz.)
Ever since the early days of movies, when Hollywood has wanted to show the unique beauty of the West, it has gone to Sedona, a place that looks like nowhere else. Beginning with The Call of the Canyon in 1923, some hundred movies and TV shows have been filmed in and around town. We fell under Sedona's spell, too, and while debating our No. 1 spot kept returning to it for the same reasons Hollywood does: The area's telegenic canyons, wind-shaped buttes and dramatic sandstone towers embody the rugged character of the West -- and the central place that character holds in our national identity. There's a timelessness about these ancient rocks that fires the imagination of all who encounter them. Some 11,000 years before film cameras discovered Sedona, American Indians settled the area. Homesteaders, artists and, most recently, New Age spiritualists have followed. Many cultures and agendas abound, but there's really only one attraction: the sheer, exuberant beauty of the place. People come for inspiration and renewal, tawny cliffs rising from the buff desert floor, wind singing through box canyons, and sunsets that seem to cause the ancient buttes and spires to glow from within. We hear the canyon's call and cannot resist. For more, go to www.sedona.net.

The core industry and economic generator in Sedona is tourism. Tourism has dynamic direct and indirect effects on each and every business in Sedona.

The Sedona Chamber's Tourism Bureau has been the leading marketing organization responsible for generating overnight visitation in order to enhance the vitality of our economy. Our Visitor's Centers move more than 400,000 visitors per year around the community.

The collection of Sedona's impressive, natural endowments also includes the 1.8 million-acre Coconino National Forest, which essentially engulfs this city and encompasses seven intriguing wilderness areas.  Obviously, the list of sightseeing and recreational amenities, including state parks and national monuments, is extensive.  In fact, it hardly is a surprise that the winding road through Oak Creek Canyon not only is Arizona's first officially designated scenic highway, it is the first leg of a day trip to one of the world's great wonders, nearby Grand Canyon.

Despite this land's myriad geological features, many tourists relate Sedona's exceptional charm to the fact that visitors conveniently can spend a day hiking, horseback riding, or bouncing in a Jeep on trails and dirt roads that crisscross this area, and then enjoy the comfort of deluxe hotels, country inns and prestigious resorts at night.  Indeed, this is the paradox and enchantment of Sedona: luxurious resorts and bed and breakfasts, unique shops, impressive art galleries, performing arts and fine restaurants nestled in an unusually rugged canyon surrounded by an expansive national forest.

Visit the Sedona Chamber of Commerce Website for additional information at http://www.sedonachamber.com/