Things to Do in Sedona in Winter: A Private Chef's Local Guide

Sedona is one of our busiest Arizona markets, and winter is the season the regulars keep to themselves: sixty-degree afternoons, cold clear nights, red rock trails without the spring crowds, and every few weeks a dusting of snow on Cathedral Rock that is worth the trip on its own. We cook here for retreats, milestone birthdays and holiday weeks all winter, and this is the guide we give at the table. Summer gets its own short list at the end.

When to come, and what the weather does

December through February brings daytime highs in the fifties and low sixties, nights near freezing, and long red-rock light that starts earlier and ends earlier than the spring visitors ever see. Storms come through a few times a season, leave snow on the formations for a morning, and are gone by lunch. Tlaquepaque's Festival of Lights, usually the second Saturday of December, fills the courtyards with thousands of luminarias. The Sedona International Film Festival runs in late February. Christmas week and Presidents' Day weekend are the busy stretches, and January is the quietest month of the year.

The red rock classics, with the trailheads to yourself

Winter is when the famous hikes work the way the postcards promise. Cathedral Rock is the golden-hour climb, and after a storm it is the photo of the year. Devil's Bridge is a morning walk instead of a line. Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte are the easy first-day loop, and Airport Mesa is the sunset. The Sedona Shuttle still runs to the busy trailheads on weekends, and the parking lots that fill by 7am in March have room at ten in January. West Fork in Oak Creek Canyon is the one to treat with respect: the creek crossings ice over and the canyon floor stays shaded, so bring microspikes or save it for a warm week.

Beyond the trails

Verde Valley wine country. Twenty minutes from Uptown, Page Springs Cellars pours creekside, Alcantara Vineyards sits where the Verde River meets Oak Creek, and Old Town Cottonwood packs a dozen tasting rooms into four walkable blocks. It is the right afternoon when the wind comes up on the rocks. Add Jerome, the copper-mining ghost town bolted to a mountainside, for the best day trip in northern Arizona.

Snow, an hour away. Arizona Snowbowl above Flagstaff is about an hour north up Oak Creek Canyon, so a Sedona house can do a ski day and be back on a warm patio for dinner. The drive up the canyon itself is one of the state's great roads, and it is empty in January.

Tlaquepaque, the Chapel, and the night sky. Tlaquepaque Arts and Shopping Village is the town's arts heart, with sycamore courtyards and working galleries, and it is at its best in the holiday weeks. The Chapel of the Holy Cross, set directly into the red rock, is worth the short climb whatever you believe. Sedona is an International Dark Sky Community, and the winter sky is the clearest of the year, so the stargazing from any patio in town is the last thing on every night's list. Pink Jeep's Broken Arrow tour runs all winter and earns its reputation.

A winter day that works

Trailhead by nine, Cathedral Rock or Devil's Bridge before the light gets flat, and a late lunch in Uptown or the Village of Oak Creek. Spend the afternoon in the Verde Valley tasting rooms or at Tlaquepaque. Be back at the house for Airport Mesa's sunset from the deck, because that is when dinner should already be underway.

Then let dinner come to you

Sedona's restaurant scene is small for the crowds it draws, and even in winter the marquee rooms and the sunset tables go early on holiday weeks. Keep one marquee reservation and let the rest of the trip come to you. A private chef in Sedona handles dinner on your rental's red-rock view deck, builds menus around your retreat or celebration, and sources from Verde Valley producers. For bachelorette and family groups, a private cooking class in Sedona turns one night's dinner into the activity itself, and Sedona catering covers the retreat house with thirty people in it. Holiday weeks have their own page: a private chef for the holidays, and the best Christmas week dates go by November 15.

The summer short list

Slide Rock State Park before it caps out by mid-morning, the swimming holes along Oak Creek, West Fork for the shadiest walk in the region, and the same red rock hikes started before 8am with the afternoon saved for the creek.