Schnebly Hill Vista
— the whole valley red in late light.
Not only on a wall.
“The high overlook on Schnebly Hill Road, near the lip of the Mogollon Rim above Sedona. The view runs west across the buttes: Munds Mountain, the Cow Pies, Mitten Ridge, Cathedral Rock beyond. Late afternoon is the hour most photographers wait for. The wind tends to die for about twenty minutes around sunset.
Schnebly Hill Vista, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Schnebly Hill Vista sits at roughly 6,000 feet, near the top of Schnebly Hill Road where it crests the Mogollon Rim above Sedona. The overlook faces west over the upper Verde Valley and the red sandstone formations that define the area: Munds Mountain to the south, Mitten Ridge and the Cow Pies in the middle distance, Cathedral Rock and Bell Rock farther out. The Coconino National Forest manages the site as a developed viewpoint with a gravel parking pull-off and a short interpretive sign at the rail.
The vista faces roughly west-southwest, so late afternoon and the first hour after sunset are when the red rock holds its fullest colour. The iron-oxide hematite in the Schnebly Hill Formation reads warmest under low-angle light; at midday the same rock can look almost pink and washed out. Photographers refer to the post-sunset glow as alpenglow, though strictly the term belongs to high snow peaks. The valley below stays lit for several minutes after the rim itself has gone into shadow.
The vista is reached by driving roughly four miles up Schnebly Hill Road from downtown Sedona. The first mile is paved; the rest is rough graded dirt requiring high-clearance. Many rental SUVs are prohibited by their contracts, so most visitors arrive on Pink Jeep tours. A Red Rock Pass is required to park, available at vending kiosks throughout Sedona for a small daily fee. The Coconino National Forest closes the upper road from roughly December into March for snow. The vista itself has no facilities; the nearest restrooms are back in town.