Sedona Uptown skyline against red rocks
— — a town the cliffs lean over.
Not only on a wall.
“Uptown Sedona runs a few blocks along State Route 89A, low buildings of stone and stucco beneath the red sandstone walls that rise straight from the back of the parking lots. Snoopy Rock and Camel Head sit on the eastern skyline. In the early evening the cliffs hold the last hour of sun after the street has gone into shade. The town never quite looks bigger than the rock.
Sedona Uptown skyline against red rocks, 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.
Sedona sits at about 4,350 feet in the Verde Valley of north-central Arizona, straddling the Yavapai and Coconino county line. The Uptown district runs along State Route 89A on the east side of town, where the highway begins its climb up Oak Creek Canyon toward Flagstaff. The red rocks behind the storefronts are Permian-age sandstone of the Schnebly Hill and Hermit formations, deposited roughly 270 million years ago. The town incorporated in 1988 and now holds about ten thousand residents within Coconino National Forest land.
The cliffs above Uptown are layers of Schnebly Hill Sandstone, coloured by iron oxide that bleeds through the rock and stains the streets after a hard rain. Coffee Pot Rock rises north of town; Snoopy Rock and Camel Head face the Uptown strip from the east. The formations are part of the Mogollon Rim's southern edge, where the Colorado Plateau drops toward the lower desert. Erosion by Oak Creek and its tributaries cut the spires and amphitheatres that frame the town from every direction.
Sedona's red rocks turn most intense in the last hour before sunset, when the low sun catches the iron oxide in the sandstone and the cliffs read closer to crimson than to brick. The Uptown strip falls into shade well before the rocks behind it do, which is the moment most photographers wait for. Winter light from the south tilts the colour cooler; summer monsoon afternoons stack storm cloud against the cliffs. The town carries an International Dark Sky Community designation, holding the night sky overhead.