HIKE OF THE MONTH

hike of the month The Easy Bell Rock Trail in Sedona's Red Rocks Puts You Right in a Vortex of Beauty

The first raindrops spattered against the wind-shield as I pulled into the small parking area just south of Bell Rock alongside State Route 179 in the red rock country of Sedona.

I sat a moment in the car, wondering whether I had simply picked the wrong day to try the four-mile-long trail that circles both Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte. But, then again, it was 110° F. and muggy back in Phoenix, and the temperature was close to perfect under the boisterous overcast sky up here at 4,200 feet. So I shouldered my gear, checked my water bottle for leaks, and set off into the vortex.

Bell Rock supposedly hulks at the center of one of the four vortexes that some believe concentrate mystical, magnetic, and “geometric” energies in the red earth of Sedona. The rocks that make up the