One double shot espresso and one latte, hold the peyote

I awoke half-deafened from sleeping next to an air conditioner which seemingly had as its compressor a leftover engine from a DC-10. On the upside however it was a good night’s sleep, an outstanding day outside, and a pretty low key bit of traveling for the day. I swung myself wearily out of bed onto the brown, paisley print carpet, had a quick shower and got dressed, and headed downstairs to see what epicurean delights the chefs had whipped up for us for breakfast.

I thought I’d seen strange breakfast options at the IHOP back in Palm Springs, but the bar was raised yet again – or maybe just moved sideways, a little - with the inclusion of a freshly sliced ring cake of some description. I love cake, but at 8:00am there’s just something unlovable about it. I’d have preferred more biscuits and gravy. Still, it was included, there were bagels, danishes and heaps of pretty wretched coffee*, and the whole lot was good enough to stave off hunger for a few hours so we jammed down what we could and blasted north on I-17 through the smog of a potentially beautiful Arizona day.

From this point forward, the day could be categorized into two components – what was done between 10:40 and 2:40pm, and what was done after:

10:40 – 2:40pm: Shopped. Arrived at Anthem Factory Outlets and proceeded to do our bit for the land of the free and by trying to kill every form of plastic card at our disposal at Gap, Banana Republic, Reebok, Calvin Klein, Columbia and Tommy Hilfiger. Hundreds of dollars, a couple of slices of pizza, an Arizona Burrito and a serve of sesame chicken later we were on our way.

2:40pm onward: Continued up I-17, did a ten minute hot lap of Montezuma Castle, then drove on through the absolutely outstanding red rock country of Coconino State Forest to Sedona, then fleetingly west and finally down to Cathedral Rock for a sunset photographic extravaganza. It was unfortunately too early in the year to get the classic, reflection pool shot of the rocks at sunset – snowmelt was causing the normally slow flowing river to more closely resemble a series of rapids – but the location, scenery, and sheer Zen experience of just taking it in for a slow hour was something pretty special. I’d almost go as far as to say it’s a spiritual location, but I don’t go for that sort of thing – there are plenty of vortex seeking, dippy, hippy types on herbal enemas floating around Sedona fresh out of sweat-lodges that would, though.

Sedona has, to my mind, changed since I last visited back in 2004. Then, it was quite small, and sort of half-classy, half grungy, and completely charming in it’s trippy, goofy kind of way. It appealed to me immensely, and of all the small towns I’ve been lucky enough to see in the US, Sedona was right up there.

Now, it seems, it’s not quite the place it used to be – it’s choked with traffic, many of the crustier establishments have been swept away, some big money has come to town, and the place is awash in ritzy day spas, retreats, hotels, and gourmet health food shops. I spoke with a woman taking photos at Cathedral Rock who was moving here with her husband from Maine (she’d just signed the contract on her new house that afternoon), and she was delighted with the changes, loved the fact the scruffier aspects of it have been dialed back and washed away, but I feel something’s been lost. It’s Sedona, but not as I knew it. It’s become a bloated version of its once small, slightly rough edged self. I still love the place, would live here in an instant, but it’s changing rapidly and I’m fearful that in a few short years, if left unchecked, the Sedona of old will be a distant memory.

Still, no matter how much the developers try and take the wild from Sedona, they can’t quite achieve it. From my room at Sugarloaf Lodge (one of the apparently few remaining ‘old style’ hotels in the area), I went to go out to the car and nearly shat myself to see what looked like wild pigs (actually Javelina), milling about the car park. Apparently they come down from the hills at night, rip up peoples gardens, and generally cause a bit of a fuss, especially at this time of year when they’re about to have babies. I quite liked them – they were ambassadors of the Sedona of old; a bit rough edged, a little bit dirty, offbeat, and authentically unpredictable.

 Sedona may be reinventing itself, but clearly the Javelina haven’t gotten the message.

*Coffee is something which generally, it seems, the US doesn't do as well, or regard with as much importance, as many other countries. Here, it’s considered an adjunct, a heart starter, something to wash down your breakfast, rather than something in and of itself.

 There’s plenty of it, so if volume and value is your thing, you’ll be sorted, but if you like good coffee you could be in for a rough time. Unfortunately it seems many people’s definition of a good coffee is how many different flavours they have available for you – choc-mint, hazelnut, French vanilla, and caramel, to name a few, are all ready to gourmet up your life, and your coffee, with just one quick pump. You can even top it with a blast of whipped cream, maybe some chocolate flakes. Somewhere, under all the crap, is a coffee.

I’m aware all of this makes me sound like a ridiculous coffee snob – I swear I’m not, I can drink pretty much anything that comes my way - but the thought of putting flavoured syrup in coffee is up there with putting Coke in single-malt scotch – why bother with the coffee in the first place, unless it’s for the hit rather than the taste. If you just want the caffeine, there are a million different flavours of Monster sports drink which would seem to take care of things, in a far more slammable, crushable, totally bodacious manner. I suspect the Monster people are hard at work coming up with a Mountainberry Madness Exxxxtreme café latte double shot at this moment, if they haven’t already.

Still, things are definitely improving – plenty of places now pride themselves on doing genuinely really good coffees, top notch stuff, and Sedona is one of those places with an apparently ludicrously high barista count so I could be in luck. I had a great long black last time I was here, so hopefully the situation hasn’t deteriorated.