When planning our trip to Sedona, we knew more than a few people that had visited this picturesque destination and in all of their recommendations, there was one commonality: The Pink Jeep Tour
I took their word for it and insisted that we HAD to set one of these up. Nazari was a bit more skeptical, worried that it would feel too cliché or “touristy”. Plus, it wasn’t exactly cheap. My continued persistence led him to do some research of his own, and he was blown away by the reviews of the tour and (albeit reluctantly) conceded that we would indeed go for it.
In hindsight, this was one of the highlights of our trip out west this spring, and quite possibly the best way to experience Sedona. We had gone on a hike the day before, and while beautiful, we did not experience anything comparable to cruising in a jeep with a knowledgeable and super fun tour guide.
It just so happens that our tour guide was a retired film guy from Hollywood! As you might imagine, we hung on every word he had to say - both about the rich history of Sedona - and his stories of working on films with stars like Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp!
We stopped at numerous scenic spots where we got to exit the jeep for photo ops and to take in the scenery that was only accessible to the public via the jeep tours. While riding over the giant rocks in our pink jeep, it was quite unnerving at times. The good news? In the decades that pink jeep tours have been in business, no jeep has ever flipped! That gave us a liiiiiitle bit of piece of mind as we traversed the treacherous landscape, sometimes at what seemed to be a 90 degree angle!
Our tour guide shared that he'd lost 20 lbs working as a guide, because it is SUCH a core work out to keep balanced as you caravan through the red rocks, at times riding at a nearly vertical angle.
A few of our favorite facts were learned while on our tour include:
Sedona is not actually a desert. It has a mild climate that experiences 20 inches of rainfall annually.
Sedona was once a home to Little Hollywood, where countless westerns were filmed in the mid to late 1900s.
They get snow in Sedona! Rarely, but i happens. Pink Jeep Tours go year 'round and in all weather except for the snow.
Sedona has been growing rapidly and experiences millions of tourists annually, rapidly approaching the same amount of visitors as the Grand Canyon (thus they are working on their infrastructure to support the increased traffic flow).
There is an impressive variety of plants all throughout Sedona, but no saguaro cacti (these can't survive until you get about two hours south!). Many of the plants have incredible medicinal properties. One of the most stand out to us was the Agave Plant (a distant relative of asparagus!). It grows for years, but upon the stalk sprouting (which shoots up nearly 15 feet high in just a few days!), it dies.
Our tour began at the Pink Jeep Plaza where we received some comical instructions from the experienced guides, amidst a large amount of other tourists going on various pink jeeps tours. We were then paired with three other couples and assigned a jeep and a guide. Although we shared out tour with others, it didn't feel obtrusive at all.
We opted for the Broken Arrow Jeep Tour , and would highly recommend this excursion - although there are a number of other tours to choose from! Should you ever find yourself in Sedona, we promise The Pink Jeep Tour will be worth your while! You can check out more at their website: Pink Jeep Tours and you can check out some of our photo ops (taken by a real Hollywood camera man!)
