Arizona Photo Journal | Live Lovely Travel

To someone who has never been, Arizona feels like an entirely new world. I grew up in the lush and “fluffy” greenery of New England so the desert feels so completely exotic. I have seen cacti before, but none that I have seen were as tall as the grand cacti standing on the hills in Sedona. I recently published a post for our friends’ engagement session that we photographed in Arizona (after a surprise proposal at Devil’s Bridge). An awesome perk about traveling with friends besides the amazing company is that even when you’re taking professional photos for them, they’ll take some pictures for you too once you set up the camera. Our vacation photos have never looked so good.

This is simply a photo journal from our trip to Arizona where we explored Sedona and the surrounding area. I have a few fun tips for traveling in the area as well.

Tip number one is to get up one morning for sunrise. You might find something unexpected (like these hot air balloons we saw take off at dawn). If you’re planning a hike in a popular area such as Devil’s Bridge in Sedona, then you will want to arrive early before other tourists come piling in. We arrived at the entrance for the Devil’s Bridge shortly before seven in the morning and found one of the last parking spaces. When we left about two hours later, there were cars lined up all along the dirt road and people who couldn’t find parking had quite the hike ahead of them before the hike itself. We had about ten minutes to ourselves at the top for photos before people started lining up for their own photo ops. So if you’re looking for some peace and quiet, cooler temperatures for hiking, and time to take photos, sunrise is always best.

I never go on a road trip without my Polaroid camera!

There are numerous swimming holes in Sedona, but we chose Grasshopper Point because it is a lesser known area that had some rocks for jumping into the river below.

You cannot visit Sedona without stopping into the town itself!

This top is actually my bathing suit, but on a hot day like this when you’re exploring and stopping to swim, it makes a great shirt too. I paired it with my new “mom jeans.” Truly, I’m obsessed with vintage styles and I swore I would never wear jeans like these, but they make me feel my absolute best. Plus, they’re perfect for a good old fashioned road trip in the desert.

I still can’t get over this sky! (It really did look like that; I did not edit it to look more blue.)

The cacti! I felt like such a little kid getting thrilled every time I saw one of these along the side of the road.

I cannot thank Caroline enough for taking these for us. I know how intimidating my manual camera can be and she did a really great job following my tips and advice for capturing what I was looking for.

I’m one lucky girl.

Another tip: If you’re planning on stopping in the desert somewhere for a hike or even just to take some photos, always watch where you’re walking! There are snake holes everywhere, and yes, that means poisonous snakes too. Apparently, there are also plenty of scorpions but we thankfully did not see any on this trip. However, we had a close encounter with a diamond back rattlesnake. They’re much more afraid of us than we are of them so if you keep your eyes on the ground and watch where you step you will be perfectly safe.