Cool Down in the Canyon

After a full weekend of errands and socializing, we decided to go to Sedona for a relaxing day. We chose to go to Red Rock Crossing. We parked at the trail head for Baldwin Trail and followed most of it as it ties in with the Templeton and Cathedral trails. After following Cathedral, which takes you to the top of Cathedral Rock, the trail meets up with the southern portion of Oak Creek.

After the mile long hike, we spent most of the day swimming and laying out in the sun. It was such a beautiful day! There was a gentle breeze and it wasn't too hot. We even ran into our other neighbor J-Man. He was trying to find a good place to fish. It is a small world when you leave town and run into your neighbors in the back country at a watering hole. Good thing we have awesome neighbors.

We hiked in a small picnic lunch. The lunch included leftover tomato salad, with extra balsamic, and the veggies and meat from our 4th of July Kabobs and some raw mushrooms. Oh and lest we not forget a crusty sourdough baguette! It was a great collection of snack 'ems to tide us over until dinner. Originally, we had planned on stopping by the DQ on the drive out of the canyon, but after swimming all day, we worked up an appetite.

For dinner we decided on Oak Creek Brewery and Grill on Hwy 179 at Tlaquepaque Village. First lets talk about the location. Oh man, this place is beautiful! In fact, this is where I would like to get married. Not saying that time is coming soon, but when the time comes, its gonna be there! It is beautiful. It has a rustic old Spanish or Mexican village feel to it. The colors match my ideal palette for my nuptials.

The Brewery is located upstairs and has a great view of the Red Rocks around Sedona. It is actually a microbrewery with 5-7 regularly brewed beers and a mixture of seasonals. I am not much of a beer drinker, so if you are looking for a beer review, not here. Sorry! However, We did eat! There is a weird misprint on the menu that led us to believe that there was a $3 charge to split a pizza but you get the choice of a side. I really wanted the french fries for some salt. There was talk of salad. We decided to order the French Fries as an appetizer. Turns out that there is no split charge for pizza.

The fries came with three dipping sauces. There was the traditional ketchup, a chipotle BBQ and a mustard aioli. The BBQ and the aioli were great. Both were so different that we couldn't even pick a favorite between the two. They were tangy and interesting. We ordered the Broken Arrow BBQ Chicken. The sauce was BBQ (yeah duh!) and had slices of roasted chicken, with caramelized onions, roasted garlic, smoked gouda and mozzarella topped with cilantro. The chicken was everything roasted chicken is supposed to be. The mixture of the gouda and mozzarella was great it was gooey and flavorful It wasn't that wet runny nose gooey. It was a delicious dry gooey. I can't really figure out how to describe it. The caramelized onions were the perfect mix of sweet to counter the smokey flavors of the chicken, garlic and cheeses. I was a little worried about the cilantro. To be frank, I can't stand it. But it was nice with this pizza. You could barely get the spice of it every few bites. The crust was thin and had a hint of garlic throughout.

I do have to say that the price point is kinda high, but it considering the location, it is average. Personally, I think the pizza was well worth its $18 price point. We even had half a pizza left over. If you are spending the day in Sedona and want a relaxing and delicious dinner and even a beer to finish the day, definitely stop at Oak Creek Brewery and Grill.