Snow on Sandstone Makes Me Happy

"I chose you for the one, Now I'm having so much fun. You treated me so kind, I'm about to lose my mind. You made me so very happy - I'm so glad you came into my life." (Blood, Sweat & Tears - 1969) The clouds had just lifted off of Courthouse Butte after a powerful February snowstorm. The Red Rock district, centered on the town of Sedona, encompasses many of the famous red rock (sandstone) buttes and mesas, and canyons that have made Sedona famous as a resort town. A butte is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small relatively flat top. In prehistoric times, the entire Sedona area was covered by a sea of water, and the red rock buttes seen today were once sandbars and islands protruding up from the bottom of the sea. "I'd like to be, under the sea - In an octopus' garden in the shade. We would be warm, beneath the storm - In our little hideaway beneath the waves ..." (The Beatles - 1969) (This photo was taken from the Bell Rock Trail, which spurs off of the Courthouse Butte Loop Trail on the north side of Bell Rock.) February 11, 2009