Oak Creek Canyon overlook
— the red canyon the road falls into.
Not only on a wall.
Oak Creek Canyon overlook, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
Each tile ships in a kraft box, tied with cream ribbon, with a handwritten note from the studio if you'd like to add one.
Three or five different vistas, hung together — a chapter of places you've been, or want to go.
“The pull-off at the top of the switchbacks, where Highway 89A leaves the Mogollon Rim and drops down into Sedona. Ponderosa pine on one side, red sandstone on the other, Oak Creek somewhere far below. Navajo artisans lay turquoise on blankets along the rock wall. Most cars stop, look once, and keep going. — from the studio
The place, in three passes.
Oak Creek Canyon is a river gorge running roughly sixteen miles between Flagstaff and Sedona in northern Arizona, cut into the southern edge of the Mogollon Rim. The Oak Creek Vista pull-off sits near the top at about 6,400 feet, where Highway 89A begins a tight set of switchbacks descending nearly 2,500 feet to the canyon floor. The walls expose Permian sandstone, the same Schnebly Hill and Coconino formations that give Sedona its colour. The U.S. Forest Service manages the overlook as part of the Coconino National Forest.
The red comes from iron-oxidised sandstone laid down roughly 270 million years ago, when this part of Arizona was coastal dune and floodplain. The Schnebly Hill Formation is the brightest layer, capped by the paler cream of the Coconino. Oak Creek has been cutting through them since the canyon began forming along the Oak Creek Fault. The colour reads brick at noon, brighter rust in late afternoon, and almost violet in the half hour after the sun drops behind the western rim.
The Oak Creek Vista is reached from Highway 89A about thirteen miles south of Flagstaff or fourteen miles north of Sedona. Parking is free and restrooms are open seasonally. Navajo and other Native artisans sell jewelry and pottery from blankets along the rock wall under a longstanding permit with the Forest Service. The viewpoint stays open year round; the switchbacks below sometimes close for snow or rockfall in winter. Slide Rock State Park lies about seven miles further down the canyon road.
