By Bill Morton

With all the hype in the world of travel, I’ve grown a bit jaundiced over the years. Sugar beaches. Towering evergreens. Raging rivers. Endless horizons.

Where does it end?

Maybe in Sedona, Ariz.

Maybe in a place called Enchantment.

It had been 15 years since I’d last driven up Arizona’s Interstate 17 from Phoenix to the land of the red rocks. My last memory of the Sedona village was of frenetic construction everywhere and of tour buses and recreational vehicles kicking up dust and sending it skyward. It looked like yet one more beautiful piece of nature being overdeveloped and over-touristed — strangled by its own success.

My long October weekend in Sedona erased those sketchy memories. They were replaced with the absolute serenity that emanates from a resort there aptly named Enchantment.

My Funk & Wagnalls tells me that to enchant is “to put a spell upon; to bewitch.” Even in my cynical mood, I admit that Enchantment Resort and its sister property Mii Amo Spa put a spell on me. This is a magical, mystical corner of our planet.

Set in the recesses of the Secret Mountain Wilderness and Coconino National Forest and only a 15-minute drive from downtown Sedona, Enchantment Resort and Mii Amo’s 70 acres possess an entire canyon. Nature is everywhere. Deer feed along Enchantment’s tree-lined creek. Coyotes pass secrets across the canyon walls at night. The stars don’t twinkle as much as beam in this near-vacant Native American Four Corners land. In fact, the nearest town of any size, Flagstaff, was declared the Dark Skies Capital of America because there is so much interest in stargazing in these parts.

Enchantment Resort, a reincarnation of a John Gardner Tennis Ranch of a couple decades ago, has the requisite tennis courts, croquet field and swimming pools. But each diversion is truly a diversion from the Big Show — the massive 1,500-foot walls of red rock that surround Enchantment.

I couldn’t take my eyes off the pillars, columns, caves and blue sky. I enjoyed my complimentary morning orange juice (delivered to my casita door in a bucket of ice) and my newspaper on my private casita patio precisely so I could take in the amazing geology. In fact, I ate all my meals alfresco. I couldn’t get enough of the encompassing painted desert walls. As Funk & Wagnalls explained, I was bewitched.

Not that I was alone in my enchantment. In one of the more popular jeep jaunts of Sedona, the Vortex tour guide explains that on Earth seven vortex areas exist where energy is collected and is nearly magnetic in its powers to heighten senses. Sedona boasts two of Earth’s seven vortexes.

Bewitched, enchanted, vortexed — all this stimulation required an antidote. That antidote was Mii Amo Spa. Rated by Travel + Leisure magazine as the number two destination spa in the world, Mii Amo offers a different kind of vacation.

Since I have made a serious study of spas on all the continents, I can say that Mii Amo separates itself from most in one significant way. It consciously keeps its number of guests to a serene minimum. This isn’t a beauty factory. It isn’t a 10-ring circus of frenetic workouts, with hyperactive staff whizzing about. Instead, Mii Amo’s Zen-like spaces have been designed to blend in with the surrounding Secret Mountains. The effect: spellbinding, spiritual and whole. After all, Mii Amo is a Native American word meaning “passage” and “to move forward.”

In an interesting business strategy, Enchantment and Mii Amo, which are owned by the same company, are run separately. Each has its own casitas, restaurants, orientation, and management staff. Mii Amo’s restaurants, bar, and lounge focus on serving weight-, calorie-, and portion-sensitive meals and nibbles. Enchantment’s restaurants on the other hand are deliciously indulgent. While both properties have sports in their lineup — hiking, biking and exploring the wilderness and cliffs of the area — Enchantment is the choice for guests who look for sports to be a focus. Mii Amo is the place for restful massages, unusual exfoliating body wraps, and esoteric treatments such as milk and honey baths, tarot mapping, dream analysis or vedic meditation. It’s all good. Incidentally, choosing to be an Enchantment guest doesn’t mean you can’t sign up for Mii Amo treatments. But Mii Amo offers some fascinating spa packages for those inclined to take a vacation into the inner self.

Sedona is one of the best four-season vacation spots. With its elevation some 3,000 feet higher than that of Phoenix, Sedona stays fresher than the Valley of the Sun 12 months a year. Whether you go to see the Mariners in spring training or for a heart-of-summer getaway when Arizona isn’t busy at all, you can enjoy Sedona and the Grand Canyon.

On this recent visit, I was particularly impressed with the Sedona art scene. Downtown Sedona’s artisan square, Tlaquepaque, impressed with its eclectic collection of shops. The square is appropriately Southwestern in design, and its management has militantly kept the focus on fine art broadly defined. No Gaps or Eddie Bauers here. No chain steak houses or coffee bars either. Just lots of first-rate galleries that feature wearable art, vintage area photography, metal sculpture with the artists on-site working and plenty of acrylic and oil paintings, mostly of Southwestern themes.

The Grand Canyon is an easy day trip, whether you fly from Sedona’s airport to the south rim, take the train from Williams, or drive from Sedona taking the scenic Oak Creek Canyon Road. In my several hours near the El Tovar Lodge at the canyon’s south rim, I spied a bighorn sheep a few yards away skipping from ledge to ledge, oblivious to the 500-foot drops around him. I also was awed by five California condors that hovered like kites above the lodge for 30 minutes. I was told by a ranger that the condors — recently reintroduced into the wild — are curious about the guests and are especially active when crowds are at the rim.

If you go:

#Enchantment Resort: Toll-free at 800-826-4180 or at www.enchantmentresort.com

Mii Amo Spa Resort: Toll-free at 888-749-2137 or at www.miiamo.com

New feature

For more travel information, please see Two For The Road on B8.

Two for the road

Islanders are invited to share favorite vacation spots both near and far

Mercer Islanders are great travelers. The Reporter would like to encourage its readers to share their favorite travel finds. Periodically, our travel columnist, Bill Morton will select your ideas to print. Please e-mail your travel tips to BillMorton@msn.com.

Down on the ranch

From John Hamer and Mariana Parks: Headed to Tucson, Arizona? “We really enjoyed our stay at The Casitas at Smokey Springs Ranch, just east of Tucson. There are four separate and private casitas on a large ranch. We stayed in the Desert Sun Casita, with two bedrooms, a nice living room, dining room and kitchen. It was beautifully and thoughtfully furnished by hosts Beth and Bob Fulfer. Great little “spool” (spa/pool) with views of the mountains and surrounding desert. Not far from downtown, and very close to Sabino Canyon and Mount Lemmon.” Web site: www.thecasitas.com

Henry Ford Museum

Longtime Mercer Island resident and good friend, Nancy Martin, gave me a wonderful travel tip recently. When I mentioned that I had a business trip planned to Michigan, Nancy encouraged me to take two extra days to see the Henry Ford Museum and the adjacent Greenfield Village. Having just returned from Detroit and taken Nancy’s advice, I concur. These are two must-see experiences, especially good for families and off the charts for history lovers.

Highlights of the Henry Ford Museum are the Lincoln car in which President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, as well as the chair from Washington D.C.’s Ford Theatre where President Lincoln was shot. I sat in the same seat on the same bus where Rosa Parks was arrested for violating Jim Crow laws. I happened to be there the day after Ms. Parks passed away.

The Henry Ford may be the best history museum in America. With two centuries of American furniture, the evolution of the American kitchen, a collection of locomotives and steam engines, and even the plane that the Wright Brothers flew at Kitty Hawk, this museum has many things for many different interests. Under the same roof is the largest IMAX screen east of the Mississippi, with many shows daily.

Two hundred yards away from the Henry Ford is the entrance to Greenfield Village, a Colonial Williamsburg-like park that captures the innovation of the Industrial Age at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. I especially enjoyed the experimental research buildings of Thomas Edison, brought from Menlo Park, N.J., to Greenfield by Edison’s good friend Henry Ford. There’s glass-blowing, hand-loom weaving, machine making, and tons more things, including several restaurants that serve in the style of the 18th and 19th centuries.

One final note: Hourly tours of Ford’s amazing Rouge manufacturing plant where the F-150s are made depart from the Museum. This tour is far superior to the Boeing Everett plant tour. I recommend it.

Call 313-271-1620 or go to www.TheHenryFord.org.