I would recommend Dead Horse State Park. We were just there and extended our visit by four days. We were lucky that we were able to make further arrangements as the park was full every night. Beautiful place though. It is only 30 minutes from Sedona and I agree that the traffic is terrible in Sedona proper. Cottonwood is a nice town, old town has shopping and wine bars, Jerome is close, Montezuma Castle, Montezuma Well, and Tootsigoot are close and one admission price to one gets you into all three. Interesting places. Lots of hiking in the area as well as mountain biking trails. We will return there in the future.
Pat