Sara and I were very fortunate to get a break after Thanksgiving to drive to Sedona, Az to relax  🙂 and do some hiking and exploring.
We broke up the 8 hour drive with first stopping in the Needles, Az area stopping at the river and our good friends Ken and Becky’s place.
The water was really cold but beautiful as we looked out from the front porch. This time of year there are aren’t too many brave souls out on the river boating..
In the morning we had a blast going out with Ken and Becky on their 4 wheeler out in the sand near their house. This thing is such a dream to ride in and drive.
I have to say I was surprised at first how fast it could go and corner on the sand and dirt.
Check us out Off Roading on the dirt
After some fun in the dirt we were off for our drive to Sedona, AZ. The drive was easy except for some switchbacks as we neared the area coming down from the Flagstaff area. We stayed in a timeshare on the west side of town called the Sedona Summit.
The resort had a great pool and jacuzzi and exercise room just around the corner from our condo.
There are so many great hikes to do so we had to focus our time to do our most important hikes first. We started early on our hike to Devils Bridge. Devils Bridge is a natural arch which is about an hour hike from the trailhead. We were so focused on getting to the bridge that when we got to the end of the trail we thought we missed it and then looked up and saw this….
While I was hiking around to get the above shot Sara was climbing up between the rocks behind the Arch to get a better look. This is Sara’s favorite type of climbing or bouldering..
The rocks in this area are beautiful and really interesting everywhere you look..
On the hike out Sara climbed out to this rock perch to get an awesome view of the valley…she really looks small compared to the enormous valley around…
Our next stop was the Cathedral Church (Chapel of the Holy Cross). The chapel is built on Coconino National Forest land; the late Senator Barry Goldwater assisted Staude in obtaining a special-use permit. The chapel was constructed in 18 months at a cost of US$300,000. The chapel was completed in 1956.
The church is an easy walk up from the parking lot and it is literally build right into the rock…
Inside the chapel huge windows and a door is open to view the red rocks and let the view into the church, spectacular…
Out on the patio ouside the chapel the surrounding area is amazing and peaceful, (besides all of the people around 🙂
After leaving the chapel we headed to the Cathedral Rock trail a short drive away… below is the trailhead..
The trail up to Cathedral Rock is not too technical but it is challenging. You can see Sara below going up the start of one of the steep sections. We were of course made to look silly when we passed a 82 and 93 year old going up the same way – soooo cool!
When you near the top of the trail all you can see is that it levels off, and then you step on top and see this view of the valley between the towering mountains on each side – really something to see…
There were all kinds of cool rock formations all around while we explored. This one was on a hike around to stand up near a couple of the towering spires…
From the Baldwin Trail you can see the gap between Cathedral rock from below. If you look really closely at the flat area between the rocks you can see people and that is where we were standing to look out..
With some light left in the day we were next off to Doe Mountain. This hike didn’t waste any time getting steep and basically rose as vertical as possible from the valley floor to that ridge you see over my shoulder in the background.
The trail was hard made mostly of rock with some occasional red sand and desert plants…
We weren’t very impressed at first looking over the side we had climbed but scouting around we were amazed at the views. This view of the ridge and the valley floor below was breathtaking and hard to take in with all of the color… that was it for today time to eat and rest.
The next morning we got up early and hit the West fork trail. It was cold at the start because we weren’t getting much sun and we had just started hiking..
The trail meanders along the river and there are over 10 river crossings by various means – below a tree to walk across, and in other places rocks to maneuver.
The rocks, tree’s and river all work together to give a backdrop of color and reflection which provide amazing views.
As you walk along you also often have to look up to see these amazing rock spires jutting out of the neighboring rocks… This one reminded us of the platform from the Lion King..
The rocks formed a sort of slot canyon which we walked into to continue out walk down the river with these towering walls rising above us..
This is he point where we stopped since the trail was turning to mud just along the side of the river but wow the look back was great…
At the end of each days hikes we had this great hot tub with a view to hang out in to work out our hiking legs from the day…
The next day rain clouds moved in and it rained on and off all day, so we decided to take off. The rain clouds however looked really amazing around the red rocks. We will definitely be back – there are so many hikes left to conquer.
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