For the first time since my arrival in Flagstaff on July 12, I went down the mountain. Well, not the whole way down to the Valley, but about 3000 feet down to Sedona. Talk about a drastic change in terrain and temperature! We took the scenic route, 89A, which winds through a canyon and suddenly the pine trees start disappearing and you begin seeing massive red rock cliffs. As usual, I was in awe of the scenery and could not get enough of it. As we drove the hour to Sedona, I began to truly realize how much there really is to see in do in this area. It seemed liked we saw countless spots to pull off, hike, camp, enjoy the view, etc. I have no idea how we will see it all, over the next two years…
Since it was the weekend, the roads were busy. In many locations near popular destinations, cars lined the roads as people walked to where they wanted to go to avoid paying the $20 parking fee. Can’t say that I blame them! Sheesh! In particular, Slide Rock State Park is a popular destination with a natural rock slide you can ride into the river. Will have to check that out one of these days.
Sedona itself was hopping with visitors. It definitely looks like a tourist destination with its main thoroughfare of shops, art galleries, and restaurants. I would like to go back at least once and wander the main strip a bit. Touristy or not, there did seem to be a few cool and interesting looking places to poke around in for an afternoon. Again, you can’t beat the setting: A cute little town nestled in the midst of red rock mountains in every direction. Sedona is also known for being super new agey… more on that later when I actually go visit. Once we arrived at the Red Rock District, we found a place to park shortly off the turn off. The road was pretty rough and vehicles with low clearance (like ours) were discouraged from trying to drive to the trail head. As a result, we walked about a mile in to the trail head for Devil’s Bridge.
The trail was fairly short, but it felt like a pretty intense hike because it was about 1:30 in the afternoon with the sun directly overhead and temperatures in the 90’s. Again, definitely the warmest weather that I have experienced since moving to Flagstaff. The trail allows you to circle around to underneath the arch so that you can get views from that direction. In order to reach the top of the bridge, you have to climb a pretty steep rock staircase. The climb is definitely worth it as you will see from the pictures.
When we first approached the arch, I got really overwhelmed and with the perspective I had, said there was no way I was going out there! The bridge looked super narrow and precarious. I did go around so that I could get a better view and then I realized that it was actually a lot wider than I initially thought, so as you can tell, I did venture out to the middle. However, my fear of heights took over, and I went nowhere near the edge. Of course, several of the others that I was with were much more bold and adventuresome. This freaked me out, too. I kept having visions of them slipping and falling. Needless to say, I felt a certain amount of relief when we were all done exploring and started heading back. Anyways, it was super awesome. Definitely my favorite vistas of all the hikes so far.
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