More Sedona Pictures and a summary of some hikes

Along Baker Trail (in northwest Sedona). This trail was about 4 miles, although we almost made it about a 2700 mile hike because we did not have a clear map and my dad has a mediocre sense of direction. Luckily my Garmin 305 (not the Garmin 405 that hates me) has a feature that enables you to see where your trip started at so we were able to find the car this way. I had bought a good hiking map but sadly it was in the car and thus of no use when we hit the "Y" along the trail.

Hiking Huckabee Trail, a nice trail that starts at a nice vista then hikes into Oak Creek Canyon. This hike was about 2 miles round trip but could have been extended as per the map. But I think a flood may have taken out a bridge making this nearly impossible. Notice in this picture the rickety bridge we had to cross. It was not in great shape and in fact sagged under both my dads and my weight (individually)

In the bottom of the Oak Creek Canyon along Huckabee Trail. Within about 20 minutes we were at the bridge you can see in the background, thus it was not too difficult a trail. In fact during this trip I realized the Eastern Trails seem alot more technical with rocks and roots than the Sedona and Phoenix Trails at least.

With my dad at the top of Devils Arch. This was a 1-2 mile beautiful hike from the trailhead. However, to get to the trailhead my dad made us hike in about 1.5 miles because he was afraid the rental car would get busted on the unimproved road. On our way back we were able to hook up with a nice pair of hikers who had parked at the trailhead who kindly offered us a ride to the rental car.

At the bottom of Devils Arch. This arch was quite large. I would guess 50 feet long (2 school buses long), 20 feet across and about 200 feet high. It was quite spectacular and definitely worth the hike to get to it. Also the views from the Arch were also very pretty.

Monday-Wednesday this week after a few days in Phoenix for the marathon, I vacationed at Sedona AZ with my dad. We both are hikers so much of our time was outside seeing a variety of sights. We went on about 4 distinct moderate length hikes including:

1) Baker Point

2) Devils Arch

3) Huckabee

4) Courthouse Butte and Belle Rock

We also went to Montezuma's Castle (Indian Ruins in a cliff), Montezuma Well (Indian Ruins and a spring fed pool), and walked briefly around the town of Sedona. The weather was always nice (up until Wednesday every day was sunny, and even Wednesday morning was pleasant, but just a bit overcast). All of these hikes I think we both enjoyed. We also did Red Rock Slide State Park, which I think both of us were a bit disappointed but think it was just the wrong season to appreciate this landmark.