SEDONA-- Day 3

For our last day here we got up early so we could have a place to park at the last place we wanted to see- Soldiers Pass. The parking lot only holds about 15 cars and the gate opens at 8am. We were there at 7:23am and there was already a car there waiting. We pulled in behind and in about 15 minutes there were 10 cars waiting behind us.

Every direction we looked there is something new and beautiful to see.


The first thing we saw was a huge sinkhole called Devil's Kitchen!

We looked for the Seven Sacred Pools, but the water is all dried up, so its hard to know what to look for. We hiked some really cool trails and around every corned was a new rock formation!

We met a man on the trail, who lives in Corvallis, OR, but also has a house in Sedona and he told us about a trail (Ant Hill) that leads to the top of a rock that has a 360 degree view of the whole area!

Later that afternoon, Kari and her boys all came to visit us from Flagstaff.  We played in the warm hot tub and the kids even jumped in the cold pool!

Afterwards we went for treats and right there on the road next to the ice cream store there was a Trump rally going on. LaVerl got pretty fired up! It was great seeing people understanding what is going on with the election results.

We also went to Posse Park and found a cool bike trail and then watched some great scooter riders at a skate park. It was a fun last day!

SEDONA- Day 2

 Today was a great day. We hiked to Devils Bridge, which took us about 3 hours and we probably hiked about 5-6 miles. We were lucky to get a parking space and we got there at 8am! We hiked the Chuckwagon Trail and it was beautiful. As we got up to the top the trail got really steep and scary, I felt like a mountain goat!! It was worth it though!

 

It was a little chilly in when we first started out.

 The trail got steeper and then straight up!
Finally we made it to the natural arch bridge! This is from the top view! The guy in the background is standing on top the bridge.

Then we hiked the trail to below the bridge, looking up.

We went back to our nice hotel and rested a bit and then decided that a hot tub would be great for our sore feet!

The rest of the afternoon we drove to Cathedral Rock, but there was NO parking, so we drove to Chapel of the Holy Cross.

The last place we stopped was Bell Rock. We got out and hiked a little bit of the Bell Rock Pathway. It was super pretty too.

Bell Rock!

It was a really great day and we ended it by having a nice dinner at "The Golden Goose". We are having a little weird thing going on with our car. It started just outside Flagstaff, we both noticed about the same time that our eyes were hurting and watering. I thought it was something outside that we were breathing in. Its something coming from our car, inside, and we can't figure it out!! LaVerl took out one of the fuses that go to the airbags and we hope that fixes it! So Weird!!

SEDONA!!

 It's hard to believe that we have lived in Arizona for 40 years and we've never been to Sedona!  It's beautiful! LaVerl had a few days off from work and he wanted to go do something, so I picked out Sedona! The weather is nice and cool and because we are here Wed-Fri, hopefully the trails and places to see won't be packed with people!

Our first stop was Slide Rock State Park. It was a good thing we didn't want to swim, because it was much to cool for that! But it sure looked inviting!!

The red rock was so amazing!

Oak Creek is beautiful!

There were still a few golden leaves left on the trees!

We stopped in Flagstaff to see Kari and kids for a few minutes on our way. We ate some really good Mexican food and then we settled in our nice hotel. Tomorrow will be seeing more of God's creations!