We went out on a hike the day after we arrived in Sedona and... that's pretty much all we do now- run outside after breakfast and get high. I'm on a cloud, is this real? and in awe, to find ourselves living within a bunch of different national forests now. it's WILD! so much untouched, wild, quiet, clean, pristine, picturesque land everywhere. Beyond that are mountains, and other untouched wildernesses.According to some nosing around online, it looks like a rather small percentage of the state is privately owned land, and a significant portion is declared wilderness areas in the form of our national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, monuments, and lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM).
So, not a lot of houses, businesses, restaurants or shopping.
just LOTS of playground Earth.
"This land is our land! 💗 This land was made for you and me."
and we love it here.
Brin's Mesa, located just behind town, was our first time getting really high, to views that took my breath away. a relatively easy climb to manage if going slow and being deliberate. along with not looking down (in some places). holy F*$&! We also frequent the canyons; fun walks that wind beneath the treetops, our views sometimes very limited, but wandering off the main path usually rewards us with a high point above the vegetation, an interesting clearing, weird nooks & crannies, strange rock structures, and caves, with the occasional massive, carved-out area of red rock that has a feel like being in the barrel of a wave in the ocean. some of these cave-y spots were fashioned into domiciles by natives hundreds of years ago. there are a couple different ruin sites only a few miles from us, one of them with pictographs. a much larger one, also not far from here, is declared as a national monument. it's pretty impressive! i'll stick that in part II.
Sedona is a mecca for day hikes. There are some deep canyons tho, and once winter passes with the nites becoming warmer, we're excited to walk farther into places and do overnight camping. I'd say we average between 5-8 miles a round-trip. the most elevation we've climbed so far was on Sterling Pass at almost 2000ft. A close second was Bear mountain at 1800ft. (see Part II). holy buckets, they were strenuous. and amazeballs!!! most of our hikes are more moderate tho. Javelina, deer and eagles have crossed our path a few times. Other than that, i reckon we'll see more critters come Springtime.
and we love it here.
Brin's Mesa, located just behind town, was our first time getting really high, to views that took my breath away. a relatively easy climb to manage if going slow and being deliberate. along with not looking down (in some places). holy F*$&! We also frequent the canyons; fun walks that wind beneath the treetops, our views sometimes very limited, but wandering off the main path usually rewards us with a high point above the vegetation, an interesting clearing, weird nooks & crannies, strange rock structures, and caves, with the occasional massive, carved-out area of red rock that has a feel like being in the barrel of a wave in the ocean. some of these cave-y spots were fashioned into domiciles by natives hundreds of years ago. there are a couple different ruin sites only a few miles from us, one of them with pictographs. a much larger one, also not far from here, is declared as a national monument. it's pretty impressive! i'll stick that in part II.
Sedona is a mecca for day hikes. There are some deep canyons tho, and once winter passes with the nites becoming warmer, we're excited to walk farther into places and do overnight camping. I'd say we average between 5-8 miles a round-trip. the most elevation we've climbed so far was on Sterling Pass at almost 2000ft. A close second was Bear mountain at 1800ft. (see Part II). holy buckets, they were strenuous. and amazeballs!!! most of our hikes are more moderate tho. Javelina, deer and eagles have crossed our path a few times. Other than that, i reckon we'll see more critters come Springtime.
I've heard there's over 300 trails to hike in the Sedona area. We've done over 40. Sometimes we leave the camera at home. here's several from when we didn't, in no particular order...
this is PART I
CLICK THE TRAIL NAME FOR A LINK TO PHOTOS
Soldier's Pass is home to a crazy, giant sink hole! as well as the 7 sacred pools, then eventually Soldier's arch- a well hidden cave-like structure off the main trail that WOWed our socks off. we got right up in there, Oh yeah!! great fun. the whole trail goes through a variety of different terrain and trees making it a very groovy trip. come to think of it, we have yet to see this entire trail as well. we always get pulled off in other directions.
the Bunny Ears with all the different rock formations out here, ppl have named them after things that look familiar. there's Coffee Pot rock (can you spot it in the Soldier's Pass photos? there are several. it sticks out on the end 😉), Bell rock, Snoopy rock, the coxcomb, lizard head, Elephant rock, etc. This hike took us to the bunny ears. there are multiple trail heads that lead to it. We did this trek just the two of us, then went back a couple days later with our friend Cam and made a hairy attempt at getting up into an interestingly wide crevice. it was too thick with brush and cactus to make it as far as we hoped to, but it was fun trying. excellent burgers for dinner!
Cathedral Rock not for the faint of heart, even tho it's well-trodden and we saw some small children on part of the ascent! but not as high up as we got. it's very steep. have to do some shimmying up a very long crack in the rock. and then there is farther to go. breathtaking views from the top where the trail end sign is posted. there are other paths branching off from there tho, along a steep climb to reach one of the towering spires. we got ourselves into the middle of one and hung out for a while. it was stellar. STELLAR!! we started this trek on a trail that crosses over Oak Creek.
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Shaman's Cave we've visited a couple times now. smaller caves are dotted all around the same rock structure. i played my metal singing bowl in one of the smaller caves next to the main one and took a pano pic before exiting. we spent a lot of time sitting just outside the main cave, staring off at what was around us, soaking up the sun, and... i felt kinda tripped out. is it vortex energy? the most time we've spent sitting in one spot on a hike before. something healing and wonderful held us here. after a couple hours we climbed onto the top of it and wandered our way down the wavy, molten-lava-looking rock. very fun!!
