We woke up to another beautiful morning, also just a little bit warmer (or less cold) than yesterday.
This morning's hike is perhaps one of the most popular in the Sedona district, certainly one of the most raved about hikes in Trip Advisor, Devils Bridge Trail.
As you can see from the map above, the official trail starts off a long fire trail. However, people contributing to Trip Advisor have mentioned an alternative and much more pleasant route to the start of the Devils Bridge Trail. The Chuckwagon trail off Long Canyon Road can be partly used to connect with the start of the walk. So, that's were we are below, at the start of the hike BUT Di could not face it. The bridge walk climbs steep stone steps up to the top of literally a thin rock ridge. Not reviewed as "Di friendly". Hans appropriately "touches wood" before setting out. Di goes to get a manicure! Girly time. Aaahhhh nice.
Given the peculiarity of the hike destination, the bridge itself, there is a logbook for entering your details. Hans is the very last entry.
In the end, the hike is not very difficult and goes for only 3.3km one way to... the below. A bit like the old London Bridge off the Great Ocean Road in Victoria. Well, at least before it fell down. The thought did cross Hans mind.
The people below arrived while Hans was already up there. The bloke was clearly some kind of authority as he was explaining things to the girl.
It doesn't quite come across below, but that section was quite icy. If you slip on that, it will be a very long way sliding down. Hans stayed well away from this area.
More pics from the Devils Bridge...hole to the left of picture.
The views from Devils Bridge. It wasn't actually that high up, perhaps a third or even a quarter of that particular peak, whose name we don't know.
There was only place on the way down where you could see the Devils Bridge somewhat. The picture is a bit washed out as the sun is shining right into the camera.
If Hans would have used the official route along the fire trail, it would have looked like the below. The alternative on Chuckwagon trail seemed far better.
On the way back, Hans went back to the log book to indicate that he had left. Surprise. All earlier entries including Hans entry from an hour before were gone. Only one entry on an otherwise blank page. The authority. What the?
However, if somebody does the Devils Bridge Trail, check inside the wooden box for Hans note, "Hans C, Sydney OZ, 02/01/13", American date format. Well, he had to leave something behind. Here is the box in the sticks...
The hike finished in 2hrs 7mins, 6.77km, including photo breaks, chat breaks and nibble breaks.
Di was waiting for Hans at Long Canyon Road to take him with her to today's second hike, a loop around Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte, just over 6km.
As we arrived at the trailhead, we parked next to this small very non-American car (well, it was a Merc). These guys had driven it, with bicycle racks, to Sedona, AZ all the way from Chicago, IL. Different! When we commented on a small car coming all that distance the guy said "yeah, I pulled it here".
This walk is very popular and criss crosses other tracks but we thought the overkill of signs caused more confusion than help.
Meditative types are everywhere... With Courthouse Rock in the background.
We did see quite a few "Vortexers" - piling small rocks, another carrying a native drum? We still don't get it. Sorry.
We walked counter clockwise and the first 2km were a bit boring and easy. The track got much better for the last 4km and far less people on it and ventured into a wilderness area - no longer almost wheelchair accessible.
We did like some of the smaller unnamed rock features and came up with names of our own, like the 2 fingered salute below.
And the top of this one that in Hans' mind was clearly female in form - but which bit???
Below is the Courthouse Rock again. We finally felt we had some understanding of the name with 2 opposing sides here and a "bench" in the middle.
We met a lovely man working on the trail and got chatting about our plans. He gave us his email address as he travels to Maine in June each year and said we should contact him whilst there. What a nice offer. He also recommended Arcadia national park for hikes. We are finding Americans here are usually generous and friendly.
We finished our hike in under 2 hours and headed back to our hotel for lunch.
Then we drove to Montezuma's Castle monument. This was impressive. About 1000 years ago a village existed in Verde Valley and homes were built into the cliffs by the native Americans. These remain. This one has 20 rooms - a family per room.
They farmed and hunted below and clambered up by wooden ladders. Well, not these two characters below...
More ruins of homes and storage sites. They were here for about 400 years before moving on. Reasons unknown. Well before white man or Spanish.
It's a lovely location and Beaver Creek runs nearby and you can see the fertility of this land that sustained them.
We learned a lot, including understanding why Theodore Roosevelt's was so popular. He had foresight. He proclaimed this a national monument 107 years ago plus created lots of national parks for the future. Good man!
A really nice afternoon. Then, whilst we were driving back Di saw a car ahead with a bumper sticker of "Guns don't kill people. Abortion clinics kill people." How inflammatory! She spluttered in frustration for the next 5 minutes.
Dinner was Mexican fast food across the road. Literally. A side note here on Apple Maps - hopeless. If we had trusted them we would have walked at least 1 block in the opposite direction!
Good night.
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