Sat 2 Feb - Oak Creek / Sedona, AZ

It is Groundhog Day in USA and highly appropriate - a beautiful day AGAIN, a hike on the agenda AGAIN, 3rd day in a row and last day for now as tomorrow where are heading north.

Also taking place today is Sedona Marathon. We spoke to a runner at breakfast who flew in to Phoenix last night, and then drove up to Oak Creek arriving here at 2.45am. At 7am, he looked a bit sleep deprived, loading up on coffee and bagels. Good luck to him in the race.

Today's hike is up and over Brins Mesa, a somewhat deliberate choice as we then stay away from the part of Sedona where the marathon runners would be, and presumably the roads closed off.

In fact, our hike consisted of 4 trails or parts thereof; Brins Mesa trail, Soldier Pass trail, Jordan trail and Cibola Pass trail. Starting at 8.30am was perfect as we almost had the trail to ourselves except for 2 serious hikers we met on the way.

We dubbed this guy "boxer sphinx" as his nose looks like it has taken a few hits.

The guy to the left though, he runs away from trouble... Nose not too foul...

The view up towards the Mesa (translates into table, as in tableland or flatten structure, which you can't see here, but is up there and beyond)

 

Time for a break - what a view looking back from where we started from.

A well deserved break for this hiker...

We continue on the trail to the next junction and into Soldiers Pass.

Too cute! Vomit, vomit!

Soldiers Pass was also a good hiking trail, pretty, but with some occasional disruption of the peace by Jeeps on the nearby 4wd track.

 

Aaahhhh the Vortex - we found the perfect spot for rock collection and reflection.

When in Rome...

A lovely hike following a descending stream through the forest with this section finishing at devils kitchen - an impressive sink hole.

Don't jump! Don't jump!!!

Then up and over the small ridge of the Cibola trail to finish. A really lovely hike although a bit short at 8km but with great variety and some effort required. 3 hours and 21 minutes. Slow but lots of stopping for "oohs and aahs".

Back to the ranch for showers and lunch, then an afternoon exploring Oak Creek Canyon.

This is a fantastic drive through a windy narrow river canyon just north of Sedona. Not many places to stop as the road is very narrow with plenty of warnings for ice and falling rocks. But when you can, it is even better.

We were sad that this bridge was locked (or at least Hans was, Di was relieved).

The canyon walls rise very steeply and we had heard hiking was great here, genuinely strenuous we assume.

A few pics at various places in Oak Creek Canyon...

Midgley Bridge spans over the Oak Creek just north of Sedona, which you can see glimpses of in the background. Seriously good views from there.

 

You can walk down and underneath the bridge, which we did.

We saw the hiking trails further below and wished we had more time. We have not hiked around this area. Oh well, it's never enough...

An early exit back to Views Inn Motel via IGA supermarket, yep they have it here too with IGA in the same font as home. As we are leaving this area tomorrow, and we have some seriously dirty clothing after 3 days of hiking in red dirt and some mud, we do a load of washing.

Saturday night, but who cares when you're on the road, in fact Sunday to Thursday are better for eating out and we will have a "gourmet" dinner in the room, steamed baby potatoes, smoked salmon for Hans and ham steaks for Di. All good.

NEWSFLASH

"He did not see his shadow. Spring will come early."

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