Coconino National Forest, Red Rock Mountains, and Sedona AZ

VIEW THE SLIDE SHOW AT THE TOP TO CHECK OUT ALL THE PICTURES FROM SEDONA

4/3/14....  Too much going on the last 5 days.  We have been in the Coconino National Park (or Forest?) with no cell service or internet... ok, sorry, I stretch the truth.  It should be "limited cell service and internet" because we could only get any service out of Sedona at a trailhead before or after a hike.  Didn't give me much time to update the blog.  Here's the low-down:

Cave Springs Campground

On Sunday 3/30, we drove from Winslow AZ to Sedona AZ in the Red Rock Mountains.  No campground available close to Sedona so we parked at Cave Springs Campground about 12 miles north of Sedona.  Most of the hiking trails are back toward Sedona.  The road to town is NOT bike friendly so we will have to drive the RV back into town each day for our hikes.  No hook-ups at the campground.  It's pretty large, just opened up this weekend so it is not crowded.  By 5:30, many more campers arrived, most of them in tents.

Brin Mesa with Red Rocks in distance

Did a relatively easy hike on 31Mar, 4 hours, maybe close to 8 miles, but really nice hard packed trails (Soldier Pass, Brin Mesa, Jordan Trail).  I wore my trail running shoes instead of my boots and feet loved me for it!  After hiking and lunch, we walked around the touristy section of Sedona for a while.


Day 2, 1April, did a more strenuous hike (Sterling Pass to Vultee Arch). It was about 4 miles; the 1st mile was 1000 feet elevation gain, next mile was 600-800 feet decent, then we hand over hand rock climbed a short distance to Vultee arch.  After we ate lunch on a nice rock outcropping, we did the 2 miles back in the reverse order.  Downhill at a 1000 feet decent in a mile is tough.  We started the hike at 8:45 and got back to the trailhead at 1:15!  Much more difficult hike than yesterday.  Once again, I wore my running shoes and didn't have any issues with my feet.  Back at the campground we rode the bikes for a little while but there are no trails near here to ride much.

Climbing up Sterling Pass

Greg on Vultee Arch

Devil's Arch

 Day 3, 2APR, It rained during the night so we didn't know what to expect the trails to be like.  We drove on the west side of Sedona for about 30 minutes to Canyon Creek trailhead.  We rode our bikes down a dirt, rocky, rutted road for a mile to the Devil's Bridge trailhead.  Had to lock them because no bikes allowed on this trail.  It was 0.8 miles to the bridge but lots of rock "stairs" to climb.  The views from the bridge and area were gorgeous.  After goofing around and on top of the bridge for awhile, got back to the bikes and started our trip back to the RV.  We found another trail off the dirt road (Chuckwagon Trail) and decided to ride it back.  It was ok to begin with then it kept getting rockier and rockier with steeper climbs.  I probably walked twice as much as a rode.  On part of the trail where I was riding my bike, I decided to stop and let Greg get ahead of me.  I thought I was stopped but must not have taken my foot out of the pedals.  Down I went...right onto a bunch of rocks.  I swore I was ok until I stood up.....ouch!  I could hardly walk.  It took a long while of walking just to get my leg moving again.  By the time we got back to the RV (12:15) I had a humongous hematoma on my right thigh.  I couldn't

Biking Chuckwagon trail

even sit down.  I got some ice on it, secured with an ace bandage, and just laid down on my left side.  I couldn't do anything else.  Needless to say my adventures for the day were over.  While we were in the RV, several EMS vehicles showed up (firetruck partially blocked us in).  Found out that a person had gotten severely/critically injured from a 75 foot fall somewhere on Devil's bridge.  We never found out if they fell from the actual bridge or from somewhere on the steps going up.  We can see where it could have easily happened.  Hope they're ok.

Still 2April, by the time we got back to the campground it had started snowing and getting colder (it was only 3:30).  It snowed most of the evening and into the night.  It was 27 degrees the morning of the 3rd!

snow at night 4/2/14

4/3/14 woke to snow!