Sedona, AZ

 Carlene found a trail we wanted to hike in Sedona so up we went.  It got slightly confusing because it starts in the high school parking lot, and there were “no Dog” etc signs.  We found someone to ask and then parked in the gravel across the street and went to an adjacent lot (through the school lot) to find the trail.  But there were three different trail type paths going out of that lot and of course we picked the wrong two.  Didn’t really matter because we just took a round about route to got onto the trail we wanted.  We had started on a trail named “Extra Credit” since it was just a tich farther.

It was a nice trail going out on Scheurman Mountain.  Not a huge climb and it did not actually go up the mountain, rather it went out on the ridge with a spur trail to the summit.  We met 2 separate hikers on the way who each told us about a “social trail” that crossed from this trail to the next trail.  I found it on my Topo + app.  One said it was a long hike and the other said it was a lot of uphill going back.  But we took it anyway.  It sure was worth it!!!  The views on that Catwalk Social Trail we the best!  It was only a total of 5.6 miles and a gradual up hill on the return leg.  Social trail appears to mean that it is not an official Forest Service trail, probably made by individuals without prior approval.  But USFS seems to ignore that.  Once on the Catwalk we followed a contour up into a canyon where it crossed a smooth rock dry creek.  But Skye found a couple of water holes to get wet!  Gong up from that we found another contour that led us across the top of a big ledge.  That offered outstanding views all around.  Once we joined back onto main trails it was a gradual ascent back to the high school.

We met a few other people on the trail.  A trio of mountain bikers and another pair of bikers.  All on the social trail.  When we got back to the regular trail we met several others.  Some with dogs that wanted to meet Skye and a couple with kids that wanted to meet Skye.

That called for some ice cream!  We found Rocky road Ice Cream in W. Sedona.  It’s home made, lots of flavors and delicious.

Back to camp for Skye to get a swim in the Verde River.  We met a few other neighbors as we sat around in camp for some late afternoon relaxation.

We have so many photos I don’t know how I will sort them out to post.

Common Storks- Stem

The early look at the views we would be seeing

Blue Dicks

Paintbrush

Apricot Mallow

The trail on Schuerman was in a wooded area

And it opened up along the way

The social trail ran along the top of that cliff, but well back from the edge

California Poppy

Lots of bare red rock

It looks slippery but was not at all

Skye and her water holes

The dirty dog

Two mountain bikers

Two more bikers

How about this house?

Blackfoot Daisy

Found on the Verde River at camp

Henbit Deadnettle

Cottonwood AZ

Monday morning after 8 days of EOT is always an odd day.  The campground had 5 campers left in it.  I had a good chat last night with Mystery Rider from UT who had been 2 doors down the row and was now the nearest remaining camper.  It makes the break easier when everyone leaves and you have no one left, no more reason to be there.  Let’s get on with the net phase of this winter trip.

So up north we go, up I-17 about 75 miles to Cottonwood, near Sedona.  We have never been here before.  It has a reputation for its natural beauty and it might be true; it took Carlene 2 hours to find a campsite and that’s why we are in Cottonwood instead of Sedona.  It’s only 14 miles to Sedona.  We are here until Friday.  We did see a Bald Eagle on the way up, it flew right by us on the highway, very easy to see that big white head.  Hopefully I caught it on the dash cam.

After getting settled on our site we took a hike.  First stop was the Verde River.  This Arizona river is quite different, it has water in it!  Real liquid water!  Skye had a blast, swim, run, shake, roll in the sand, come out looking like a chocolate lab, back in for a swim.  Then we got to the hike.  There is a hill behind camp with a couple overlook decks part way up.  We took the longer route and that turned out to be a good thing.  We didn’t find the trail to the deck, we found the trail around behind the hill and up to the top.  There was no trail to the deck but who needs it when you’re on the top of the hill with an even better view!  But no trail down to the deck means going back the way we came.  Or does it?  We went part way back and took a trail to the west, around the hill and back toward camp.  It led down to a residential road thatI knew ended near where Skye was swimming.  But it didn’t connect without going through someone’s yard.  And apparently many people have done that because they had signs asking us not to.  So back to the trial.  I had noticed another trail headed north around the hill farther out so at hoped it would take us back without going up the hill again.  It did, sort of.  Not directly but out to a paved road and soon connecting to a dirt road and that took us back to the original tail and back to camp.  Too bad we didn’t track all of that on our trail app.

We are at 3300’ here, Ben Avery was around 1500’.  It is already cooler and will get cooler during the week.  By Friday it’ll be a high in the 60s, maybe below 40 at night.

The Verde River

There is a stick under here, I want it

Looking up towards the view deck

Miss Mudmut

Views from the top of the hill

Back in the Rio Verde RV Park

The hill

Sunset

Moonrise in the thin clouds