New Mexico and Arizona

The photo was taken along the Big Park Loop south of Sedona, Arizona, where I hiked yesterday. The loop is part of system of trails in the most popular hiking area near Sedona. When the photo was taken I had finished climbing Bell Rock, the formation in the photo and had circled the rock just below the vertical top park, a rather daunting endeavor for me.

We traveled Wednesday from Joshua Tree National Park to Flagstaff and from California to Arizona. Yesterday I hiked in the Sedona area south of Flagstaff and did about nine miles of trail near Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock, including a climb of Bell Rock. The view here is from the south side of Bell Rock and the formation is Courthouse Butte.

Friday we did our last hike before returning home, a hike that took us on three trails in the Sedona, Arizona, area. We hiked a loop on the Soldier Pass, Brins Mesa and Cibola Pass trails, the photo taken on the second of the three trails. That brought our total hiking mileage to around 50 miles.

We are home again after two weeks on the road. Eager to get home and tired of sleeping in the back of the car and eating camping food, we drove through the night and arrived home about 5 am. Looking at these photos, however, gives me the urge to travel once again. We did one last hike in the Sedona, Arizona, area on Friday, a loop that took us on three trails, the Soldier Pass, Brins Mesa and Cibola Pass trails. The photo is a sample of the spectacular formations through which and around which we hiked.

This panorama was taken from Bell Rock and shows Courthouse Butte against a background of other peaks in the Sedona, Arizona, area.

Taken along the Courthouse Butte loop near Sedona, Arizona. The plants in the foreground are Agaves and I do not know the name of the formation in the background.

The formation is Cathedral Rock and the photo was taken from the Courthouse Butte Loop, a trail I hiked while we were in the Sedona, Arizona, area.

This was the "trail" I followed when I climbed Bell Rock and lost my way, a very precarious and difficult scramble along the south side of the rock.

There's a story that goes with this photo. While we were in Arizona on our recent trip I hiked the Courthouse Butte trail in the Sedona area and halfway along the loop decided to do the Bell Rock climb, but misunderstood the information I had. The climb was actually just a short and easy climb to a flat area on the north side of the butte. From there, instead of going back down, I followed what I thought was a trail and ended up on this side, the south side of the butte on the fold about two thirds of the way up which proved rather narrow and precarious. I ended up scrambling to the notch on the west (left side of the photo) and climbing down from there. The inset shows how narrow and steep the "trail" this side of the butte was. The photo was taken from the Courthouse Butte loop, a trail I hiked by myself while my wife relaxed in a hotel room in Flagstaff.