We drove into Sedona and parked at the trailhead to Soldier Pass - very full parking lot. We started hiking the trail which included lots of ups and downs on some redrock sand and very rocky areas with steep stone steps - an interesting trail with lots of cacti, yucca plants, and greenery.
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| Time to start hiking and climbing! |
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| Some very unique rock formations! |
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| Sometimes it felt like you were off the trail when you went over the large rocks! |
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| Another huge sinkhole! Stay back, Ernie! |
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| Beautiful cacti and red and more red! |
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| Hey, this is red rock country!!!! |
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| A Kodak moment! |
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| Some of the trail was rather rocky! That might be an understatement! |
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| Looks like a home for the cliff dwellers! |
When we got to the top of the mesa, we decided to do the loop back to the parking lot instead of just turning around and doing the same path in reverse. We knew it would be an extra mile, but wanted to see things on the other side of the rock formations. So we picked up the Brins Mesa Trail, then the Cibola Pass Trail, Jordan Trail, and returned to the Soldier Pass Trail for the last .3 miles. The entire hike was 5 plus miles and all of us were tired (well maybe not Ernie!) when we finally got back to the parking lot. We had begun at 11:30 and it was 4:15 when we got into the truck, definitely passed lunch time.
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| How can we be going up when we are heading back to the parking lot????? |
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| What do you see? I think it is a sleeping bird or chick! |
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| The rock formations here are just phenomenal! |
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| The large flower of the yucca! |
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| It is a huge flower "stem". Unfortunately for the yucca, it takes around 25 years for it to get this flower and then its life is over. Fortunately the seed from the flowers produce baby yuccas and the life cycle goes on! |
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| It really is red around here! |
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| Are we soon finished with this hike???? |
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| Many of the trees have very twisted trunks! |
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| Happy Thanksgiving! Time for this large turkey to be lowered into the deep frying pot! |
We stopped at a park near the trail and enjoyed our lupper at a picnic table. Most of us walked a bit awkwardly, except for Ernie.
We were back to the CG by 6 after a long day of hiking, but we did stop outside of the CG to take a picture of the Super Moon.
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| Gorgeous! |
I did have a very nice phone conversation with Lanie on our way back. Ernie and Noela came over around 7:30 to play games and I was on a phone call with Cindy. We had a very nice chat and then Cindy and Noela talked for a little while. The men won Skip-Bo again tonight. I guess the new deck of cards didn't help Noela and I.
We finished around 9 and made plans to leave for Sedona at 10 AM, do a short hike, and then enjoy lunch at a pizza place that Ken and I went to last Spring when we were in the area. Hopefully we will have a more relaxed day tomorrow. That would be different!!!
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