Saturday, November 14, 2015

4 Trail Around Sedona Today.

 

Soldier Pass;

We met the group at the Blue Arches (McDonalds) They don’t have “golden” arches in Sedona.

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At 8:30 we took off for the first trail; Soldier Ridge. We drove a short distance east on 89A to Soldier Pass Road. We turned north on Soldier Pass Road and drove to the turnoff for the trail.

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The trail started out kind of bumpy right from the beginning.

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The road goes by Devil’s Kitchen. It looks like it may have been a large cavern that collapsed at some time in the prehistoric past.

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There is a little climb up some slick rock to a parking lot.

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Here is the view from the parking spot.

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Our next stop was at the Seven Apache Pools; a series of small natural stone basins in the bedrock.

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Schnebly Hill Road.

This trail Is basically a wide dirt road with lots of bumpy rocks that goes from Hwy 179 south of Sedona to I-17.

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We passed this car coming the other way. Some people have a lot of balls.

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We drove past Merry-go-round Rock.

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The views from the Schnebly Hill Vista Point are pretty spectacular.

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On the way back down the road Patti spotted this rock that she called Goose Head Rock.

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Broken Arrow;

This trail is very popular and a lot of fun to drive. There is some slick rock and a spot called the steps that are a little challenging but not to bad for experienced jeepers.

Slick Rock.

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There are some nice views of red rock spires along the trail.

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At the end of the trail is a view of the valley below.

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More slick rock fun.

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Going down the steps. It looks a bit easier than it actually was but it wasn’t bad.

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Oak creek Homestead;

Our next trail was to the Oak Creek Homestead.

The first challenge was  this lady on horseback. The horse was very spooky.

 

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Eventually we all shut off the engines and she was able to get by us.

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From further down the trail we could see into the valley where the Sycamore trees were in their fall colors.

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At the end of the trail we came to what is left of the stone walls of the homestead.

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We parked here and walked down to the beautiful Oak Creek.

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Here we turned around and headed back up the trail for Sedona.

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Okay, that was the four trails on Thursday. A long exhausting day but it was all worth it.

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