Arizona: Sedona

After our disappointing Bears loss and our epic Grand Canyon hike, we then headed to Sedona to spend the rest of our week.  Our home base was a nice condo in the sweet little village of Oak Creek right next to Sedona.  It was a great home base of our days of exploring Sedona.

After arriving late to Sedona from our epic day in the Grand Canyon, we slept in, walked around the community a bit, stopped in for some coffee and bakery goods, grabbed some groceries, and then headed out to do a little hiking on some trails within walking distance from our condo.  We popped into the Sedona Juice Co. for a smoothie lunch on our way to our hike.

On our first day of hiking, we hiked the Bell Rock Pathway to Big Park Loop to Courthouse Butte Loop back to the Bell Rock Pathway.

This graphic from Zach's fitness app showed a great view of the big loop we made around the red rock formations of Bell Rock and Courthouse Butte.

It was a beautiful area surrounded by all these amazing red rock formations.

We ended our hike by climbing up on Bell Rock.  We decided that the kids would have loved this portion of the hike as it was just rock climbing...no marked pathways, but just finding the best way to keep climbing up to the next level as far as you wanted to go.

I made it all the way to the top of one of the spires.  It was a bit of a challenge of climbing and nerves, but I enjoyed the exhilaration of sitting on top of the spire.

We finished off our first day in Sedona with dinner at Tortas de Fuego.  It was good, but not great.

We started our next day with breakfast at our condo and then we headed out for our hike de jour...Chapel trail to Broken Arrow to High on the Hog to Mystic loop.

We parked near the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which was a beautiful and moving piece of architecture and religion.  The trailhead we were using was right near the chapel.

We really enjoyed this hike.  It was uncrowded, but had some beautiful views, some fun climbing, and some double black diamond pathways.  The distinction intimidated us a bit at first until we realized that the rating system was more aimed at those trying to maneuver the trails on mountain bikes.  Definitely less intimidating when we were just hiking them. 

The loop was around 4 miles.  Hiking on the red rocks required following the rock cairns and the trail signs as it was sometimes hard to decipher where the trail actually was.

After our hike, we went back to our condo to relax a bit, read, and then we headed out for dinner at Colt Grill BBQ and Spirits.  It was a good meal of smoked meats, and we timed it just right to order and find a seat as the crowds really picked up soon after we sat down.  We followed dinner with relaxing on the couch and watching 'Fall Guy', which was a winner.

Our last day of Sedona hiking required an early start as there were 2 popular hikes that I really wanted to experience without the crowds.  We got up and out early to hike Cathedral Rock.  We accomplished our mission as we were just the second car in the parking lot.

Although only a 1.2 mile hike, this was basically a fun rock scramble up to the top of Cathedral Rock.  We determined that the kids would have loved it.  And the views from the top with the sun rising and no one else around were incredible.

As one of the most popular hikes in all of Sedona, I had read horror stories about full parking lots, lines of people, and closed roads requiring a shuttle to just get you to the trail head.  I guess when it's November, in the 30's, and early in the morning, you can beat the crowds and enjoy the experience sans people...just the way I like my hikes.

Cathedral Rock was a favorite hike, and I'm so glad we started our day that way.

We followed up Cathedral Rock with another popular hike:  Devil's Bridge.  And although we encountered more people than at Cathedral Rock, we were still able to be there early enough to avoid too many people.

Again, I had read many stories about people having to wait an hour or more for their "turn" to get their picture taken on Devil's Bridge.  Our 5-10 minute wait didn't seem too bad.

The 4-mile round trip hike was pleasant, and we found a fun little off-shoot of the trail where we could hike down under the bridge, which gave a different perspective.  Just glad nobody dropped anything from off the bridge while we were down there.

We finished off our day of hiking with the 6.5 mile Boynton Canyon Trail.  It was an out and back trail that skirted along a luxury resort at the beginning/end, so that was a little unfortunate.  I don't generally like to see buildings while I'm hiking on a trail.  But once we got passed that, it was a pretty hike through a forested canyon surrounded by red rocks.

The end of the trail was a bit of a climb with some really pretty views of the canyon.

We sat down to enjoy a snack and the views before heading back.

After our hike, we drove back through Sedona, grabbed a picture of the famous blue McDonald's sign, and then took a soak in our condo community hot tub before heading out for dinner.

Our dinner on our last night in Sedona was at Butterfly Burger, which was a unique and upscale burger restaurant.  It was fabulous!!  Definitely one of our favorite meals of the trip.

We enjoyed a good night of sleep and a nice run on Friday morning before eating breakfast in our condo, packing up, and heading back to Phoenix.  We decided to do one hike in the Phoenix area to finish off our week.  We headed straight to the Siphon Draw Trail in the Superstition Mountains.

Our initial plan was to hike the Siphon Draw trail up to Flatiron, which requires unmarked trail maneuvering and rock scrambling.  We talked with a park ranger before starting off who didn't think we'd have enough daylight to get all the way to Flatiron and back, so we just hiked to the end of the Siphon Draw trail.  It was still a nice hike and a fun way to end our week of exploring in Arizona.

We headed to our hotel near the airport, ate dinner at the distinctly west coast establishment In-N-Out Burger, and then settled in for our final night of rest in Arizona before heading for home.

We had such a wonderful week away. 

We love spending time in beautiful places doing active things.

Arizona delivered in a big way.  We loved the area, the hiking, the weather, the scenery.

But we also enjoyed the relaxation and sleeping in and good meals and quality time together.

Life gets busy, and so we relish these opportunities to enjoy a little time away just for us.  It was a great little get away!

Arizona: Phoenix and the Grand Canyon

Zach and I celebrated our 23rd anniversary in mid-September.  Of course, in the midst of cross country season and the kids' fall activities, our "celebration" was a dinner out together crammed between the plethera of family activities that were on the calendar that week.  We waited until after the craziness of cross country season and then took our true celebratory anniversary trip a month later.  We left the still-surprisingly-nice weather in Illinois to bask in the surprisingly cool weather in...

Arizona!!

We flew from Bloomington to Phoenix (through Dallas) on some cheap flights that I found on American Airlines.  And although part of the cheapness was just bringing carry-on bags, we found out the hard way that you cannot carry on hiking poles...so we ended up having to check a bag with our hiking poles.  Hope everyone on the flight felt way safer knowing that our hiking poles were safely tucked away underneath the plane.

On the plus side, our flight from Bloomington to Dallas was not full so we took advantage of some open rows to re-seat ourselves once the flight had taken off.

Our flights were smooth and our dinner at the TGI Fridays in the Dallas airport was surprisingly yummy.  We got to our Phoenix hotel in the later evening and settled into our room only to wake up in the morning with this view of State Farm Stadium.

We planned our trip dates and destination around going to see the Bears play the Cardinals.  (We had hoped to score some free tickets through the State Farm employee ticket lottery, but no such luck.)  With the game being a Sunday afternoon game, we had time to wake up, go for a run together, and enjoy a deliciously scrumptious lunch at the Crooked Pint Ale House in our hotel before the game.

It was nice being able to just walk over to the stadium from our hotel.  The stadium was really nice and the view from our seats was really good.

Unfortunately, the Bears were lousy, so there wasn't too much to cheer about.

Although the Bears game was a bit of a downer, it was still fun to experience a live game (since it had been a number of years since we had done that) and enjoy the energy of being in the stadium.

After the game, we walked back to our car and then got on the road for the 4 hour trip to the Grand Canyon.  We stopped to eat dinner at Flew the Coop Nashville Hot Chicken Shack in Verde, AZ.  It was one of the highlight meals of the trip.  So good!!

We stayed at a Holiday Inn Express in Tusayan, AZ just outside the south rim entrance of the Grand Canyon.  We got to the hotel late, packed up our stuff for our hike the next day, and got not-quite-adequate sleep before our alarms rolled us out of bed to get an early start on our day.  Although we were too early for the free breakfast at our hotel, I was able to score some bagels and peanut butter from the breakfast staff as they were setting up for the morning.  Score!

Our anniversary trip plan started with the idea of going to see the Bears play in Phoenix.  When I realized that Sedona is just a few hours from Phoenix, we decided that might be a nice place to spend part of our week.  And then, when I realized that the Grand Canyon is only a few hours from Sedona, it seemed appropriate to add a day there as well.  As I began researching the Grand Canyon, the idea of completing the strenuous Rim to River to Rim hike intrigued, so we added that to our itinerary.

We got to the South Rim entrance by 5:30 in the morning.  We parked at the Bright Angel trailhead and then took the 6:00 a.m. hiker's shuttle from the Bright Angel Lodge to the South Kaibab trailhead.  We were lucky to be riding with some other friendly hikers who informed us of a trail closure that would impact our intended hiking route.  They shared an alternate route that they planned to do, so we were able to make that last minute adjustment to our plan.  I was so glad we had some insider information instead of trying to make a new plan on the fly when we encountered the closed trail 8 miles into our day.

Leaving the rim about 6:30, we hiked down the South Kaibab trail.  It was under 20 degrees at the rim when we left, but thankfully we were prepared with many layers.  It was beautiful watching the sun rise over the canyon as we began our descent.

The entire hike down to the river was a steady decline with lots of switchbacks and rocky steps.  It was about 4,780 feet of descent over the 7.3 miles down to the Phantom Ranch at the bottom.

It was sunny and pleasant for most of the hike, warming up as the sun came up and we got further into the canyon.

It was interesting passing the mule train and seeing the size of the mules (bigger than we anticipated) and how undisturbed they were by the hikers they were passing.  I could have done without all the mule dung along the trail though.

By the time we made it down to the river, we had shed several layers and were ready for a drink and a snack.

We stopped at Phantom Ranch to check it out and grab some of their famous lemonade.

We fueled up on lemonade and a bagel with peanut butter, refilled our water, and rested for a bit before beginning the return trek back up to the rim.

Because the Bright Angel trail was closed between Phantom Ranch and Havasupai Gardens, we hiked back up the South Kaibab trail to the Tip Off and then cut across on the Tonto Trail to the Bright Angel Trail.  This added 4+ miles to our overall trip.

Although adding time and distance, the Tonto Trail was a nice reprieve from the constant downhill and uphill hiking.  It was relatively flat and we saw very few other hikers along the trail...just enough to ensure that we weren't totally lost and alone.

The views were beautiful and the weather was perfect for hiking.

There were many graphic warning signs about the dangers of doing this hike in one day, especially in the heat.  (This was our favorite sign!)  We were lucky to have the weather we did.  It was a strenuous hike even in the coolness of November when the temperature never surpassed the mid-60's.  I can't imagine trying to do this in the summer.

Once we hit Bright Angel Trail, it was a constant uphill climb to reach the top.  We had purchased hiking poles for the trip on a recommendation from a friend, and we were really glad we had them for the climb.  The constant elevation gain was a grind.

We had started our hike right around sunrise and finished right before the sunset.  It took us about 10 hours, and we estimated about 20 miles of hiking.  (Our watches' GPS wasn't super accurate and the addition of the Tonto Trail made it hard to know for sure exactly how far we actually hiked.)

However, this graphic from Zach's app was a pretty accurate depiction of how the hike felt.

By the time we reached the Bright Angel Trailhead, we were tired, cold, hungry, and thankful to have reached the end.

Once we got back to our car, we were famished.  (Although we were generally prepared for the hike, we neglected to pack a variety of snacks and were definitely ready for something other than energy Stroopwafels and energy chews.)  We stopped at the first restaurant we could find (called 'We Cook Pizza and Pasta') and polished off an entire pizza.  It was true.  They did cook pizza and pasta.  It wasn't anything special, but met our needs in the moment for warmth and real food.

What an amazing day!  Although it was hard and long and strenuous, it was also one of the most epic day hikes we have ever done.  I'm so glad we had the right day, the right weather, and the right time to make this happen.  It was a great start to our week of enjoying Arizona and its beauty.