Arizona Day 4: More hiking

We got in a lot more hiking during day 4 of our Sedona vacation. The day began overcast and a bit cooler (mid 50s) than we had had before, though not uncomfortable. All throughout the day’s hike I was conflicted about what to wear. In the span of 15 minutes I think I had three different arrangements of shirts and jacket.

Our target hike this day was Doe Mountain, a flat mesa that we could see from our beautiful “Sedona Hideaway” rental house. Kelly’s parents joined us for this hike along with our nephew, Wesley. At the base we gathered our things and set out for the hike.

While Doe Mountain is flat on the top, it does present the challenges that many trails around Sedona do: dusty, sometimes narrow paths up the mountain. Kelly, the kids, and I led the way up the mountain, with Neil and Linda hiking up with Wesley below.

Unlike our previous hikes, Travis was quite engaged by this one. Every fifty feet or so, he would stop and happily announce “this look like a good spot to take my picture.” And indeed, in most of the resulting shots Travis is smiling. Hallie, of course, was her usual “mountain goat” self. It sure makes a difference when our hiking team is enthusiastic.

After a little while, Linda opted to take a rest. Neil and Wesley waited with them for a moment before continuing on. The Turner clan was turning the last switchbacks and scrambling up rock faces to make it to the summit. As we climbed the last hurdle, a woman hiking behind us offered to take our picture before pointing out the way to the best views. Once we had gotten the moment captured, we wandered across the flat surface to see the eastern side of Doe Mountain.

The view was pretty amazing for such a short hike. Below was the valley where our rental house was. Beyond that loomed Thunder Mountain (a.k.a. Capitol Butte or “Old Greyback Mountain”), and to the right stood Chimney Rock and Little Sugarloaf. From our experience with Little Sugarloaf the other day, we knew what landmarks to seek in order to find our rental house. Sure enough, behind a few bright green trees, we found our house.

It was close to lunchtime now so we found a place to break out our snacks while we enjoyed the view. Soon Neil and Wesley showed up and we took photographs of all the summit hikers. I wandered down to the eastern edge of the mountain and snapped a long-range photo of the others from that vantage point. It was great seeing beautiful scenery in every direction!

Soon it was time to head back down. Neil and Wesley went first, followed by Kelly and the kids. I followed them, taking a little time to wave to the tourist biplanes and helicopters which were now making passes over the mountain. We caught up with Linda at her stopping point and all hiked down to the parking lot together.

Once down, we drove over to the parking lot of the Fay Canyon trail. This trail had been recommended to us by hikers we met on our Cathedral Rock hike and it turned out to be a good one. We weren’t there to hike as much as we were looking for a good place to picnic. I led the way down the trail until we found a little “nook” across from the sign-in book near the trail’s head. There, we unpacked our lunches and enjoyed a picnic in the woods.

I had neglected to bring my jacket from the car and was feeling a little chilled, so it was a good thing that the kids wanted to walk along the dry stone creekbed nearby. We explored the rocky creekbed for a while before finally packing up our things again and returning to our house.

There was a little downtime where everyone did their own thing for a while. Then as everyone else was sitting down for dinner, my eyes were drawn to the stunning light shining on Thunder Mountain. The sky behind it was darkening from a gathering storm while the western side was brightly illuminated by the setting sun. The contrast was quite beautiful, so much that it caused me to abandon my plate and rush out to take pictures of it (yes, this really was the view from our rental house).

These shots of Chimney Rock and Thunder Mountain are incredible, and especially so since that magic light only lasted mere minutes. Before long, clouds blocked the setting sun and the mountain was muted again. I didn’t mind the clouds too much, though, as the setting sun lit the clouds on fire at times. The sight lured me away from a fun family game of charades so I could capture it with my camera. My timing wasn’t as good as with the Thunder Mountain shots but not bad.

It was a great combination of fun indoors and fun outdoors, and I’m glad I could capture so much of it with my camera!