Day 7: Sedona, Black Canyon City, Tempe, Mesa and Phoenix

 The last day has been a long day. We started it at the pool then left Sedona and headed for Black Canyon City to visit Rock Springs Cafe - home of Arizona’s best pie. Dave said the banana cream was excellent.

We then headed to Tempe to meet up with Brian Curran, Dave’s Plymouth/Carver xc teammate, who was kind enough to show us some sites in Phoenix and Tempe - including the ASU campus and Chicago Cubs spring training facility. Now we’re just hanging at the airport waiting for our red eye.

It was a great trip.

Day 6: Sedona

 This was the last full day in Sedona and we made the most of it. We hiked the Cathedral Rock loop with a detour up to the (near) top of Cathedral Rock. The trail description said it was 8 miles (not counting detour). Dave's smartwatch said it was a bit more than that. My FitBit said it was 10.2 miles and 139 floors. I'm going with my Fitbit. It was, in my opinion, the hardest and most beautiful of all our hikes. I can't believe people bike on these trails! Walking on them is scary enough in some spots.

Day 5: Sedona

 It's hot here so we started early and did a 6.5-ish hike on the Bell Rock Pathway to Llama Loop. So much to see.

Day 4: Flagstaff to Sedona via Oak Creek Canyon

We left Flagstaff in the a.m. and headed to Sedona via Oak Creek Canyon along a scenic and very windy mountain road. We stopped before we got to Sedona to hike Harding Spring Trail to Cookstove Trail, shown below. The first 1/2-3/4 of a mile was rough. After that it was lovely as shown in the pics. Thankfully we saw no snakes.

After the hike, we continued on toward Sedona, stopping at Indian Gardens for lunch. The pic of the outside patio doesn't do it justice. It was a lovely spot. I included the food pics for Erin.

We finally got to Sedona. It was hot and crowded, but the scenery was amazing. We walked around for a bit and decided to head for the hotel, hang out by the pool and get an early start on a Red Rock hike tomorrow to avoid the crowds. The pic below is from out hotel balcony. Unfortunately the building next door obscures our view but still, pretty neat.

Day 3: Rim Trail to Hermit's Rest and back to Flagstaff

In the morning we hiked the Rim Trail toward Hermit's Rest. The first picture shows a birds eye view of 

the Bright Angel Trail - yesterday's hike. The rest of the photos show how vertigo-inducing the Rim Trail  can be. There are few guardrails. Watching people stand on the ledge to take selfies is nerve-wracking.

I thought the marker below was kind of weird. This one is embedded at Hopi Point. Turns out the people at the Museum of Science helped lead the mapping of the canyon back in the 1970s.

After lunch in the Canyon (where we just happened to run into one of David's co-working space-mates who had just finished rim-to-rim hike) we headed to Flagstaff - a cross between Boulder (but smaller) and Boone (but bigger). Lots of places to eat, drink and listen to music (Sir Mix a Lot!). Also a good place for a 50-something to feel old.

That last image is a heavily doctored pic of the San Francisco Peaks as seen from the parking lot of our hotel at night. The one of the far left is Humphreys Peak - the highest point in Arizona at 12,633 feet.

Day 2: Bright Angel Trail to Three Mile Resthouse

We started early (before 8) because of the heat. Amazing views. We agreed the people riding mules on the trail have a death wish. A fantastic, and very dirty, hike.

We returned to the park after dinner to check out the canyon from another point along the Rim Trail - Yavapai Point. It was the first time we got a glimpse of the Colorado River (a small speck of green).

 Thought I'd include the following pic for brother David.