Last Day in Sedona

Wednesday was our last day in Sedona and we decided to get one more hike in today.  We were still trying to find the trail that Ken and Bonnie had hiked on a few years ago.  We parked at the Thunder Mountain trailhead and headed off on the Thunder Mountain trail.

What a perfect day for our last hike in Sedona!

Did I mention how red the dirt and rocks are here?

We reached a sign post for the Chimney Rock trail and decided to hike up it hoping that maybe this was going to take us to the ledge where Ken and Bonnie had hiked previously.

The trail at this point began to climb fairly steeply but at least it was not climbing up on big rocks like Cathedral Arch and Bell Rock.

As we got closer to the top, we stopped at a perfect place to rest our feet and enjoy the views of Sedona.

Wow!  What a gorgeous day and what views!  :)

After resting for a few more minutes, we began hiking up further and at the crest of the hill, we could see the back side of the hill and suburbs of Sedona.

When we began the hike, we had seen someone sitting way up near the top of one of the rock formations.  We realized at this point on the trail, that we could hike up higher to that rock.  When we got there, we realized she was deep in meditation and didn't disturb her.  So we walked around the back of the rock and were treated to another spectacular view of Sedona.

We could even see Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock from way up here.

Courthouse Butte (left) and Bell Rock (right)

It was so beautiful it was hard to leave.

As we headed back down the trail, we noticed this huge tree rooted into the hillside of red rock.  There's no telling how old that tree is or the stories it could tell!

As we came down the back side of Chimney Rock, we noticed one of the rock formations...

...looked like it had a dinosaur head at the top.

As we headed down the back side of Chimney Rock...

...what appeared to be one big rock was actually 3 columns of rocks.

We continued around the back of Chimney Rock heading back toward Thunder Mountain trail.

As we finished the trail, I took one more picture looking out at the back side of Chimney Rock.

By the time we had finished the hike, we had walked 2.5 miles.  It was a great hike.  Beautiful scenery and challenging in places but not too challenging.  We loaded all our hiking gear back in the car and went to Picazzo's for lunch,  Picazzo's was another place Ken and Bonnie had been to and said it was delicious.  Picazzo's offered a one piece pizza and salad combo plus a drink which is what we all had and it was delicious!  :)

We stopped at Wal-mart in Cottonwood on the way back to the campground to pick up a few groceries and then began getting ready for our departure tomorrow.  We did get in our nightly card games with the girls winning SkipBo and Sequence Dice and the guys winning Pinochle.  We called it an evening a little after 9 because we have a long day of driving ahead of us tomorrow and Friday.  We're hoping to make it as far as Bakersfield, California, tomorrow and then on to Yosemite Lakes RV Resort right outside Yosemite National Park on Friday.

Sedona is absolutely beautiful!  We can easily see ourselves visiting Sedona again.  There is so much to do and so much beautiful scenery.

We've just been so blessed to have shared this Sedona adventure with Ken and Bonnie!  :)