We decided to return to try to finish the
hike we started last week.
The weather was much sunnier and hotter than last week, so we thought we might just get it all in.
The clouds started gathering, but we continued to hike.
We even got a bit hot and sweaty during this first part of the walk.
We walked down into Sandy's Canyon looking for a cave listed in our guide book.
We took the trail to the east, and this is the sight that greeted us. It's hard to even notice the little cave with that beautiful rock formation looming over us.
We wished we could have sat out the rain storm here last week. But it really was more of an overhang than a cave, so we continued along the trail.
The photos don't do these rock formations justice. They are really spectacular.
And here's another one.
We abruptly came to a change in terrain. We entered Walnut Canyon, which is lusher and much more humid.
We came upon another cave.
And this one really was a cave. I couldn't get a good photo of it, but there was even a sign inside the cave prohibiting camping there. All along this hike, it was threatening to rain. Tim looked on his phone and it was raining heavily in Flagstaff and south, where our rented house is. But it never more than sprinkled a bit on us.
It had even rained pretty heavily at the parking lot. But, as you can see, we didn't even have to break out our emergency rain ponchos. They're still neatly folded in their little zip-locked bags.
It really was a great hike. My GPS watch put the hike at 6.6 miles, so we were all a bit tired and ready to go home for a late lunch. This is definitely a hike we'll do again -- and take guests with us.
This is the first picture I took after we got there at around 8:30 a.m.
The weather was much sunnier and hotter than last week, so we thought we might just get it all in.
The clouds started gathering, but we continued to hike.
We even got a bit hot and sweaty during this first part of the walk.
We walked down into Sandy's Canyon looking for a cave listed in our guide book.
We took the trail to the east, and this is the sight that greeted us. It's hard to even notice the little cave with that beautiful rock formation looming over us.
We wished we could have sat out the rain storm here last week. But it really was more of an overhang than a cave, so we continued along the trail.
The photos don't do these rock formations justice. They are really spectacular.
And here's another one.
We abruptly came to a change in terrain. We entered Walnut Canyon, which is lusher and much more humid.
We came upon another cave.
And this one really was a cave. I couldn't get a good photo of it, but there was even a sign inside the cave prohibiting camping there. All along this hike, it was threatening to rain. Tim looked on his phone and it was raining heavily in Flagstaff and south, where our rented house is. But it never more than sprinkled a bit on us.
It had even rained pretty heavily at the parking lot. But, as you can see, we didn't even have to break out our emergency rain ponchos. They're still neatly folded in their little zip-locked bags.
Behind the family is an area where a big rock slide obliterated the forest along here, snapping the trees like toothpicks -- not while we were there, though.
All-in-all, the hike was supposed to be just a little less than 6 miles long, most of it pretty flat.
We even let Brisi off-leash for a while. But then . . .
But, to be fair, everyone was a bit wet and miserable. We'll probably always remember this hike (which was truncated to about a 4 mike hike), because it was the one in which we decided to always carry some disposable rain ponchos. I purchased 5 this morning.
