Today we got crazy! We followed the "CALL OF THE CANYON!"

We are so busy during the days this week, hardly have time to do the blog! Debbie and Gerard are trying to wear us out!

Today was a bit cooler here, only a high of about 58 or 59 degrees F. Judy and Debbie had picked up info on a hike and wanted to try it out today. It was called "The Call of the Canyon" and is located north of Sedona on the way to Flagstaff.... all sounded good until we pulled into the parking lot where the trail head was located and yup, there was the snow.... my trusty Magellon GPS had told me we were at 5,4oo feet, and you better plan on snow...

We decided to eat our picnic lunch, as we need the energy, and then hit the trail. It had warmed up not too bad, you just had to get by the snow... Judy was taking pictures, so she was bringing up the rear....

This trail started off great along Oak Creek... the mountain tops are only about 600 feet above us and top out at 6,000 feet.


About 1/2 mile into the trail, we came up these ruins of a home... could not tell how old they were, they looked old...

About 200 feet from the house ruins, I noticed this door into the mountain.... we checked it out, and it was simply a cave someone hollowed out of the mountain... why???? We have no idea....

Any good job in not finished until the paper work is done. Judy and Debbie sign us into the trail head...Once again we came across some great views of the mountains...

About 3/4 of a mile into the hike, we started to head into bush land..... and well, need I say anymore....

The deeper into the bush, the deeper the snow got. This area received this snow about a month ago, and they got hammered! We did not really have the right clothing or footwear with us... we were all wearing running shoes for crying out loud...

We did not go too far into the bush when we hit Oak Creek again... we had to cross the creed to carry on with the trail and well, as you can see, that was not going to happen today. This creed would not normally have this amount of water in it. This is spring run off.

We checked it out both ways, and could not see a way to cross without going swimming...

We soon decided to head back to the car and make our way back to our nice summer day in Sedona. We had only come out maybe 10 miles north of Sedona, but we went up in elevation and that means everything down here!

Took this next pic as we headed back to Sedona - all the snow is gone :-))

The Hwy. heading north out of Sedona is fantastic.... they say it is one of the 10 best drives in all of the USA. We will take all the highway tomorrow as we head up to the Grand Canyon, and I will let you know.... We did stop at this small Canyon just north of Sedona on the way home and took a small hiking trail which took us down to Oak Creek again!

As you can tell from the above picture, we were up quite a piece, so you have to heed the signs along the way, and here is another one for Kristina's sign collection...

When we got down to the creek bed, Debbie wanted to check out the temp of the water.... she will get over the frost bite real soon, don't worry folks....

We took a small driving tour as we got back to Sedona, and came across this park that had the "Cathedral Rock" in it. Note the picture on the water vending machine on the left, and then look to the right, just above the heads of the tourists.... cool ehhhh....

Here is another view of the rock.... very popular spot.

Judy fell in love with this tree on the way back to the car and had to give it a hug....

We stopped at another State Park, and took in the visitor centre that talked about how the whole area was formed thousands of years ago... very cool. They also had a 45 minute film on the Sedona area that Judy and Debbie just loved, and Gerard and I had a hard time getting them out of the theatre....

Well, you know the rest, back for a hot tub, and another great dinner compliments of Debbie and Gerard.

As mentioned tomorrow is the Grand Canyon! The big one! 3 hour drive to get there! That usually means 3 hours home too! Don't get too upset if I don't get the blog posted tomorrow night.... I will try my bestest!

Till tomorrow.....