magic sky

It was a good last day, one I thought I would be able to share with you as we waited for our plane last night. Somehow there just wasn't time... here's Tuesday's story a day later.

It was a magic sky day, much better than the day before. On Monday the sky was pure blue, no clouds. I liked today much better. The sky was still showing blue but there were some clouds too, much more interesting.

We hiked in a few different places yesterday, always in pretty open places. I thought we were going to start by hiking up Boynton Canyon but we bounced up the shorter Boynton Vista Trail instead. The very small parking lot was full when we arrived and the road was posted with "No Parking" signs. I thought we might not be able to hike there but Denise decided to park in the bigger (and emptier) parking lot for the Fay Canyon trail and just walk down the road. I'm glad we did that because I liked the trail.

Our next stop was at one of the vistas on route 179. We started out and followed a trail labeled "Phone Trail". (I don't know why it was called that since there weren't any phone lines or towers in site.) We stopped to soak in the scenery at one point and Denise spoke with another woman wandering alone. She pointed out the high point of her hike and told us to follow some shallow switchbacks to get to a point where you could see beyond the red rocks in our vision as we were standing there. Oh! That was a pretty walk!

Before leaving the red rocks of Sedona we stopped at Yavapai Vista thinking that it was just a viewpoint. There was a viewing spot there but it was also a trailhead. The trail lead to a nice view of Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock - I'm so glad we decided to wander there.

Before heading back to Phoenix and the airport Denise decided to stop at Montezuma Castle National Monument. We saw cliff dwellings high up on the cliff, fascinating. It turns out that there is a second part of the national monument, Montezuma Well. That was 11 miles further north (oops! we passed the exit on our way to Montezuma Castle). We headed north again to find the well.

Montezuma Well Formed long ago by the collapse of a limestone cavern, over one million gallons of water a day flows continuously into the Well. This constant supply of warm, fresh water provides an aquatic habitat like no other in the world, and has served as an oasis for wildlife and humans for thousands of years. From the Montezuma Castle National Monument web site

That was a very interesting stop. I think I'd like to do some more bouncing there. Maybe we'll visit again some day.

--- Rover