Chimney Rock Loop

We had a few good days this past week between rounds of company. We took advantage of the weather to try a system of trails nearby that we had not done before. At the end of our street is a trail head that leads to a number of other trails. The Thunder Mountain trail runs along the base of Thunder Mountain which runs parallel with the main road through Sedona. These trails are close to neighborhoods so you may see some roof tops and power lines, but around the next bend is wonderful scenery. They are fairly popular with tourists.

Anyway, we took the Thunder Mountain trail to the Chimney Rock trail. There are two loops one can take, the upper or lower Chimney Rock trail. We took the Upper loop the first day. It had some spectacular views but I forgot my camera (even though it is on Judy's list by the garage door). What a shame. Chimney Rock is sort of between the formations near downtown Sedona and the formations toward the south, so you get great views in both directions. It was pretty muddy and fairly steep at times so it took us a couple of hours to make the loop.

The next time we took the cut-off for the lower trail. This trail also had great scenery and was a little easier on the thighs than the upper trail. We've done the lower loop again since the first time and it will definitely go on the list of trails to do for our company. Here are a few photos. Remember, you can double click on the photo to zoom it...