Family Visit - Round 2

Our next set of visitors was the 3 former Boussy Girls, Ann Frazier, Terry Hathaway and Carol Pistorino. Terry was the first to arrive, overlapping with the Murdochs who stopped in Sedona at the end of their great trip. Ann came in on Monday and Carol, fresh from her trip to the orient, arrived on Wednesday.

As their time in Sedona was short, they didn't plan on any side trips, just lots of relaxing, hiking, eating and the occasional adult beverage. They were great company doing most of the cooking and cleaning while they were here. Judy was in heaven.

Our first hike with Terry was to Wilson Canyon. This is a great, first day hike. It is a little over 3 miles, R/T, and has a nice rolling, shady trail. The trail begins at the Midgely Bridge. At the end, there is a path way to the top of a hill that gives great views of Munds Mountain. This was a perfect way to start the week.

Once Ann arrived, the 4 of us took the Marg's Draw trail for Ann's warm-up. Here are Ann and Terry at the turn around point on the trail. This is about a 3 mile R/T if you take a couple of the spurs, which we did.

The next morning, we hiked the Little Horse to Broken Arrow trails, so we dropped the Jeep at one end at the Broken Arrow trail head and took Terry's car to the other end at the Little Horse trail. From Little Horse, we hiked up to Chicken Point and then down Broken Arrow to the parking lot. This is a great way to hike these trails. The 360 degree of views of Red Rocks on the Broken Arrow trail can't be beat.

Here's Cathedral Rock viewed from the Little Horse Trail.

Two sisters below the Two Sisters....

Resting before climbing Chicken Point.

Panoramic view from the Broken Arrow Trail

Before leaving Broken Arrow to pick up Terry's car at the Little Horse trail head, we took a quick Jeep ride. Here we are coming down one of the slick rock areas at the beginning of the trail.

After Carol arrived, we took the Soldier's Pass trail on Thursday morning. This has some natural sites like the Devil's Kitchen and 7 Pools as well as a nice rolling shady trail. I always enjoy this trail.

Here they are posing near the Devil's Kitchen

At the Juniper growing out of the crack in the rocks at the 7 Pools...

And somewhere along the trail. Great spot for photos.

We wanted to have a picnic after the Soldier's Pass hike but it didn't come off quite as planned. We ended up eating our New York Deli sandwiches at the house and then took a Jeep ride down towards the old Homestead. At one particularly "dangerous" part of the trail, Ann and Terry decided to walk around the "ledge" and meet us at the bottom. They walked up on the way back too. Carol and Judy threw caution to the wind and stuck it out with me. Here's what they were missing...but, the photos don't do it justice

And from the back...

The last hike was on the Mund's Wagon Trail. We started at the Schnebly Hill parking lot. It's hard to imagine that someone might have run a wagon on this trail but it was fun to hike on. There was a little bit of water in the washes...

Time for a photo op...

A little relaxing on the trail...

And, of course, great scenery...

This trail wends its way along the dirt Jeep road so there are plenty of spots along the way to bail out and walk the Jeep road back to the parking lot. At about 1.5 miles, Judy, Ann and Carol decided to walk back while Terry and I went about another mile to the Cow Pie area before turning around. Terry kept commenting on how much she was enjoying the hiking and would love to spend more time in Sedona. Last year Kaleigh, Mia and I hiked this part of the trail during their visit. Judy had dropped us off at the top end of the trail and Kaleigh, Mia and I hiked the 4 miles back to the parking lot.

How can these trees grow out of a little crack in the rock?

Our meals were great too. Terry made Curt's famous tomato sauce one night (both mild and hot versions). Ann turned that into a casserole on another night. We all went to Harry's Hide-Away in Cornville for dinner one night and thoroughly enjoyed it. Plus burgers on the patio with Terry handling the grilling.

On the last day, the girls took Judy to lunch at L'Auberge, a beautiful creek side resort. It was a terrific way to end the mini-vacation.

We had a great week of hiking, reading, jeeping, eating, imbibing and relaxing (with the occasional conference call). We all enjoyed it and the girls are all looking forward to the next adventure.