Sedona Weekend Retreat

After living in Arizona for almost three years, Nick and I still hadn't been to Sedona. To our amazement, Nick's boss offered us her timeshare for a weekend at Los Abrigados Resort...free! We had to take advantage of this generous offer, so we packed up our backs and left work early on Friday to head up to the red rocks.

The resort is adjacent to Tlaquepaque Arts & Crafts Village, so we spent Friday afternoon checking out some amazing craft shops. It had the feel of an old Spanish village.

Saturday we spent much of the day hiking. Pretty much anywhere in Sedona has breathtaking views, and there are tons of hiking trails, so it was difficult to decide where to hike. A local gave us a recommendation to go to a spot called "Devil's Bridge," and it sounded pretty interesting. We decided to head out for it bright and early Saturday morning.

Our hike was longer than normal because the access road was way too rough for our little car to make it through. We hadn't thought to drive the SUV up for the weekend. So, we had about 1 1/2 miles to hike down the access road before we got to the trailhead pictured above.

Even from the access road, we had some gorgeous scenery to view!

Once we made it to the trailhead we had another mile to hike to get to the top of Devil's Bridge. At one point the trail forks; one directions heads to the base of Devil's Bridge and the other to the top of it. We took the trail to the top.

Then began our climb...

 At this point we were about half way up to the top of Devil's Bridge. Of course, we had to stop and take some pictures before continuing our trek.

The last quarter mile was the steepest, and the air was dramatically cooler. It was about 70 degrees at the beginning of our hike, and by the time we got toward the top there was snow and ice on the ground.

I started to wonder how this classified as a "moderate" level hiking trail. Luckily, it wasn't as difficult as it looked. Still, I wonder how some of the more "senior" hikers were able to tackle this part without bodily injury.

And finally we reached the top of Devil's Bridge.

This area of Wilson Mountain at Devil's Bridge is at an elevation of 5000 feet. The distance from the top of the arch to the bottom is approximately 50 feet above the ground.

Against my better judgment, Nick thought it would be fun to jump the crevice at one end of the arch...

Fortunately for Nick, the guy in the yellow shirt offered to "spot" him.

No worries, he made it safely to the other side.

 

 

Nick's adrenaline must have been pumping after his jump, so he climbed up this overhanging on the way down.

Later on we filled our bellies at Oaxaca, a delicious Mexican restaurant located in uptown Sedona. The views from the dining room were absolutely amazing.

It's safe to say that we will be heading back some time in the future.