Hangover Trail

Timmy had to work again the next day, but we figured we'd spend the afternoon wrapping up his BFR. Since that left the morning free, Tara and I grabbed breakfast and went out to do some exploring.

We started with a quick stop at the Chapel of the Holy Cross. It's a chapel built into the rocks in Sedona. (Sorry, I didn't get a picture of the front of it!) It has a really neat view from both inside and outside.

It also has a nice view of this bananas house off to the side. Supposedly the guy who invented LASIK owns this house. It is HUGE!

We made our way back down from the chapel and headed out to the trail. Tara showed off her impressive off-road driving skills along the way...the road back to the trail was nuts! The signs aren't kidding when they say stuff like 4x4 required, because I don't know if I've ever seen a road that rocky. It was pretty neat. We parked, Kunda hopped out of the back (poor Simba had to stay home for this one), and we were off.

Hangover Trail is about five miles long and goes up to a saddle in the rocks, then loops around back to the start. Shortly after we started, we ran into a few other people on the trail. One of the ladies looked at my shirt (I was wearing a race shirt from a race I ran in Manassas last year) and asked about it...it turned out she lived in Leesburg! Crazy to fly across the country and the first people we ran into live about an hour away from me back home. We talked to them for a few minutes, then went on our way.

You could see arches forming in some of the rocks.

Just saying, I'd be perfectly happy hiking here every day. It didn't matter where you looked...the scenery was gorgeous.

I told Tara about my jumping pictures and she thought it was hilarious. I taught her how to take them, too. I love this one; Kunda's standing off to the side, looking at me like I'm nuts.

After a little while we got to the saddle. I had bought some new trail running shoes for the trip and they were great; I could just walk right up the slickrock.

The view from the top was pretty sweet.

We took a quick break at the top, then started the loop back down.

Tara told me ahead of time about this little hole in the rock, so of course I had to get a picture.  :)

The view on this part of the trail was great, too. I think you'd be hard-pressed to go hiking in Sedona and not have a great view.

The trail is just a bit narrow in some spots. If you slipped over the side, you'd be sliding for a while before you'd hit anything to break your fall. I can't believe people mountain bike this!

There were little patches of cactus all over the place. Tara said one of their friends kicked one of them once and wound up with a cactus spine in his shoe. Oops.  :)   We eventually made our way back to the car, then drove back to their house to grab a snack before Timmy and I went flying. It was a great hike...I wish we could have stayed out longer!