The Devil’s Bridge

Seriously, what were we thinking? It always seems like a good idea at the time, doesn’t it?

But the snow happened. Yes, you read that right. The snow. We’d spotted patched off it yesterday, but today, we saw much more of it. Along with ice. Not exactly ideal hiking conditions but you never know that in the car park do you?

So we struck off. Dressed for cool weather and carrying water plus snacks. The dry path didn’t last for long before we encountered red rivets of runoff from the snow. It was slippery in sections. Actual icy patches in spots. It was rated as a moderate with one step section right before the end.

We even managed to take a “wrong” turn with The Engineers (yes, 2 of them) in front. Someone else set us correct, and we veered left.

The end climb was definitely steep and slippery, and our friend K decided it wasn’t for her today. Which is just so smart to respect what your body is telling you. This was also the most congested section of the trail as it was single lane! Once up on the top plateau, we stuck to the right as suggested by someone on their way down. That avoided the icy sections along the steep drop off and put us back through the trees to come out at the edge of the actual Devil’s Bridge.

The actual natural rock bridge is about 8 to 10 feet wide and was dry. I am decently afraid of heights, although I always say it is of falling itself that I am afraid of. So I am pretty stoked to say that I walked out there.  I managed to walk out on my own but didn’t look around much. Our friend W took the picture and then we returned the favour when he walked out. 

The views were just so spectacular. Man, the red rock and all the green shrub. The layers in the rocks are so interesting. The vastness of the area and the lack of population density makes it seem even bigger. Timeless.

The hike down was probably harder than the cardio of the up. The footing definitely made you pay 100% attention to your footsteps. And then we actually followed someone else on the way down and ended up on a “shortcut.” That couple plus W and K turned back and climbed up, but Ron and I forged ahead, and he built the inuksuk while we waited for them to catch up. I was very glad I had hiking boots on. It was 7.1 km, which felt just perfect to me. As an aside, I can tell that I’ve been doing HIIT and resistance/weight training as my legs never felt fatigued. It feels good that the activity means I can sustain this type of activity.

The remainder of the afternoon was taken up with lunch and beer at our patio table and then walking around downtown. Which included the one old building we could find in Sedona and beer. We managed a great lookout spot for Snoopy!

This was followed by some quiet time for us, and it was W and K’s turn for the grocery run. Which meant I finished up the other blog post and created this one.

LOL – then I forgot to hit publish! Which I just discovered as I was finishing up today’s post. Cie la vie.

Bernie