The night was much cooler here, I actually woke up cold a couple times, it was almost nice after being in such strong heat…almost being the key word, of course. I took a slow morning, cooking some porridge on my camp stove and hanging out for a little while rather than grabbing an apple or granola bar to make breakfast go by quicker. We then headed to Cathedral Rock for a hike. I used my phone directions to get there, which worked wonderfully as usual for awhile, until she started telling me to turn on to a private property, so I continued on and found a nice looking trailhead and stopped there. When I went to pay my National Forest fee, the machine told me it was a fee free day, a lovely surprise! I then began on Baldwin Trail and soon found that it connected with the Cathedral Rock Trail. It was a very easy trail up until Cathedral Rock itself. We climbed up most of the way and Luna impressed me with her improved and wonderful rock climbing skills. When we got to near the top, the path became extremely narrow and was made of smooth, steep rock, I knew Luna would not be able to climb it without significant assistance (at the very least) from me and that she would absolutely hate it all, so I did not go any further, although I am sure the views would have been amazing. On the way back I took off my flip flops and walked barefoot in the red sand for awhile, enjoying how the soft sand looked when I kicked it up in to the air.
I had planned on doing at least one other hike, the Devil’s Bridge Trail, today, but opted not to when I realized it was another hours drive away and I wanted to get on the road, having just received a message from my brother that he was only in Texas for a short time longer. I had planned on finishing up in Arizona, checking out New Mexico, then likely going to Texas to visit Sean and his girlfriend, Lindsay, but finding out that he only had another week in Texas had me making the split second decision that I definitely wanted to go and I needed to head there now to get in some good visiting time before he left. Had it been less crowded in Sedona, with it being a weekend, I would have completed my hiking plans, however I could only imagine how crowded Devil’s Bridge would be, which would significantly detract from that particular hike.
As I drove, we passed by the sight of a meteorite. I took the side road down 6 miles to go take a quick look, but was disappointed to find it was entirely blocked off and you could only get in through a building, so most likely a fee, no pets allowed, all that. We headed back, stopping at the side of the road to take a look at the snowy mountains. Luna was ecstatic to be outside in a field, off-leash, in a temperature that was quite lovely, around 21 celsius; she did some zoomies, then grabbed a stick and brought it to me to play a few rounds of fetch. We drove for a little while longer, before coming to a sign for Petrified Forest National Park. Being as this park is one I have been wanting to visit and they were just about to close, we found a campsite for the night and plan to visit there in the morning for a couple hours before heading on to Texas, my aim is to arrive in Texas on the afternoon of February 15th, it’s a 12 hour drive from here. My campsite is remarkably priced at only $15! The cheapest yet, although that is more the price I expected to pay for a campsite each night. Despite being the cheapest, it has wifi, free showers and a very helpful camp host.
I was taking the photo above this one when a cyclist came around the corner and offered to take our photo. He happened to be a photographer by trade.
I was experimenting with lowering my camera farther than I could settle down and look through the viewfinder on Cathedral Rock and ended up getting this photo and the following photo, if only I had the camera in a place that I caught her whole head!
Zoomies!
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