Bright and early Wednesday morning, Jake and I set out on our mini road-trip of northern Arizona. First stop: the gas station down the street (over-priced gas for the car, ice for the cooler, and munchies for us). First exciting stop: Montezuma Castle National Monument, an amazingly well-preserved cliff dwelling that was built by the Sinagua around 1400 AD (or, as the National Parks Service describes it, a "20 room high-rise apartment, nestled into a towering limestone cliff, [which] tells a 1,000 year-old story of ingenuity and survival in an unforgiving desert landscape." "Nestled" isn't necessarily the word I would have picked to describe something that is literally hanging on the face of a cliff but as far as describing the structure itself, just about any exclamatory, jaw-dropping-esque adjective will do.
And a few shots from the area surrounding the monument:
The friendly park ranger who took the picture above turned out to be from Sedona, so we headed back to the car with his hiking recommendations in mind and soon enough, the famous red rocks of Sedona were on the horizon. Sedona is one of the most uniquely beautiful places I've ever visited - these pictures don't even begin to compare to the actual landscape.
Shots from the trail head of Huckabee Trail & from along the trail (one of the hikes the ranger recommended):
The river in the valley at the bottom of the trail:
Our second hike of the day was a shorter hike up to the aptly name Devil's Bridge.
View from the base of Devil's Bridge:
Along the trail:
The view from the top:
Sunset in Sedona:
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