Sedona Getaway

A couple weeks ago we got an invitation to spend a week in Sedona at an Airbnb house owned by the woman we were supposed to cat sit for last month. As would be expected, everyone who had reservations to rent the house during the pandemic lockdown canceled, so it's been sitting there vacant. Due to all of the rain over the winter/spring, weeds were growing like crazy and she wondered if we would be interested in doing a little yard work in exchange for staying in the house. Jim isn't all that crazy about yard work, but I enjoy it on a limited basis, so for a change in scenery and temps about 10-15 degrees cooler, we took a little road trip. I can say that at least on I-17 between Phoenix and Sedona there was no evidence of a slowdown in travel based on the number of vehicles on the road, including many RVs.

View from the back deck

The house was great but the yard was full of weeds so we had our work cut out for us. She told us not to work more than an hour or so a day, but some days I got a bit carried away seeing how nice it looked after I finished. I failed to take photos of the yard, but I managed to clean out the entire back and got about halfway done with the front. Jim came behind me with a torch hooked up to a propane tank to burn those that were left behind. There were some windy days where he couldn't safely burn, but it definitely looked a lot better. We hope to go back and take care of her cats at the house across the street when she is able to travel sometime in the future. Never can pass up an opportunity to visit the soothing red rocks of Sedona.

Burning Man

We hiked or walked every morning, once on the unnamed trails just a few steps up the street below  Wild Horse Mesa. It's always good to be able to hike without having to drive to a trailhead.

Bell Rock in the middle

We were staying in Village of Oak Creek, so Kathryn recommended the Baldwin trail just a few miles away, one which we had never been on before. It follows along Oak Creek for a while, a pleasant, shady trail that is popular with families with kids who enjoy playing in the water. What a nice change from desert scenery.

Where the loop trail didn't follow the creek there were open red rock views.

At one point we intersected with a bike trail, just one of many technical trails around here.

A few mornings we walked the neighborhood from the house, a lovely area a couple miles from the golf course.

It's a shame Sedona isn't a national park instead of a place for second homes for the wealthy.

The day we hiked the Baldwin we also took a detour on the Templeton trail. It went by Cathedral Rock and I really wanted to go back and do the entire trail. Since I couldn't talk Jim into getting up early to avoid the heat, I went by myself and was on the trail about 7:15. It was nice and cool and there were just a handful of cars in the parking lot. I only saw a few other hikers and several mountain bikers over the 6.5 mile hike. Wish my dear partner was more of a morning person, but this is what he missed.

This mountain biker did a lot more bike pushing than riding up the switchbacks

Other than that little trip, which made us feel like things were a bit more normal, we are now in the process of trying to decide what we want to do when our lease ends on July 31st. New management has taken over the apartment and we aren't sure we want to stay. Jim's latest idea is to find some land and put a double-wide on it. Who knows, we may end up living in a trailer again!