Arizona - Adobe Jack Trail

 After our rather extreme hike we are now being a little more careful with the hikes we choose as it took us days before our legs were back to normal.

The Adobe Jack trailhead is right off the main road into Sedona and seemed to offer lots of loops to choose from. We though we would follow the trail along the bottom of this map, take the 1st left if it turned out to be rough and the second if we felt ok. Up to the first left and make our way around a small loop. Easy peasy!

 

The first section was only marred by the constant sound of traffic. You couldn't see the road

as the trail was down below the roadway level, along a creek bank.

with lots of foliage around. A little cooler than it had been so we started out in jackets.

We could still see the fabulous scenery around but we were mostly in a valley.

with glimpses of expensive looking houses every now and then.

We were feeling good so didn't take the first left, took the second, but when we got up to where there should have been the next intersection there was no indication of it and it was erased on the posted map.

The next option was further than we wanted to go so we just turned around and retraced our steps.

It had warmed up and jackets were off. We found a nice spot in the sun to eat our picnic and just a little further along another hiking couple had found a shed rattlesnake skin. I should have taken a picture.

Dessert Holly.

Atriplex hymenelytra, the desert holly, is silvery-whitish-gray shrub in the family Amaranthaceae, native to deserts of the southwestern United States.^{[1]: 141 [2]: 271} It is the most drought tolerant saltbush in North America.^[2] It can tolerate the hottest and driest sites in Death Valley, and remains active most of the year.^[2]

The common name refers to the leaves that are shaped similar to holly, but the plants are not related.^[1]: 141 The toothed leaves and the small reddish^{[citation needed]} fruits borne on the plant give it a passing resemblance to the unrelated European holly. from wikipedia

Red twig dogwood. Native to Arizona. The stems are closer to burgundy than red.

 

There are a lot of mountain bikers here, going over terrain that we can't believe they can traverse. At the trailhead was a bicycle pump, a couple of wrenches and a basket of bells. We walked about 3 miles, nearly 5km, and it was a very pleasant hike with just enough up and down to make it interesting but nothing to leave us with wobbly legs.