Arizona - Bell Rock Trail

 Having spent a day settling in, doing my Thailand laundry at the laundromat and gently walking around town (which doesn't take long) it was time to drive to Sedona, to hike.

We drove the half an hour through changing scenery until we reached the Red Rock Ranger and Visitor Centre. This is the view from there. Inside we talked to a ranger who provided us with maps, recommendations and sold us a National Parks Pass (thus parking is already paid for at the trail heads and we plan on visiting a few National Parks too)

 

From there we drove through Oak Creek and pulled into the trail head parking lot at Bell Rock. I took a picture of the map there though once we started out we found it did not show all the trails as we took one that looped Bell Rock and passed between it and Courthouse Butte.

I had known what to expect, having been here with the family 2 years ago but was pleased that Rick also loved the scenery.

Where we are staying, in Clarkdale, is mostly brown grass and scrubby foliage with the valley surrounded by soft brownish mountains. Here it is much greener which sets off the red rocks against the blue sky.

Photo by Rick

We opted to go counter clockwise around the loop as I thought that would put the most challenging part of the hike at the beginning. Most people were hiking the main trail along one side of Bell Rock and we only saw a few other hikers on the loop we chose. There were times I had to stop in the shade to catch my breathe and Rick looked it up and found we were about 4,500ft above sea level. This isn't considered a high altitude but a quick google search indicated that those sensitive can actually get Altitude Sickness at this height.

We had bought sandwiches and water with us and found a convenient log in the shade to have our picnic.

In total we did about 6km. Some up and down, some loose stones but mostly pretty flat and easy walking. We started the hike at about 10 and took about two hours to complete it (with stops for pictures, catching breathe and picnic). Most other hikers were young people or families, few grey hairs. We were glad we had started relatively early as it was getting quite warm as we finished.