Arizona - Sedona, Fay Canyon

 The maps of the Sedona trails give length and elevation but not "difficulty" so I googled "Sedona's easiest trails" and "Senior hiking in Sedona". Numerous blogs and lists and Fay Canyon was listed on most of them so we decided that would be our next hike.

It was the Sunday of a long weekend (Presidents Day) and we expected it to be quite busy and it was, but we got a parking spot even though the roads in were lined with parked cars.

 

Had to take a picture of the National Park making sure we weren't going to run out of toilet paper!

Well my google research was absolutely correct. We walked across the road and on to a sandy path that followed

the bottom of a canyon.

In places it was quite narrow

and my pictures here were not of long views but

of looking up at the sides of the canyon.

as we were following a water course (all be it a dry one) the foliage was happier looking. Berries on the Dogwood.

I thought it looked like a wine glass.

It was the perfect temperature for walking and mostly sunny.

I am always amazed at trees growing out of solid rock.

I had read on one of the sites that the trail ends

but if you want a good view scramble up the rocks there. At one point I crawled and coming back had to slide down on my bottom but

we did the clamber and ate some trail mix

while looking at the view.

The walk back was just as comfortable and relaxing and we ate our lunch just before the end.

Tree with alligator skin bark.

Googled "tree with bark like alligator skin" and this is what I got:

 Juniperus deppeana, alligator juniper, is a medium-sized evergreen tree with blue-green foliage and striking bark that resembles alligator scales. It is sometimes multistemmed and grows at a fast rate. It is highly adaptable and tolerant of dry, sunny, hot locations. from arboretum.ucdavis.edu

Easy walk of about an hour and a half. Very pleasant.

In the evening a walk around town

 

old trucks,

Craftsman style

cottages and

Smelter Town Craft Brewery.

Rick had "Modern Miner: milkshake IPA" and I had a Cab Franc. The Not Your Routine Poutine food truck in front of the patio wasn't open.

In his happy place - beer and sunshine.

Orion and Horsehead nebulae.