Our adventure in Arizona continued the next day with a hike to Birthing Cave. It was a very short hike, about 2 miles through a slightly sandy route up to the rock formation. The first part of the hike was easy as it was all relatively flat. Other than some sand, it wasn’t a challenge, but more of a leisurely walk. The last section of the trail was where it became more difficult. 

As we approached the cave, we had to scramble our way up the rock formation to get inside. It was a short, steep climb that had easy foot placements, making it less challenging to negotiate. Once inside the cave, we saw that the walls were rounded on the inside part that formed the cave. From the inside looking out, the shape of the cave formed a somewhat circular opening, making it look like a birthing canal, hence the name birthing cave.

There was also a small indent on the side of the wall inside this cave that was about 10 feet up from the bottom of the cave. We both scrambled our way to this little opening, but it was not as easy as it looked.

(It was not as dangerous as it might seem.)

This was the most challenging section of the trail. The wall of the cave that we had to climb to get into the little hole was at about 60-70 degrees, making the climb almost straight up. There was a slight angle to it that we thought would make it easier to climb up, but the difficult part of this climb was that the rocks were incredibly smooth. This made it nearly impossible to climb up since there were little to no hand or foot holds to latch on to.

We were determined to get to the hole, though. I climbed it first, making Ryan laugh at how awkward and challenging I made it look. From the bottom, it appeared to be an easy climb. He didn’t understand my struggles until it was his turn to attempt it. 

Once we got to the hole, we had to climb into it, which was even more challenging than the climb to it. It was hard for me because the hole was located around my waist height and there were no foot placements to step up to help lift me up. And we couldn’t jump into the hole because if we didn’t get the jump right the first time, we would have slid down the entire 10 feet to the bottom of the cave. 

I had to use all of my upper body strength to lift myself into the hole. Once inside, I was able to rest and just enjoy the view. 

As I sat in the hole, I had the pleasure of watching Ryan’s awkward struggle up the wall as he made his way to join me. He now learned how challenging it was to climb this wall.

Neither of us climbed it gracefully and it was great that no one was around to witness the awkwardness that we endured. It would have been an interesting sight for someone to have watched as we ineptly tried to maneuver ourselves up the wall and into the hole.

After reveling in the view, we decided to continue on our way. Now, it was time to climb back down to the bottom of the cave. Again, I went first. I clumsily made my way out of the hole using all upper body strength to safely lower myself down. Once my feet could touch, I attempted to gracefully make my way down the rock wall back to the floor of the cave.

Getting down was even harder than going up. After getting out of the hole, I was facing backwards with little room to turn around without slipping and sliding down the wall. So, I resulted in bear crawling across the rock wall to an area that had a better place to turn around. Once I was able to turn around, I was able to crab walk my way down the wall. Unfortunately, at this point someone showed up to witness my gracefulness. 

She was extremely kind, asking if there was any way for her to help me. I declined the offer as I knew I could do it without assistance if I took my time and didn’t care that I looked ridiculous. She had a cute little Chihuahua with her, named Buddha, who came to my rescue. He quickly and easily climbed the wall coming to my aid, showing me the best path down the rock. 

Then Ryan came down. He was just as awkward as I was with it, but he was able to descend the wall at a faster pace. We sat at the bottom of the cave for a bit before heading back to the truck. While we were taking selfies, Buddha came running over and jumped into the pictures with us. He is a very friendly and energetic dog. He was making us want a dog of our own.

Despite the challenge of the rock scrambling, we really enjoyed this hike. It was a short, easy trail so we didn’t think we would get a great workout from it, but the rock scrambling made for excellent exercise.  The day after, my lats were sore from the pullups I had to do to get into the hole.

As I previously mentioned this was one of our favorite hikes because of how different it was from all the rest. We aren’t used to rock climbing or scrambling, but we certainly enjoyed it. We were happy to find out that the hike we would encounter the following day would include even more rock scrambling.