Arizona has always been a place that I wanted to visit. I love being in the sun; the hotter the day, the happier I am. Everyone has told me that I would love Arizona for this reason. So, I was excited to finally see what they were talking about. 

Being in Arizona in the fall was the perfect time to visit. The sun was hot making it feel like summer, but the shade was cool providing a nice fall temperature, giving us a break from the heat. We were excited to dig our shorts and short-sleeved shirts out of storage. 

Even Sammie was excited about the sun. She takes after her mommy; she loves being in the sun as much as I do. She will sunbathe all day to the point where we have to remove her from the sun to give her a break. She doesn’t seem to know when she has had enough.

While at the RV resort, we took the kitties outside so that they could also enjoy the warmth. They seemed to enjoy the sun and the warm breeze. Leah enjoyed walking around outside our campsite and exploring the grounds, while Sammie was more content with laying on my lap, looking around. Both were intrigued by all the new and unfamiliar smells in the air.

We drove to Flagstaff on our first full day, taking the interesting scenic drive through the touristy town of Sedona. We made a pit stop at a scenic overlook where we were able to walk around and appreciate the view. 

On our way back, we watched the sun cast its orange glow as it set.

The following day, we went on our first hike in Sedona, taking the Chuck Wagon Trail to Devil’s Bridge. It was about a 6-mile hike out and back with the main attraction, Devil’s Bridge, being very crowded.

At the top of the trail where everyone gathered, there was a natural rock formation shaped like an arch that formed a bridge. Hikers and sightseers were lined up on the side of the bridge taking turns for a chance to walk across the bridge to get their pictures taken. 

We decided it wasn’t worth our time to wait in line to take our picture, plus Ryan is scared of heights so he probably wouldn’t have wanted to go onto the bridge.

As for me, I would have been fine going out on to the bridge as heights don’t scare me, but there were several younger people running across the bridge as if it were a fun game and I didn’t trust them. They made me nervous just watching them run across at full speed, especially since some of them didn’t even have shoes on. All it could take is for one of them to step on a sharp rock and react to the discomfort, resulting in an accidental fall. Plus, the rocks were covered in sand so it would be easy to slip.

On our way up to the bridge, a young girl was running and slipped on the sand, resulting in a fall. Lucky for her she wasn’t even close to the edge of the rocks so it wasn’t a big deal, but any of those people running across the bridge could have had something similar happen to them and it might not have been as forgiving.  

There was also a gap in between 2 of the rocks that people were jumping over. Again, I was nervous watching them. I was afraid of something happening to them and not being able to do anything to help. We ended up not staying at the bridge for very long. Partly because of the nervousness we were feeling watching them, but also because we just didn’t like how many people we were surrounded by. We tried very hard to keep our distance, but there was only so much space so we felt it was best to remove ourselves from the crowd.

Overall, we enjoyed the hike, but we would have preferred a less populated summit.

Fortunately, on the trail itself, we saw very few people, which was nice. We always prefer to hike in quieter locations as it feels more relaxing. The majority of the trail was in the sun, so we were soaked with sweat after the first hour or so. We should have worn our shorts, but we weren’t sure what to expect. 

On our way back from the bridge, we ran into a Javelina, which looked like a wild pig. It was not very quiet as it rustled its way through the bushes and it did not make a very fast getaway. It was interesting to see it. We were wondering what animal was making noises in the bushes that we had just walked past but were completely shocked when it revealed itself. A pig was the last animal we had expected.

We enjoyed the views of the red rock formations that surrounded us along the whole trail. Every direction we turned we had an amazing view of these remarkable structures. It was the most incredible landscape we had ever seen. You could easily see the variety of colors from the multiple horizontal layers of the different sandstone that create these formations. It is such a unique scenery that we absolutely loved and were so blessed to have had the chance to experience.

We are glad that we chose to stay here for a whole week to explore more of this area.