The Devil's Bridge and Sedona, Arizona

     As tempting as it was to stay at the Grand Canyon for sunset, we had more to explore elsewhere and needed to continue our road warrior pace by heading back south to Sedona, Arizona.  We drove down the crazy switchbacks of highway 89A through Oak Creek Canyon, which turned out to be a very scenic drive.

Driving down Oak Creek Canyon

     We later stopped to stretch our legs at a trail under the highway bridge.  It was super windy and so we did not loiter for long but instead headed into town for some early dinner.  I had the best cream of celery soup!

Bridge on highway 89A and the town of Sedona

     There was just about enough time in the day to find a place to catch the sun go down.  I read about a good spot away from the hordes of tourists to see a view of Cathedral Rock.  We parked at the Airport Mesa trailhead, one of the many vortexes in Sedona, and headed along the trail on the east side of the plateau.  It didn't take us long to realize that this wasn't going to produce the desired scene, but I did manage to get a decent photo of the late afternoon sunshine on the red rocks.

Sedona at sunset

     After our early morning rise, we were pretty worn out but after cleaning up in our hotel room, we headed out to a bar to try the local specialty, margaritas made with prickly pear infused tequila.  It was terrible.

Prickly Pear Margarita

     When we return to the hotel it was raining very hard.  Unusual weather for the desert.  This thwarted any chance of a nice sunrise to photograph, but we were glad for the extra sleep.

     When I did a simple internet search for things to see in Sedona, I saw a photo of Devil's Bridge and knew right away that was one hike we should do.  But none of the tourist information I read said anything about it in their guide books, and my parents, who have visited Sedona many times, had never heard of it either.  I managed to find it on some of the maps though and it was located just outside of town.  

     There was a nice paved parking lot at the suggested trailhead, although those with 4x4 vehicles could drive the 1 mile dirt road to the actual trailhead.  We were ready to hike and had no issue parking our vehicle and walking from the parking lot.

Hiking up to the dirt road to the Devil's Bridge trailhead

     We were passed by a few high clearance vehicles but they were friendly enough.  Despite the less than ideal weather, there were quite a few people out hiking and we could tell it was a Saturday.  I took time along the road to check out some of the more common plants.  I recognized the cones of this shrub right away and later learned that is was called Arizona cypress (Cypressus arizonica).

Arizona cypress (Cypressus arizonica)

     I found it quite odd that a cypress tree would grow in the desert since I am most familiar with the bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), being from southern Illinois (which is the northern extent of the vast southern cypress swamps).  It turns out that the term cypress refers to many species in the Cypressaceae and that the cypress family is the most widely distributed group of conifers in the world.  This is not too surprising as it is quite a large family.  In fact, in the recent taxonomic changes, the bald cypress has been moved to its own family, the Taxodiaceae.  It's hard to keep up with all the botanical name changes, but it is important to continually advance the scientific understanding of relationships between species.  Learning all the new names can be difficult, since in most cases you really need to know the old names as well, and so I hope that the changes are really based on solid evidence and are not arbitrary or superficial.

    Susan tolerates my botanical wanderings and photography very well and will even listen to my corny jokes and interesting "gee whiz" facts.  Turns out that the Arizona cypress "cones remain closed for many years, only opening after the parent tree is killed in a wildfire, thereby allowing the seeds to colonize the bare ground exposed by fire" and is the only member of the Cypressaceae known from the desert southwest.

    Before long, we reached the trail register at the edge of the wilderness and the steep rock stairs that would lead us up the cliff to the top of the bridge.  

Entering the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness

Rock staircase up cliff

    There was another trail that led to the bottom of the arch, but we wanted to see the top.  Before getting there, we were rewarded with some outstanding views of the valley just outside the wilderness area.

Susan overlooking the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness

     The Devil's Bridge is located within the Red Rock Secret Mountain Wilderness Area which is part of the Coconino National Forest.  It is the longest spanning arch in the Sedona area.  We realized on the way there why the area was not listed in the guide books.  It was a about a two-mile hike, which is nothing to us seasoned hikers but since every trail or landmark in Sedona has relatively easy access, most people tended to stay on the short trails and driveable overlooks.  That being said, there were still a lot of people hiking the trail that day.  It was like I said, a Saturday morning after all.  

     We knew we had to get a photo standing on the top of the arch and we did.  Even though there were lots of people in the area, people were respectful in letting everyone take their turn getting photographed on the top.  I offered to take the photograph of a couple trying to do it themselves, and they obliged in return.  I had my tripod with, but it would have taken quick footing to press the button and get out to the arch within 10 seconds!  As I mentioned in a previous post, asking random folks to take photos rarely yields a great photograph.  The person we asked zoomed in on us, not getting the background for most of the photos, but the first one was at normal zoom and turned out pretty well.

Susan and I on the Devil's Bridge

     I even did what no one else did or could watch.  I went out to the arch and sat on the edge.  It sure made for a sweet photo!

Me sitting on the edge of the arch

     I find it interesting that so many beautiful and natural wonders on this planet are named after the devil. Devil's staircase, devil's backbone, devil's smokestack are a few that come to mind.  They are always really cool features too and so I do not get the association with the devil, unless you think the devil is a cool dude. Religious folk certainly do not and if you are not religious, then you probably don't believe in the devil anyway.  

     But I digress, where were we?  Talking about plants no doubt.  We observed a very neat looking shrub all over the cliffs and in the chaparral zone, called Manzanita (Arctostaphlos sp.).  I found it interesting because again it is something like what we have in Illinois.  In the sand dunes along Lake Michigan, there is an Arctostaphylos species that is rare in the state, called bearberry (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi). However, the Illinois bearberry is an Artic and Subartic species, circumpolar in its distribution, whereas most of the other species are Mediterranean in origin.

Manzanita (Arctostaphylos sp.)

     Up on the red sandstone rocks, this shrub was everywhere and it was quite beautiful in its growth form and texture.  We took plenty of artistic photos and managed our way down the cliff.  On the way back, we took a different trail back, which is also a mountain bike trail, instead of the dirt road.  It made me wish we had our bikes and in one spot we watched an old dude totally crank it hard up a series of rock steps that would challenge any rider.  I said "nice job!" to which he quickly replied, "thanks!"  We stopped for some more choice photos.

Susan and red rock country

     I noticed the dead leaves of several Agave plants, a perennial monocot that is monocarpic, meaning it lives several years to maturity, then sets seeds and dies.  I found an Agave leaf that looked neat and held it up to my face, pretending it was my Agave goatee!

My Agave goatee

     Though there were many places we wanted to see in Sedona, we didn't have enough time.  But we promised my Dad we would take photos with the cowboy hats he loaned us and since we didn't want to carry them on our hike we had to make another stop.  We decided to drive up to an overlook at the end of Airport Road.

With silly cowboy hats on at Airport Road overlook

     From here, we had one more stop before heading back to Scottsdale and returning the rental car to Hertz (which is a terrible name by the way, because every time I rent from them it hurts!).  We wanted to see an example of cliff dwellings left by indigenous people.  That will be the subject of my next blog post!  Stay tuned for more and follow this blog by adding your email address to the box in the upper right corner.