Hiking on an 8-Mile Trail in Sedona, Arizona
Phoenix is brutal in the summer! The average temperature is 110 degrees, but on some days it goes up to 120 degrees Fahrenheit!
To help stay cool, my family and I decided to go on an 8-mile hike in Sedona. Sedona is 4350 feet above sea level and about two hours from Phoenix. As we went up in altitude, the temperature began to go down. When we reached our hiking spot it was 95 degrees.
There are lots of interesting trails in Sedona. We chose an easier route that went over 11 streams.
The trail was interesting from the start. I thought that we were going to stay on a paved trail for a while but it only lasted a half mile. After that, we walked on red sand. I had secretly wished I was wearing hiking boots but instead I wore my Hoka One One Clifton 5 sneaker. The last time I took a hike in Italy, I was wearing my Bondi 4’s. Not sure if they were the right shoes but they were all I had with me on the trip, so I wore them.
The trail was relatively easy until we got to several spots where I thought, “really? This is the easy trail???”
As we were going across creeks, we had to walk on rocks or walk on a log in the water. This was extremely difficult and I fell at least two times — once at mile 1 and another time at mile 6. I may have fallen at another place but I was too tired to count! It was rough. My feet were soaked and my Hoka One One shoes were a mess! They had no grip!
But I kept going and didn’t complain. I knew I needed to get the 8-miles in and wanted to finish. I was on a mission. (I was in training for a half marathon.)
“Look up and look at this!,” my husband said to my son, Derek and me. We did. It was magnificent. I couldn’t believe how great I felt, even in the heat. My breathing was amazing. There really is something to be said about dry heat for asthma!
We kept on going. We walked up. We walked down. Finally, we got to a huge rock. “Just step sideways across,” my son said to me. I tried and lost my grip and went sliding down the rock. Boy, did that hurt! My hip and my hand were all bruised up.
When we were close to four miles, I asked some other hikers if we were near the end. “No, it’s at least another 30 to 40 minutes,” one told us.
The map said the whole thing was 2.5 miles each way. I couldn’t get over that it was so much more. I asked the other hikers that we met, “is your GPS reading more mileage than what we are doing?” They said yes.
At four miles, we turned around. We went past a rock formation, burned trees and a big crater. We kept going. We were all tired and hot at this point. We had three miles left.
When we finally reached the end, I noticed that my GPS said 7.5 miles. I decided to walk around the parking lot for .5 to make up and do a total of 8 miles.
The day was amazing and I thought, “even though it was hot out, it’s great to be with the ones you love.”
