Hiking In Red Rock Country

Saturday, Carolyn, Sara and I went hiking in Sedona, AZ. Though close to Prescott (65 miles), the geography is vastly different. It is known as Red Rock Country because of the incredible limestone and sandstone formations there stained red by iron oxide.
Arizona was once a shallow sea on the edge of Pangea near the equator. Over the millenia rising and receding seas deposited residue which created the land now found in Sedona. Over millions of years, erosion formed beautiful red spires. As it continues, eons hence, Sedona will become part of the Grand Canyon.

There are hundreds of miles of trails in the area. We began by going up Schnebly Hill Road, a very rough unpaved road that climbs above Sedona and affords wonderful views. (Mr. Schnebly was one of the early settlers in the area. His wife's name was Sedona.)

Carolyn and Sara checking out the vistas before we begin.


The day began with overcast skies and cool temperatures.


The vegetation in this high desert climate is amazing. This exposed Juniper has survived under difficult conditions.

Native Americans stripped bark off the Junipers, soaked it in warm water and molded it to make diapers to line the cradles for their babies.

Life works with what it has.

We chose the Huckaby Trail for our hike. The trailhead begins at the lower level of Schnebly Hill. It is a moderate trail 2.9 miles long undulating through the Coconino National Forest, across Bear Wallow Canyon, overlooking Sedona, and down to Oak Creek. It's up and down but changes only 260 feet in elevation.

The trail passes dry creek beds at various points. Dry most of the year, these creeks will get alot of water during the spring melt off of snows on the mountains in Flagstaff just 30 miles north.


The trail affords beautiful views of Red Rock formations. Blue skies broke out and the sun warmed the air.

Carolyn peels off a layer as she sets a quick pace.


It must have been the heat ...

Swordplay breaks out on the trail before Carolyn restores order.



The scenery changes quickly on the Huckaby Trail. You can be in the open one minute, then the forest, next a canyon, and eventually on a cliff face overlooking a creek below.


Near the end, the Huckaby Trail descends into Oak Creek Canyon. Oak Creek can be seen behind Sara. Midgely Bridge is just upstream.


As the trail winds down to Oak Creek, you pass some interesting rock formations formed by water erosion.



Along Oak Creek, the vegetation is protected by the canyon walls. Many of the trees retain their fall colors even to the end of November.

In the fore and backgrounds, small black boulders can be seen. These black rocks are not native to the Sedona area. They have been carried more than 30 miles from the mountain tops in Flagstaff by torrential waters in spring melt offs.


We stopped by creekside for rest and some lunch before heading back for the 2.5 mile hike to the trailhead where we started.

It was a great day. We look forward to many others in Red Rock Country.

Sara Passes The Bar

After more than three months of nervous anticipation, great news arrived on Sunday. Sara received word that she had passed the California Bar Exam!!

(She's seen here celebrating with Mary and Slick.)

After her graduating from Washington University Law School in May, Sara headed out to Arizona where she barracaded herself in our house in Prescott (before we moved in ourselves) and began preparing for the California bar. Rather than take a bar exam prep class, she chose to do it on her own. (Those who know her best were not surprised.) She developed an aggressive schedule of 12 - 14 hours of study per day and for the next two and a half months lived a monastic life and studied California and Federal law night and day. (Well, except for the daily visits to Starbucks .)

Surprisingly, particularly to those of us not a part of the legal profession, law school does not prepare you for the bar exam. That you have to do after law school. (Interesting system, huh?)

In August, Sara went to Oakland, CA to take the exam, a mind (and butt) numbing three day experience. Along with nearly a thousand other people, she sat for the test. Security for it was something that Homeland Security and the Arizona Border Patrol can only dream about.

At the end of the first day, Sara was certain that she was going to fail. The exam covered topics she had time to study only cursorily while other topics she had poured over were virtually ignored. Though the exam went on for hours, there was not always enough time to complete the tasks presented.

She didn't know anyone else in the room submitting to the rigors with her but she did make the acquaintance of an attorney licensed in two other states who was taking the California exam to expand his practice. He told her the California bar was the hardest he had ever taken. That, along with her experience over the final two days and the knowledge that approximately 50% of all who take the bar in California fail it, convinced Sara that she wasn't going to succeed.

Sara tried to prepare for bad news. She told us not to get our hopes up. Carolyn and I, however, were optimistic. We have a lot of faith in Sara. When we moved to Arizona, we got to see the final weeks of her studies. We saw how hard she was working and the commitment she was making to accomplish yet another tough assignment.

So, it was joyous news when Sara got the word last Sunday that she passed. She might have been surprised but we were not. (She's such a drama queen!)

Way to go, Sara. We are very proud of you. All of your years of hard work have paid off.

Ben Update - November 2005

Ben is enjoying his first football season. It turns out that he is a great Bears fan. (Amazingly, so is his daddy!)

This Bears-Ben connections seems to be working. The Bears are in 1st place and Ben's a league leader too.



He is beginning to walk. Give him a push toy, wind him up, and he motors across the room.

He does better with his Urlacher jersey on.



Ben can do a lot of things now that he couldn't just a month ago. That's something to clap about.




Ben is enjoying a post game drink, celebrating another victorious day. (He has a lot of those.)


Ben is a very happy boy.

He's a joy to his mom, dad, and grandmas and grandpas.

Hiking In the Granite Mountain Wilderness

On Sunday, Carolyn and I hiked into the Granite Mountain Wilderness Area, a 9700 acre preserve in the Prescott National Forest. It was a beautiful November day with temperatures in the mid 60's. The wind was cool and the sun was strong, a typical Fall day for Northern Arizona.


Trail 261 begins near Granite Basin Lake. It starts as a flat winding path through ponderosa pines and alligator juniper before it begins to climb.


Along the way there are open spaces with brush, Manzanita bushes, cacti, and boulders. As you climb, the trail narrows and is rock strewn with granite and quartz.



Always on your right we could see the upper reaches of Granite Mountain towering nearly 1600 feet above us.



The 3.4 mile trail will take you to the top. A short rest every now and then is welcome.


Carolyn and I didn't start in time on Sunday to make it all the way to the top. It gets dark early in Arizona this time of year. You need to allow enough time to get back while it is still light.


We did get fairly close to the top and saw some beautiful views. Distant ridges 50 miles or more away can be seen.

We enjoyed a nice picnic lunch while sitting on a boulder as big as our garage at over 6500 feet before starting back down. We left the summit for another day.

At twilight, we came upon two deer in the woods. They wondered off keeping an eye on us as I fumbled for my camera. Look close, you can see one of them in the center of the picture just to the right of the skinny tree trunk.