One of our favorites is Faye Canyon. You may recognize the area as we've hiked here a couple times before. And I'm pretty sure we'll hike here again.
The dogs didn't get to do much yesterday so they were really ready for a nice long hike today. Boogie was especially energetic and was ready to attack anyone who would play with him.
The only one that would oblige was Wazzu. Boogie plays like this all the time but I've never been able to capture it before. Take a look at those pretty teeth!
Today the sky was a very nice blue and it seemed much more clear than on previous trips here. I think because the sky was so blue, it really made the rocks look even more red.
Boogie was such a great boy on this hike. He stayed right on the trail and never let me get out of sight. What a good little boy to wait for me.
I sure hope he stays this well behaved as it's so much easier to hike with him off leash. He seems really smart about it so far. He's also really good to make sure he sticks close to one of the girls when he's running around. Good thing - otherwise he'd have to stay on leash. Here he is learning the ropes from Sparkie.
I think it is a universal thing when hiking to mark a trail direction with a pile of rocks but it seems to be much more prevalent here in Sedona. The pile of rocks helps you see a trail or reminds you which way to go when you return. Some are just one tall pillar of rocks but most are pretty artistic. Here is an example:
I don't know if it is true or not but it sure seems like the dogs have come to recognize that a pile of rocks designates a trail. I wouldn't doubt it. Slugger has learned the signs that designate a cattle guard. He is petrified of cattle guards as they make the car bump and shake. As soon as he sees the signs now, his eyes get really big, he starts shaking and he ducks. Poor guy.
Back to the hike. Mike and I were both busy taking in the beautiful scenery while the dogs were busy doing whatever it is they do!
I can't imagine they were seeing anything that was nearly as nice as what we were looking at.
It's really hard to share the beauty with you as you only get to see one tiny section at a time. When in reality, there were spectacular views in all 360 degrees around us.
We got to the end of the main trail where most people turn around. The other option is to climb up a very steep rock area up to an extremely small ledge where you can see way off in the distance. We decided not to do the complete climb for a number of reasons. But I did want to go up just a little ways to see if the view of the distance was any less hazy than the last couple times we've been here.
While I slowly made my way up, Sparkie made it all the way to the top, looked around and was already coming back down - all very effortlessly I must say.
Boogie had no fear at all. While he couldn't keep up with Sparkie it didn't stop him from scampering up and down the mountain at all. I think while I was carefully navigating my way, Boogie probably made ten trips up and down between me and Mike - who was waiting at the bottom.
I stopped climbing as soon as I had just the slightest view. While not perfectly clear, it was much less hazy today than on previous trips.
Normally this is where everyone, including us, turns around. But the dogs really seem to love rock climbing - especially the boys. So Mike decided to climb a little ways up so that Slugger could do a little bit of climbing. Slugger was so excited that he quickly took off up the steep incline. At one point there was a very tall rock that was straight up. He certainly couldn't climb it so he decided to jump up to the top. He got his front feet up but didn't make it with the back feet. So he's hanging by his front feet trying with all his might to pull himself up. I've never seen shoulder muscles so huge! Mike was extremely worried that Slugger was going to fall down onto his back. So he tried to hurry up so he could get up there to help Slugger - but by the time he got there, Slugger had somehow managed to pull himself up. We'd never seen a dog do a pull-up like that.
Even after another little climbing session the dogs still wanted to do more. So we decided to go up a rock river that we saw off to the right. It wasn't as steep as the climb up the large rock wall but still looked like some fun climbing.
I was going to wait at the bottom while Mike took the dogs on a short climb. Wazzu went part way with them but didn't like it one bit that I was left behind so she came back to see where I was. Look at the beautiful view behind her.
After a little while, they all came back to get me. You can see from how Mike is hiking that it is still fairly steep.
They came back to tell me they had found another trail and that I should come along. So off we went to see where this new trail would take us. The dogs were very silly and were quite entertaining on this part of the trail. I don't know what got into them but they were all being very funny.
Everyone then took off up the trail. Boogie was so sweet and waited for me. I could just see him thinking - come on Mom, I'm waiting for you. It's really very comforting to have both Wazzu and Boogie wait for me on all our hikes.
We were very pleasantly surprised to find a whole other canyon that we hadn't been able to see from the other trail.
There were some very interesting formations on the side of one tall rock wall. But from every vantage point there were trees in the way. I finally had to climb down the side of the hill to find a place where I could get at least a partially unobstructed picture of it.
The rocks were particularly red in here and they were huge! It was like finding a hidden treasure. The farther we went the more beautiful it became.
We would have kept going and going but the trail ended at a very steep ledge. Mike and the dogs tried to go on a ways but very quickly it became clear that only Sparkie had any chance of continuing on.
We didn't meet one person on the entire hike. It's just amazing that on such a nice day in mid 70's, on such a gorgeous and fairly easy trail, that we were the only ones there. I'm not complaining - I'm raving!! This was perfect. We took our time the entire way and just enjoyed the scenery and enjoyed watching the dogs have such a great time. They all love rock climbing so it was fun to see them show off their climbing skills.
Another perfect day.
Debbie
11/28/07
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