Saturday
Saturday morning was a very lazy and slow morning. It felt really really good to just hang around camp, read, make a few batches of coffee, slowly organize & clean up. Kayla went for a morning walk & I made some breakfast tacos. Super nice morning.
Eventually we felt motivated enough to start researching hiking trails in the area. AllTrails is such an amazing resource for finding & navigating the hiking trail options. There’s usually 2 that we pick, and then ultimately select one on of those to do.
We chose to hike the Black Mesa & Dutchman Loop in the Superstition Mountains about 15 minutes away from our campsite. It’s a nice 9 mile hike with 1,000’ of elevation gain spread out pretty casually. Took us most of the day, going at a slower pace with my photo taking & snacking… really beautiful area! It was overcast & off & on sprinkling rain, but it made for some great photos with a much more interesting sky.
We made it back to camp & relaxed for a bit. I was up in the Jeep camper reading when the walls of the tent went deep red.. it was so weird, but the sunset was creating this INSANE red light on everything. The mountains exploded in red, the clouds were blowing up with color. Really an incredible sight. Sunsets are my favorite part of the day…
Once the sun went down, we started a fire & made dinner. We’ve been using the Jeep kitchen to cook, it’s nice that it’s outside, and everything is super handy. But! It started raining in the middle of cooking up our “breakfast for dinner tacos” (yes we did have breakfast tacos for breakfast too). We moved the stove & my cooking set up into Kayla’s ProMaster & finished up cooking dinner in the van. It was suuuper tasty. After dinner I made s’mores over the camp stove in the van, NAILED the marshmellos.
When we were finishing dinner it really started to storm, the van was shaking like crazy & rain started to pour down.
Sunday
Sunday started with another lazy morning, sleeping in & hanging out around camp for a while. I made a PB&J + granola and chocolate wrap for breakfast, which was honestly super good. Heated it up on the stove, next time I’m going to put banana on it! We made a few batches of coffee, I tidied up the Jeep & we had a nice casual camp morning.
We decided to drive back to Sedona Sunday afternoon, which meant we only had time for a quick hike. Chose to do a variation of the Prospectors View & Treasure Loop. Probably hiked around 4 miles up to the superstitions and back down. It was a really nice, sunny day compared to Saturday’s hike. Loooots of people on that trail, really popular spot for family hikes I think.
After the hike we went our own ways to meet in Sedona. I had some (real) work to catch up on, so I went directly to the campsite & worked for a few hours in the Jeep. I’ve said it before, but it is SO NICE having a spot to work & hang out inside when it’s cold out. Edited videos for work & sent a few emails. Kayla got there when it got dark, and we made bacon popcorn for dinner 😂 Sooooo good. Popped the popcorn in the bacon grease. We ate it around a fire & then headed to bed.
Monday
Monday morning I got up early & went to Creekside to get started on work. We have a report to wrap up by Tuesday, and I had a lot of video editing & slide design stuff to work out. I ended up working all day Monday, splitting my time between Creekside Coffee & the library. I’ve been popping the top in the library parking lot and tapping into their wifi. It’s a sweet set up!
Monday was the first day in 5 weeks that I didn’t pick up my camera & take a single photo… pretty wild!
I did finally order a Sony 200-600mm F/5.6/6 that will be arriving on Saturday in Flagstaff… SO EXCITED!!! Will be diving into wildlife photography with it.. keep an eye out!
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground in Sedona. There wasn’t much snow where we were camping, but the drive into town was one of the most beautiful drives/commutes I’ve ever had… the snow on the red rock was incredible. I was hurrying to get to work (super busy work week this week), but HAD to stop & take some photos. Really happy I did, I’m really proud of how they came out! I think I might look into printing this one out properly… I am having some issues with keeping my sensor clean (as you can see in one of the photos below). I have a small blower & a lens cloth to clean the sensor, but it really isn’t the right set up. I ordered a rocket blower & some proper sensor cleaning wipes.
After work on Tuesday I set off for a quick hike. I really enjoyed the hike near the river starting from Cathedral Rock & going up towards Red Rock Crossing, so I did a similar hike. Just kept going & took a few extra detours to stay near the water. I didn’t find an amazing spot for sunset, so I hiked back during sunset & snapped photos on the way. It was really cloudy, and the sun created this insane red light on both the clouds & the mountains. So surreal…
On the hike back I got a text from my work about some last minute stuff to take care of by the morning, so I went to Whole Foods to do some quick shopping & edit a PDF & re-upload.
For dinner on Tuesday I made myself some bacon, onion, avocado & yam tacos! So tasty…
Wednesday
Wednesday was a little more relaxed of a work day, but I did have to stay a bit late to wrap up a few notes. Spent the day split between the usual spots, Creekside, the library, Whole Foods, Chocolatree, etc. I did a quick spray down of the Jeep, too!
After work I went on a short hike up Fay Canyon while Kayla finished her work. It’s a quick but really pretty & fun hike, maybe 4 miles total. Sunset was great, it got a bit scrambly at the top, which I always enjoy! Crawled up into a little cave thing up above the “end of the trail” to get some shots as the sun was setting. It made this really warm, purple pastel colored sunset over Courthouse Butte. Absolutely beautiful to sit up there & watch the colors & shadows change.
After the hike I went back to camp & made some “nachos,” AKA some fried onion, yam, avocado & cheese to put on top of chips. Honestly, was so tasty!
Thursday
Thursday we went climbing after work!! It was Kayla’s first time belaying, and lead belaying, and generally climbing… so we took it really slow & easy on a 5.7 route called Magic Staircase in the Stupa Crag in the Chimney Rock Area.
The approach was easy, and the crag is about 7 minutes from the Library. It was the perfect spot to do some easy climbing & show Kayla the ropes! We went over the gear, basics of lead belaying & lowering, and figure 8 follow throughs. Magic Staircase is a sport route, so no need to haul up the trad racks or anything.
Felt really good to rack back up & be back on the wall, shaking the rust off. Definitely felt rusty, and it took a few minutes to start trusting my feet & feel good about it. I also always love the technical parts of climbing, building anchors, safely cleaning anchors & rappelling, etc. So much fun.
It was also a ton of fun to teach Kayla the basics! We’re going to climb a lot more I think :)
Friday
Friday after work I went to shower at the rec center, and we met up with Kayla’s friend from Batavia, Miyoung & her boyfriend Billy. We packed a few ciders + snacks, and headed to the creek that runs by Cathedral Rock for sunset. Hung out next to the creek while the sun set, super pretty!
It’s always fun to meet up with friends who are traveling through a similar area! They stayed in our campsite for the night, taking the van while Kayla & I slept in the Jeep pop top. We stayed up pretty late sharing some ciders & whiskey sours around the campfire. Even managed to get some magic in towards the end of the night ☺️
