Devil's Bridge - Sedona, AZ

This is a very short, but worth while hike in Sedona.  We found it on a list of the top 10 hikes in Sedona (http://www.greatsedonahikes.com/favorites.html).  More recently, we have completed another top 10 hike:  Bear Mountain. 
The actual hike is only about 2 miles round trip, but the road to get to the hike is actually very uneven and a high clearance vehicle is recommended.  Phil and I decided to take my Murano (not AWD) on the road and we made it, but it wasn't pretty and took a very long time.  We enviously watched as the Jeeps hauled down the road at 3x the speed we could go.  We kept thinking that we weren't going to make it to the trail head, most likely because of the slow pace, but we persisted and got to the obvious trail head on the right.

The trail is easy to follow until you get to the part where you can go up on top of the natural arch, also called the bridge, or you can go underneath it.  The route up to the top of the bridge passes a nice overlook of a large Sedona mountain and was a great place to stop for pictures.  Also, the route going to the top involves some mild bouldering.  Since the hike was so short, we actually got pictures on top and underneath the Devil's Bridge.  Karen refused to go all the way out to the middle of the natural arch since she was worried it would crumble beneath her, but Phil celebrated right in the middle of the bridge.

The drive back to the main road was pretty much just as slow as the drive to the trail head, but again, the Murano made it.  Since our hike was so short, we attempted to do another hike right after, but the sun was setting too fast and we were on the darker side of a mountain.  Neither of us can remember the name of this hike we attempted, but I don't think we will ever forget turning back early, running in the dirt, and being completely exhausted to avoid total darkness in the desert without headlamps.

Devil's Bridge is a must see in Sedona, but a high clearance vehicle would definitely save you a lot of time driving to the trail head.  The website we used gave pretty much good directions so you would be ok to follow it.

View of the top of Devil's Bridge

That's as far as she would go towards the middle.

View from Below the Natural Arch

Cedar Ridge - Grand Canyon, AZ

This was our first trip to the Grand Canyon and we wanted to make the most of seeing as much as we could, and of course, we had to fit in a hike.  We started out our exploration of the Grand Canyon at the visitor center.  The vistitor center was very impressive.  Great color maps of all the hikes and a wonderful shuttle system that took you to the start of all the trails.  The maps even had a picture guide to tell you how much water and food you should pack, Karen got a huge kick out of that.  We started out by taking a shuttle to a scenic overlook to get a few photos and actually got some great shots of us and the canyon.  See below.  The amazing thing about the Grand Canyon is that it is impossible to take a picture to include the vastness that you are seeing.  You can only get a snippet of the actualy scenery, it is that massive.

Unfortunetly, the Grand Canyon is VERY hot in August.  We weren't quite prepared for how hot it got in the actual canyon and we set out to do Cedar Ridge about midday.  We didn't have enough water and the rationing started on the hike down.  The actual hiking was strenous, especially coupled with the strong heat and lack of shade on our route.  The Cedar Ridge trail continues all the way to the bottom of the canyon and you can camp out the night and hike back up, but we only went down partially.  There are warnings EVERYWHERE that hiking to the bottom and back up to the top in the same day is deadly.  There was even a story of super-athletes that died in the canyon trying to do just that.  We have been much better about bringing enough water ever since that hike.

The Cedar Ridge hike is considered a good hike for starting late and hiking in the day.  It is only about 1000 ft of descension and then climbing back up.  It's only about 3 miles total, but it was a hot 3 miles and we were rationing ice cubes by the end and kicking ourselves for getting such a late start.  Also, the hiking guide recommended two sandwhiches (we had none) and double the water we brought.  It was a good hike though when it was all done and we finished in time to watch the sunset over the Grand Canyon.  We would definitely love to go back and take advantage of all the offerings.  Maybe some day soon.

Firetower - Allegany, NY

The Mt. Tuscarora Firetower trail is perhaps the most famous in Allegany State Park.  Growing up, it was a hike I did several times with many close friends and family members.  When I started bringing Karen to Allegany, I was not a very good "hiking host".  I would hardly take her on any hikes because, well, I was lazy.  I finally promised to do it in 2010.

The Firetower trail is not a loop and its elevation profile is not symmetrical.  Growing up, we always hiked the longer, more gradual side first, choosing to descend on the steeper side.  However, I am easily annoyed by gradual uphill hikes;  if I have to go up, might as well get it over with quickly.  I convinced everyone to attack it from the steep side first.

The day was very hot and humid, probably over 85 degrees.  The uphill was hard but not crazy, and even though we were all dripping in the heat, we dispatched it rather quickly.  It was over a year ago, but if I had to guess, I'd say the difficult uphill lasted no longer than 1.5 miles.  Shortly after that, we came upon the firetower itself.  Maybe I had built up the hike (and the tower) a bit too much to Karen, because she was very underwhelmed by the tower itself.  It's an old, simple steel structure that's not much to look at.  These days, it's not so much about seeing the tower itself, but of doing a hike that is so intrinsic to the Allegany experience.

1-2 miles after leaving the tower, my Uncle Mark discovered he had left his camera back at the tower.  He and I jogged back to get it, but in moving the other direction on the trail, accidentally took a smaller tributary to the main trail, lengthening our backtrack.  We finally found his camera and jogged back to catch up with everyone else.

The trail is supposed to end where the Brow cabin trail begins, but somehow our entire group of 10 people got off track and ended up emerging from the woods behind the tennis courts at the back of the Quaker athletic field.  Being Allegany veterans, we all could have found our way back to our cabins blind from this point, but it was more disconcerting that we had gotten off trail on such a well marked path.  Oh well.

Firetower is not challenging or exciting, but it is so purely Allegany that I would rank it alongside Bear Caves as THE quintessential Allegany hike, one that could be done year after year. 

The group at the start of the hike
(Karen took the picture so she's not in it)

Us at the end of the strenuous uphill

The group at the firetower

The Firetower