Flagstaff – WEEK 3

(September 3^rd – September 9^th)

MONDAY – J. worked. Nothing.

TUESDAY – Sedona (Already described below.).

WEDNESDAY – J. worked. I took walked around Campbell Mesa trails.

Probably less then 2 miles from our place, there is trail system consisting of 5 trails. Small parking lot, relatively flat and nice surface of trails. I walked small loop (1.8 miles), after that I walked middle loop (2.8 miles). Nicely rolled plains with some trees. Not too many, but enough to make it quiet and lonely walk. Not many views on town or surroundings, but the landscape alone was pretty nice.

 I started to walk around 11 am, so the sun was pretty hot. I got sunburned (not trees to create shade). It was still pleasant. Me walking and taking pictures:

THURSDAY – J. worked. Elden Lookout trail.

Flagstaff’s elevation is about 6900 feet. Mt. Elden (with radio towers) is higher. I did not really know it when I started to walk it after I dropped J. at work. It was supposed to be around 2.5 miles (I walked more in Washington state). Parking lot of highway 89 and nice walk thru pine forest (not deep and dark). I could see my target, the hill.

It started pretty nice, bit rocky, but very nice. Probably mile into it, I got on the bottom of the hill and started to climb. I got passed by 5 people (I talked to two of them) and I thought I would die. The trail was really steep and rocky, it was almost like climbing the stairs. So many times I was thinking about turning back, but I did not. Shortly after the brutal climb started, I was blessed by incredible views of Flagstaff and whole area.

Being on the side of mountain, the sun was hot and hurtful. But those views, surroundings and really nice trail (trees, bushes, rocks) were incredible. I realized that this trail kicked my ass. I was defeated. I was considering going back, but I wanted to get up so badly.

I had hard time catching a breath. (I as well did not have any water or food.) I was really hot and stopped caring about getting burned. After two hours (2.8 miles) I was finally standing on the top. It was great feeling. The views of Flagstaff were similar, but now I could see other side (San Francisco Peaks), more mountains, and valleys.

One more small trail going to the top with radio towers. I had to do it. I felt for crab, but I had to do it. And I did it. Bit cluster of towers, satellites, and buildings. And this sign: (Nasa is spying too)

So, I hit the mark of 9300 feet, it felt good. I cooled down, relaxed some and started heading down. The trail had a lot of gravel, so it was slippery and bit dangerous. Still, it was great feeling to be going down (not so hard as going up). And still those views …

FRIDAY – Northern Arizona Museum. Flagstaff’s Art Walk.

It looked rainy, so we visited Museum. It was interesting.

We took the afternoon easy, relaxed, watched some television, did some barbeque, and enjoyed ourselves. In the evening (around 6 pm), we drove to town, because there was first Friday’s of the month art walk. We had to park few blocks away, but it was fine. It was surprising, how many people were on the streets. All the bars and restaurants looked full too. Really nice surprise. We wandered around, walked into few shops and galleries, and just looked around. It got dark pretty fast, so we got to enjoy color play on the sky too (the clouds turned pink and red-ish). Really interesting evening.

SATURDAY - Petrified Forest (Already described below.).

SUNDAY – Lava Caves, day off.

In the morning, we drove to Flagstaff, walked thru Farmer’s market (limited amount of farm products) and as well Route 66 festival (or something like that). The festival was kind of weird, there were some car products and a lot of junk. However, there were few very interesting old cars. After this stop, we drove about 12 miles from Flagstaff, turned on forest (dirt) road and continued towards Lava Caves.

I thought, there would not be people, but I was wrong, there were 6 cars. We walked from a parking lot towards the caves (all this in the middle of pines forest). There was small pile of rocks and few signs. We got closer and could see rocky hole in the ground. We got our flashlights out, put on long sleeve shirts and climbed down into the hole. The start was really rocky.

After the initial climb down with so many rocks, we got on relatively flat surface and started walking in the caves. For the most part, the top was pretty high, so we just had to watch the ground (lava stones, fallen rock, holes etc). Few people passed us going out. We then passed two small groups going in (we were faster). It was amazing, reminded me the time in the mines.

The Lava Caves were about ¾ of the mile long. Few spots were pretty tight (clearance of 3-4 feet), but otherwise it was pretty nice walk. Relatively cold. And the end (just kind of disappeared). We turned around and walked back. We met those two group and towards the beginning, we started to meet more and more people (including some screaming teenage girls). We were glad, that we had pretty quiet caves for the most of the walk. And … the difference in the temperature. Drive back and day off (television, make lunch, laundry, J. gym etc.)

YES, WE CAN.

TO THE MOON AND BACK.