Red Rock State Park

After some discussion on Tuesday night and yesterday morning, we decided there was a lot more around Sedona that we wanted to see and explore. We knew we would be able to hike more in that area than we would be able to in The Grand Canyon, and we all wanted to get a good hike in. So, I did some research and found a state park in Sedona that offered a lot of hikes AND (most importantly) access to Oak Creek. We packed sandwich lunches again and headed out to Red Rock State Park, taking the same scenic road that we had taken the day before. Seeing it was even better the second time, still just as breathtaking. We got to the park around noon and stopped at the picnic area to eat lunch before driving to the trailhead. All the trails at the park connected in one big trail system, so there was just one main trailhead, and then trails broke off from it. We took the Kisva trail first, because I had read that it crossed the Oak Creek twice. We found out once we got there that two of the bridges had been closed, but there was still one main bridge that we walked across over the clear water of the creek. I was determined to touch the water though, so we'll come back to that. At one of the forks in the trail, we decided to take Eagle's Nest trail, which brought us to the top of a few of the buttes in the park. The hike was beautiful, and the views at the top were panoramic and amazing. There were red mountains surrounding us on all sides, and they were all different heights and different shapes. My mom commented that it was a different kind of beauty than anything we'd ever seen. We took lots of pictures, and my siblings probably severely disturbed the wildlife with their singing and yelling "shortcut!" and "hardcore parkour!" as they jumped over rocks to cut through different areas on the trail. There isn't much more that I can say to describe what we saw, so I will attach plenty of pictures. Now...back to the water. The end of the trail ran parallel to Oak Creek, and we were walking about 15 yards from it. It was flowing well, and there were lots of rocks that created little rapids in the shallow areas, making the irresistible bubbling sound of a running creek that I absolutely cannot resist. I told my mom I wanted to get to the water, and she was all about it. We went off the trail and trekked through taller grass and thorns and walked over rocks to get right up to the water. I got as close as possible and reached down to touch the water. It was crisp and cool, and refreshed me completely. The spot where I was at was still though, and I could see where it was more shallow and the water was running quicker down the creek, so we went back to the trail and walked further. I ended up getting down to the water two other times. The last time we went down one of the trails where the bridge was closed, and it was easy to access the water from there. There was a bigger rock standing up out of the water that I got over to and stood on, and I just stood and listened. Bryce found something to sit on close to me and he "meditated" with his eyes closed. The water was flowing well, and the sound of it running over the rocks filled the quiet of the forest we were in. We stayed there for a few minutes just watching and listening, and then we headed back to the main trailhead and back to our car. We were ready to get out of the wind (it was SO windy the whole time we were hiking) so we sat in the car while we ate some snacks. We decided we were all tired from hiking and didn't want to do any more trails there, so we left the park and headed back to downtown Sedona. We had plans to eat at Picazzo's, and organic Italian place, but it was only 4:30 when we left the state park, so we decided to walk around the town to pass the time. Anabelle had her heart set on seeing a good sunset, so after walking around for a little while we drove to a lookout point to watch the sun set over the mountains. It had gotten colder and more windy, so we stayed in the car until the sun actually started to set around 6:20. Unfortunately, it had also gotten more cloudy because there was cold weather moving in, and the clouds had covered the sun pretty much completely....so no sunset to be seen. After that, we went to the restaurant, which had a lot of gluten free and vegan options so it felt like Christmas for me and my mom. We're not used to having more than 2 or 3 options on a menu when we go out to eat, and we had LOTS to choose from! My brothers had a negative attitude about the place once they saw the words "vegan," "organic," and "gluten-free" on the menus, but they found normal things to order and they ended up really enjoying them. My mom and I both decided on gluten-free pizzas and they were really good. We also got some Thai curry sweet potatoes and they were SO good; everyone at the table approved them. After we ate, we headed back to the house, and the temperature dropped 14 degrees on our way back. It started snowing while we were on the road, and we woke up this morning to everything covered in white. It is still snowing a lot as I write, and we are trying to figure out how that is going to affect our plans for the day. No matter what, we will have a good day I am sure.