First trip - March 2008 - Montezuma Castle and Sedona

From the exclusive Motel 8 in Scottsdale, we set out towards the Grand Canyon.  It was our first view of the saguaro cactus desert and we loved it, loved it, loved it.  A ways along we stopped at a little park called Montezuma Castle National Monument:

You will see it is north of Phoenix on interstate 17, just past a little place called Camp Verde.

This wasn't really a hike, you walk a kilometer at most from the parking lot to the cliff face, but the place left a powerful impression on us.  It is the site of an aboriginal cave dwelling:

Then we drove to Sedona and did a little hike in the late afternoon.  It is off a parking lot that has a sign indicating hiking but I don't know if the hike or the parking lot has an actual name.  It is on highway 179 south of Sedona:

It is just before a fairly significant landmark, the Chapel of the Holy Cross, which you can see from 179 and which looks like a giant cross set into the mountain.  Here is a picture of the chapel from the trail:

On the trail:

This was just a little nothin-special trail but for some reason I really liked it.  It was our first taste of red-rock Sedona country, and there was a good view of various mountains including famous Bell Mountain.  Plus, I don't know, it seemed very quiet and intimate.  There was no one else around.  Plus you kind of had to bushwack, or at least we did (we got a little lost for a few minutes, actually).