As the cold days settle in, I find myself wishing to be back in Arizona more and more each day. As those of you who are keeping up with Robyn & I’s 50 before 25 travels, you will know that Arizona is my favorite state so far and I anticipate that it will end up being my favorite of all the states. However, that is besides the point, as I sit here in the New Jersey cold I think it’s time to share the story of how Robyn, Kaitlyn, Menna & I were lost in the beautiful red mountains of Sedona one early morning on our trip this past summer.
4:00 AM Kaitlyn appears in the doorway of my room, signaling it's time for me to get up, get dressed and get in the car so that we can beat the sun.
4:30 AM Robyn, Menna, Kaitlyn & I load into the car. Surprise, surprise none of the boys wanted to come. Just us ladies piled into the Ford Expedition and headed off into the direction of the VERY dark mountains.
5:00 AM We arrive at what we can only assume is the right trail head that would take us to this birthing cave nestled up in the crevasse’s of the red rock.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the hiking culture, you might be wondering “how come you aren’t sure you were at the correct trail head?” Well, as we learned in AZ, part of hiking is the torturous guessing game of; “Are we at the right trail head?” “Do we turn here?” “Is this the right path?” Rarely are these questions answered until you either make it to your intended destination or just end up walking around in constant search for something that exists somewhere else.
Either way, we jump out of the car and after a few circles around the parking lot, we switch on our flashlights, find a trail and head out on it.
5:30 AM There is rustling in the bushes, and despite Menna trying to convince me it’s birds, scares me so much that I’m ready to turn back. Just a few minutes later we came across a fork in the road, there were 2 different ways we could go, however it was not clear which trail would lead us to where we were trying to go. After a few debates and looking around at each other, Menna pulls out a coin and suggests we flip for what direction we should go in.
Considering we had absolutely nothing to base our decision off of, we decided to move forward with the coin toss. Would you believe me if I told you that the coin toss outcome led us to our intended destination? Because it did.
You might be thinking, where was your intended destination? We were looking for a birthing cave. This outcove in the red rock is thought to be previously used by the Sinagua women who were pregnant and getting ready to give birth. While it is a steep climb to the cave itself, it is thought to be the perfect place for the native women to go into labor because it was high up, away from wild animals such as coyotes and it provided much needed shade from the intense heat in the summer. Not to mention, the views are pretty amazing too.
It was such an amazing experience. The sights are absolutely breathtaking, many hikers attempt to make it to the cave to enjoy the sunrise. While we did not make it in time to see the sun rise from the cave, the hike to the cave provides amazing sunrise views as well. For any avid travelers and hikers, or those of you who are looking to get started with hiking, I would HIGHLY recommend this hike. It is a fairly easy hike, it's rated moderate on the AllTrails app, with the exception of a few steep steps once you’ve approached the cave entrance.
If you have done this trail, or decide to do this hike please be sure to let us know in the comments! We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions on it. I’m always looking to go back to Arizona, so please leave any recommendations in the comments!
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