Sedona

I thought I better get out and try out those new shoes and where better than the Red Rocks of Sedona. A month or two ago I joined a Facebook page called “Horse Trails and Camping in America” and started seeing pictures from other folks around the continent and shots of their favourite ride places. Some of those folks were looking at heading towards Arizona for a little winter riding break so our resident “ride coordinator”, Linda Modahl set her sights on arranging a ride up in the Red Rocks for those out of staters. Now she had everything arranged perfectly, camp sites, ride plans, meal plans, even right down to a truck moving plan for the one day we had to trailer out and drop off then ride back to camp. The only thing that she didn’t figure on was the weather, she seemed to get Sedona confused with Dogpound North cause the weather was very Dogpoundish. That cold weather and a sore shoulder convinced Brenda that she would be better off staying at home here in the valley and avoiding most of the icy winds. Not sure that worked but she did miss a great ride.

I headed up on Friday morning and found my parking spot at the Horse Mesa Ranch. Blue got himself a great covered pen to hang out with all his trail riding buddies overnight. Soon all of our ride participants started rolling in and getting set up. The party consisted of Ken and Verna Pohl from Ponoka, Alberta, Ted and Julie Errend from Irrigon, Oregon, Joyce Cotten-Roberts from Kennewick, Washington, as well as the Arizona folks, “K” and Teresa from Goodyear, Dave and Linda, and Linda Lord from the Phoenix area. And of course Blue and I from Dogpound South. Below is a group shot “K” took along the trail.

This a beautiful ride and begins over by Turkey Creek below Cathedral Bluff/Rock and winds it’s way along the base of that picturesque place which forms the background for the both shots above and below.

Then we crossed the valley floor and headed across to Chicken Point where this shot of our head photographer “K” and his good little mare Delta Dawn was taken.

Once we left Chicken Point we wandered our way back down the valley and skirted both Baby Bell and Courthouse Rock on our way back to our rigs just off Jack’s Canyon Road. Below is a collection of other shots from that ride.

Sedona 2013 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Once we got back to the rigs we loaded up and headed over to the other side of Sedona where the others were going to ride on Sunday, Blue and I decided on route that we should head on home and check up on Meg and Brenda.

This week around Dogpound South has been a pretty lazy one, with the exception of yesterday. We got ourselves all gussied up and headed into meet our cousins Mickey and Jeff for dinner. Other bloggers may recognize Mick as a stalker on your sites as she is pretty aware of what all the folks on our sidebar are up to and keeps tabs on you all. If anybody gets within reach of either of the Dogpounds, North or South, and she is in the area she would never forgive us for not giving her a holler and inviting her down to meet y’all.

After dinner, and a ton of laughs, we hopped in the Jeep and headed up to Scottsdale to meet up with the Modahl’s and Rogers to enjoy the horse opera Odessyo from the the Cavalia bunch. It was a great show with 60 well trained horses, 39 geldings and 21 stallions, along with a great bunch of riders and acrobats. They did some amazing things. Great show and well worth the money. Thanks “K” for rounding up the tickets and all.

One word of caution about the Cavalia show, take your own snacks, Brenda bought a bag of popcorn and a bottle of water and we had to have our credit limit raised to manage to pay for it all. The bag of M&M’s I bought was just a little pricey I thought, about 20 or 25 cents PER chocolate covered peanut, but then whose counting. Nevertheless it was a great time and we would, and probably will, do it next time we cross their trail.

Now that should catch you up on the goings on around Dogpound South and we will see where we end up this next weekend and what the horses and us will get up to.

Here is a map of last weekends Sedona ride for those who like that kind of stuff.

The dotted line is this years ride with the darker solid red line being the tracks we followed last spring.

Riding the Red Rocks

This winter has been one riding adventure after another and this last weekend was our final ride and our friends here in Arizona had arranged for it to be a special adventure. I got home from Dogpound North on Thursday evening and we were loading our rig and heading to Sedona on Friday morning. We were going to meet Bill and Sandy Roberts, Tom and Joyce Compton, all from the Benson area as well as David and Linda Modahl and “K” and Teresa Rogers from here in the valley. Linda and David had made all the camping arrangements and it all went as planned. We arrived in the early afternoon at the Horse Mesa Ranch near the village of Oak Creek and got ourselves all settled in to await the arrival of the others. Here is a piece of the view we had from our spot for the weekend.

Saturday morning we moved our horses over to the Turkey Creek parking lot and unloaded and saddled then brought our trailers back to Horse Mesa while some folks hung out and waited for us. Joyce gave us a ride back and we got ourselves organised and headed out on our ride. First off we dropped down into the creek to take a few pictures with Cathedral Rock in the background.

Once we got those shots we headed up the creek and through a vortex area. Follow this link for a map of the vortex’s in the area. Once we left the creek we headed up through some pretty narrow and ledgey switchbacks. Not a problem by themselves but remember this is Sedona and we are sharing the trail with hikers and mountain bikers. Although we met both along the trail they were very accommodating and had gotten themselves well out of the way in the few spots that allowed that to happen. Probably in a large part due to Dave’s bellowing “horses coming” and the appearance of six horses and a couple of mules scrambling up through the rocks towards them.

There were more than a few places here where there was no room for a misunderstanding or to meet a party going the other way. Once we got to the top we circled around the bottom of Cathedral Rock on our way to Chicken Point and Courthouse Rock.

That is Courthouse Rock in the distance in the center of the shot above and Chicken Point is to the extreme left. Here comes Bill and that little horse Fred. He is a dandy that one, nothing bothers him and he sure hasn’t figured out that he is only half the size of a real horse. All heart and no quit.

Below Earl is trying to figure out why he is not included in the mint handout that Teresa has going on.

Brenda up on the rocks at Chicken Point.

A lot of hikers here were pretty surprised to see a bunch of horses scrambling up onto the rocks here and along the trail. You probably need a good mountain horse or mule to make this trip but it’s worth it let me tell you. We continued on from Chicken Point past Courthouse Rock and around the hill back to our overnight spot.

Sunday we headed up towards Horse Mesa for a short ride before loading up and heading back to Dogpound South. Another beautiful ride and I will hook up a couple of links to the pictures I took over the three days below this final shot of Bell Rock.

First night at Horse Mesa Ranch

Turkey Creek to Horse Mesa Ranch

Sunday morning ride along Horse Mesa

Sedona is a truly special place and it is hard to stop clicking the camera, I edited these hard but I still have a lot of shots and each one is of a special place or special people. I think the only improvement I could make to this country if it was in my power was to make about a 100 miles of bad road the only access. But then the multitudes of folks we saw would have not had the chance to share this beautiful country.

As I said at the start of this rambling epistle we have had a wonderful winter riding the trails of Arizona and owe a large dollop of thanks to the folks of the Arizona Back Country Riders website and the Lone Rangers riding club, both have welcomed us with open arms and we have enjoyed the new trails and loved the potlucks and socializing around the odd fire and more often just circled around a great meal. Just remember if you are feeling like getting out of the heat this summer we always have room in our barn at Dogpound North.

To paraphrase our good friend K, “I feel sorry for anyone who isn’t us.”