Cathedral Rock, part 2: Tougher, but Worth It!

Sedona Travelog #17
Cathedral Rock - Tue, 31 May 2022, 9am

At the end of my previous blog about hiking Cathedral Rock in Sedona, AZ I warned that the trail would get tougher. There are three stretches of the trail where you've got to scramble with hands and feet up narrow chutes over bare rock. Here's one of them:

Watch on YouTube

After a few of these it was smoother sailing to the top. Not easy sailing, as it was still up, and there was still climbing over rock ledges; just easier than climbing the chutes.



The trail tops out at a saddle point between two of the large spires of Cathedral Rock. The saddle is 10-15' across and runs about 200' between the peaks. The mountain drops steeply down on either side.



As we caught our breath up here we marveled at how fast we'd completed the climb. By the numbers it's similar to our epic ascent of the Koko Head Tramline Trail in Hawaii: about 800' of ascent in under 1 mile. But unlike that hike we're not feeling wrecked. The cross-tie walking is what really did us in on that trek.

Anyway, back to this trek.



On the north peak there's a small ledge you can walk out onto. People were taking turns posing out there for photographs. Hawk didn't want to go (it was too close to the edge for her) so I handed her my camera.

Most people who make it up here to the saddle stay for a while, take pictures, and head back down. What they're missing is that there's a side trail that climbs even higher. Stay tuned for more!

UPDATE: To the top and back down!

Cathedral Rock, part 3: To the Top and Back Down

Sedona Travelog #18
Oak Creek Village - Tue, 31 May 2022, 10:15am

I wrote my last blog from the top of Cathedral Rock. ...Well, almost the top of Cathedral Rock. There's a trail around the left side of the saddle that climbs higher, up through another chute, to the highest point you can reach on the rock without technical climbing gear (which I think is forbidden anyway).



The trail to the base of this chute looks like a dead end from the main part of the saddle. Those who explore it find more to hike. This chute does look forbidding from below... though anyone who's gotten to this point has already climbed 2-3 sections at least as tough as this. Why turn back now? With hands and feet I scrambled to the top.



It was quiet up here, as befits the perch's informal name: The High Cathedral. In the time I was up here I saw only 5 other hikers. Down at the main saddle dozens came and went.

Soon enough it was time for me to go back down there with them. I scrambled down the chute to the saddle, where Hawk was waiting. She'd tweaked her back on one of the lower chutes and wanted to save her remaining energy to get back down safely.



Descending the chutes was in some ways easier, in some ways harder, than ascending. Easier was that gravity was helping us down. We didn't have to lift and hoist our own body weights. Harder was that gravity was too eager to bring us down. We had to use arm and leg muscles to slow and steady our descent. But overall it was easier, particularly once we chose to scoot down on our butts.



The trail was starting to get crowded as the clock ticked toward 10am. Moments of solitude became scarce, so we took advantage when we found them.



How crowded did it get? Well, this picture (above) is from just after 10am and we're 5-10 minutes from the bottom of the trail. The trail looks like a parade route.... And this is a Tuesday morning!

The Road Home from Sedona

Sedona Travelog #19
Back home! Tue, 31 May 2022, 8pm

Yesterday we called an audible on our travel plans for today. I'd originally booked us on a 9pm flight home from Phoenix. It'd land close to 11pm, and we'd be home-home sometime between 11:30 and midnight. Ugh. Not a great way to get ready for working the rest of the week!

The audible call was to switch to a 4:15pm departure out of PHX. The flight would land just after 6pm, and we'd be home-home by 7. In exchange that meant we'd have to wrap up our time in Sedona around 12, to drive to Phoenix with a stop for lunch and arrive around 2:30, to make that 4:15 flight without rushing.

Well, being done in Sedona around noon is part of why we got up at 6am again today and started our Cathedral Rock hike just after 7. (The other reasons were avoiding the crowds and midday heat.) Plus, starting the hike just after 7 meant we finished the hike— the amazing hike— at 10:15... which meant we could return to the hotel to clean up & pack our bags. Going back to the hotel after the hike felt so... civilized!

At the hotel we showered, dressed in casual clothes instead of hiking duds, and packed our bags in our spacious hotel suite instead of in the trunk of the car in a trailhead parking lot. By the time we rolled from Oak Creek Village we were nicely relaxed. ...Okay, we were also kind of tired and sore from the hike, but it was a good balance.

We stopped for lunch in the next town after Oak Creek. (We were already bored/frustrated with Oak Creek eats.) It was about 30 minutes away. We weren't too worried about travel time, having allocated plenty of it. That allocation was tested right after lunch when highway construction left us crawling at 5mph for 45 minutes. I lead-footed it a bit after that so that we arrived at the airport without a need to rush through security, etc.

Our flights were mostly on time. Baggage claim took a while though. Southwest Airlines giveth with one hand and taketh with the other. "Hey, your flight's landed early! But oops, the gate's not available yet, so we'll sit here on the tarmac for 15 minutes. And, oh, there's only one baggage crew serving 5 flights that just landed. So it'll be an extra 20 minute wait if you foolishly checked a bag. Come fly with us again soon!"

Well, the timings all worked out well enough. We were home-home just after 7pm. Hawk made dinner for herself from food in the 'fridge. I picked up a carryout pizza for myself. At 8:00 now the plates are cleared and I've already unpacked my bag. Hawk will start on hers in a few minutes, and then maybe we'll watch some TV tonight before going to bed at a reasonable hour. Travel success!