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| | | Little Horse and Llama Bail Loop, AZ | | | |
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Little Horse and Llama Bail Loop, AZ
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| Hiking | 6.68 Miles |
729 AEG |
| | Hiking | 6.68 Miles | 2 Hrs 40 Mns | | 2.62 mph |
| 729 ft AEG | 7 Mns Break | | | |
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| partners | | We came up Friday to help Mia and her sister's fiancée to surprise her sister with the engagement ring so we stayed over and hiked the next morning. We were able to keep the surprise and witness the ring presentation at Village of Oak Creek and then drive to Sedona for some estate business before coming back to the Village where we had hotel reservations. The Views Inn had 20% off so we stayed there. It's a nice place if anyone is looking for a reasonably priced hotel for the area. Also it is within walking distance of restaurants. We did end up having both dinner and lunch at Corner Table in The Collective at the farthest south roundabout at the Village.
Now, onto the hike. We took our time at breakfast as we didn't want to start too early as temps would be in the low 40s. We started around 9:30AM and were surprised to see several open parking spots. We paid for our pass and then headed up the Little Horse Trail. It's such a nice hike through very typical Sedona scenery. We encountered a few hikers here and there and a few pups as well; oh, bikers too. The trail tread is really quite nice; a person can get spoiled by hiking on such luxury. We enjoyed our view to the north of the east Twin Butte and the nuns. It was a bit nippy hiking in and out of the shaded areas. The wind would gust from time to time as well. We passed a couple pour-offs which I always enjoy.
We got to Chicken Point at about the same time as one of the jeeps. (Chicken Point purportedly draws its name from some trail users who are too "chicken" to approach the precipitous far edge.) We took our share of pictures and enjoyed the area for a few minutes in spite of the chilly wind. I showed Mia the direction to the Submarine Rock, we would do that hike one of these times in the future. We headed back down Little Horse encountering many people along the way. We got done just in time.
We got to the junction with the Llama Trail and headed south. This is a new trail for me. A few minutes later about 5 or 6 bikeriders passed by us and said "hello again" and it took us a minute to realize they were the fellas that had parked next to us. Soon they would be coming back toward us as apparently they had made a wrong turn so that was kind of funny.
Anyway, the Llama Trail turned out to be pretty nice with views near and far including Cathedral Rock in the distance and toward the southside, Courthouse Butte and Bell Rock. We got to the junction with Bail Trail, gotta love that name! We didn't take the whole Llama Trail as Mia is still working up her hiking endurance and she wanted to meet up with her sister and fiancée for lunch. The Llama Trail hooks up with the Courthouse Loop and the Baby Bell Trail.
And as I suspected, we didn't encounter any hikers on Llama. We hiked back to the Bail Trail and took that west to hook up with the Bell Rock Pathway (also called Bell Rock Trail). The Pathway is essentially a road and too close to the highway. We saw a bunch of bikers at the bridge and once across, up and around a hill you hook back up with Little Horse where we would start encountering lots of hikers once again. And now, the parking lot was full. |
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For me, sometimes it's just as much about the journey as the destination.
Oh, and once in awhile, don't forget to look back at the trail you've traveled. |
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