This loop is in the Western Getaways Trail System, opened in September, 2019, with some fun names like Ledge-N-Airy, Outer Limits, Drano, Last Frontier, Stirrup, Saddle, and Roundabout.

Nine hikers for long hike and six for short hike met at Girdner Trailhead on and before 8:00 AM. We are lucky with the weather. Temperatures dropped from 89° to 78°.

All of us hiked on the Girdner Trail to the junction of Axis-Girdner. Both groups hiked a mile on the Axis Trail. The long hike group kept going on the Axis trail, while the short group turned right and took the Girdner, Saddle and Stirrup Trails back to the trailhead.

The long hike group hiked on the Axis Trail 2.9 miles and turned right on the Rover Trail for 0.4 mile and turned right on Rupp Trail around 0.2 mile to get to turn right on the Girdner Trail. After hiking 1.4 miles on Girdner Trail, at the junction with Stirrup, the leader asked the group to keep going on Girdner or take Stirrup for new experience. All agreed to to take Stirrup Trail back to the trailhead. Total hiking today was around 7.5 miles.

There is some shade along the trail, with pine and ponderosa. Not much elevation gain, some ups and downs, with a beautiful view of Sedona mountains.

All is good: new trails, nice weather, great company!

Once we split from the long hike group, our short hike group of 6 continued on our own shorter loop. Trails in this Western Gateway trails system are typically single track through high desert scrub and gently rolling hills.

At the Axis-Girdner junction, we turned right on Girdner Trail and followed that for about a mile.

We opted to take the Saddle Up Trail next, hoping to be able to get some good views of the beautiful red mountains of Sedona—Bingo!

Next we hiked on part of the Stirrup Trail, taking us back to the trailhead. We also tacked on the Centennial Loop Trail, which is just steps from the trailhead. The views on Centennial Trail opened up even more. That is where we took our ‘short hike’ group photo.

There were two nice signs along Centennial Loop that identified all of the mountain formations we were viewing.

Once back at the trailhead, the longer hike group was not back yet, so we had some snacks at the covered picnic tables. The shade was much appreciated! This is apparently one of the stops on the trolley tour, as a group of tourists briefly disembarked and took lots of photos, before heading out again on the trolley. There was also a woman artist at the trailhead, in the process of making a painting of the distant Cockscomb formation. You never know what you will see in Sedona! Our short hike group hiked a total of about 6 miles. All in all, a great day!