What to do? Planning to lead a Sedona area hike on a Saturday. One of the busier tourist periods – will there be enough parking at the trailhead? Will Red Rock passes be required? Where do we eat post-hike and will we have to wait for enough space for all of us? All these complications!

Geez, it might actually be LESS hassle to organize IN-house at my house! So, the plan was devised to use my residence as the both the starting and endpoint.

Halloween arrives, the day of the hike. As participants began to congregate I realized I must have neglected to notify them about the costume contest. Quickly and covertly changing out of my giant pumpkin suit into regular hiking clothing, I greeted and we organized for the group picture in my driveway and started the journey.

Lin jumps for joy at the summit of Sugarloaf.

After a respite, we descended back down to the base of Sugarloaf where we transferred over to Sugarloaf Loop and intersected with Teacup, cleverly named as it would lead us to our rendevous with Coffeepot Rock, one of the many geological icons in the Sedona area.

As the group navigated down the Teacup Trail, hike leader Mark offered an off-trail option that would provide closer proximity to the formations. Micheal, Christina, and Lena enthusiastically (or was it with trepidation – probably somewhere in between), elected to follow into the unknown. The remainder of the party continued down Teacup and joined up with a jeep trail that led to Seven Pools.

Also known as the Seven Sacred Pools for the reason that water is a scarce resource in the desert, and these seven rock pools were considered sacred to the Apaches and Yavapai as then held drinkable water year-round, attracted wildlife, and thus symbolized life and fertility in an otherwise harsh environment. Due to uncharacteristically heavy rainfall in the area recently, the pools were almost full. The off trail hikers emerged from the wilderness and joined their counterparts. A few then journeyed the short distance to the famous sinkhole, Devil’s Kitchen.

Once we had all reconvened, we headed back towards Sugarloaf and most then walked the beginning of the Thunder Mountain Trail which points towards Chimney Rock. Due to time constraints we did not do the entirety but did scramble some rock onto a couple unnamed rises which again offered notable views of the surrounding vistas.

Detecting the possible sounds of grumbling stomachs, back we went to our Halloween decorated abode and generously supplied lunch buffet (courtesy of my wife Sheila and stepdaughter Cole). All I left to do was fire up the grill and prepare the brats and burgers that were snapped up as quickly as I could extract them from the heat source. After some further socializing and story-telling a final group photo was snapped before departures.

Great weather, beautiful settings, good friends, and a nice meal added up to a wonderful day. And thanks to Wendy for organizing the carpool from Phoenix.

Mark, let me join everyone on the Coffeepot Rock hike in applauding your directions, your leadership, and especially your hospitality leading the hike. And please give our supreme regards as well to Sheila and Cole, for their great work in planning, decorating the house, cooking for us, and cleaning up the debris. You all did a great job and I’m positive this will be one of our most memorable hikes ever.

Jim