Arizona: Hiking In The Coconino Forest

This day was probably one of my favorite days of the entire trip, the history of the day before (my birthday in fact) was a complete disaster - but it did ended up being redeemed in the most beautiful possible way!

I mean look how beautiful it is....

It all started out with an impromptu change of plans for the day.  We decided to check out a hiking trail before we headed to our actual plans for the day, and then ended up hiking in the most beautiful forest for five hours, and not even going with the original plan.



So the funnest part of the story is - so as I read about this specific hike we wanted to do I read about this gorgeous scenic route that you take to get there (I am all about the views) so that was our first "yes, let's do this." We get into the car, type in all the info for the GPS and she gives up the option for the scenic route, so of course we say yes.

So here we go everything is fine we get onto the highway and head that way, it is time to take our exit and here we go on the super back roads in the middle of nowhere.

Oh sweet, this will be amazing - so we enter into the forest and before we know it were in the knee deep in the forest, we no map, or handy cell phone gps has no service, and we have no idea where we are at - yay!

To make matters worse remember all the rain and flash floods?  I have never been more thankful to have four wheel drive, and a car capable to go "off-roading,"

This was just beginning, we made it through the first mud patch and thought well it must just get better from here - also we passed a few people who kind of had the look of "what the hell are there people doing," but it didn't phase us, and it should have ;)

Since made it through the first mess, we decided to to just keep going forward, and as we went forward some patches just got worse, but at this point we were in so far that it didn't really make any sense to turn around and go back.

We drove around this area for hours, having no idea where we were, which way to go (sorry dad, we didn't map anything out - lol) until we finally stumbled upon campers (yay) and we figured things out.

I have to say that it was an absolutely beautiful drive, and we laughed a lot - most of it was probably nervous laughter, but it was awesome.

Come to find out this was obviously not the science route I read about (it was an actual curvy road going down the canyon,) and our Naomi (as we like to call our gps) is fired because she was trying to take us to the actual end of the specific trail we want to hike, and it is impossible to get there by car, so she took us on this crazy detour.

It was totally awesome though, and probably one of our favorite - how did this happen travel stories.

After this major detour and figuring out what the heck is going on, we were able to make it out of this part of the National Forest, and actually find our way - lucky is we got to drive two scenic routes all in one day.

We found the beginning of the hiking trail that we wanted, got all our stuff together, and headed it. What was only going to be a little while, turned into the most beautiful 10km hike.

See the top of that cliff? That is pretty much where our detour was taking us ;)

I wanted to do this specific hike because it was in the forest, it had a little bit of the red rocks that Arizona is famous for, and you get to cross a little creek about thirteen time - what's not to like?

This was the sights before even getting onto the actual hiking trail! I knew that we were in for an awesome treat, because I mean it look at the beauty!

It was a total blast, everyone loved it, because who doesn't like creeks, and touching water, and hearing the subtle and serene sound of moving water?

I also believe that is on every kid's bucket list to cross little streams and creeks, by hopping on rocks.

 I just loved how peaceful it was, and serenity and clarity that comes from being in nature.  It made me realize how much I have missed it since we don't have that many opportunities to that where we live.

see the snake?

One of my favorite parts of this hike is that there is this one awesome spot where you can just hang out next to the water, and relax.  We loved just chilling, soaking our feet in the cold stream, it was so refreshing.

The kids also loved playing in the water - Hayleigh has turned into a water baby ever since she finally nailed down how to actually swim and go under water without being a afraid.

We spend a while here, soaking it all in.

After we had our fill of relaxing, we packed up and headed out to explore more of this little gem.

We made it to the end of the trail, and we were a little disappointed because generally the end of a trail has the wow factor or a reason for going that far.  We later learned that if you continue to go on (past the marker trail) and you have to hike upstream in the water you get to a remote camping site (that is where Naomi was trying to take is to begin with) it is apparently awesome.  Maybe next time we will do that.

We had a break to devour some cupcakes.... yes we had them in the backpack all day ;)

It was a wonderful little celebration, especially after the disastrous day before.

Ian was the little hiking leader hiking back, and he loved it!

This trip has totally renewed our outlook on life, to kind of rethink so some stuff, and to not just settle for the current but to think a little bigger, to dream a little bigger, and even consider a move in the future.

We are all pretty set on living in a tiny house, in the woods, and we can totally become professional hikers ;) I mean why not?

I am so glad we had a change in plans on this day, and we just went with it, and it turned out so beautiful - with so much inspiration, and motivation.

Happy Saturday!

PS. You read see other pictures from this trip here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

one of my fave pictures!