City Hiking

Jacqueline, Zyla, Conrad and I took a two week long vacation down to Arizona. The main goal of this trip was to see family and friends, so getting outdoors was going to come second to all of this. We drove from Springdale to the Sedona area and Jacqueline's Aunt Kris'. It took us all day and the kids did very well. The next day we went down to Scottsdale. We were staying with Jacqueline's Uncle Bob and Aunt Bobbie.
Out to visit were Jacqueline's other Uncle Jim and Aunt Connie, her cousin Stu, and his girlfriend Amber.  Kris came out to visit also down there. So we had a full house. They set us up in the casita as Bob and Bobbie had a large enough residence to accommodate all of these people and more. Most of the time was spent hanging out and enjoying the company of others, but we did happen to cram in a few hikes. Their community had its own set of hiking trails. Bob took us out there. Jacqueline carried Conrad, I carried Zyla while Jim and Bobbie joined us for the walk.
 It was the perfect expression of the
desert scenery and it was nice to be out and about without a sweater on. The trails were impeccably maintained and they even had some elevation. Everyone we met talked to us and since the trails were exclusive to the community that they lived in, they were very quiet and enjoyable for everyone. It ended up being a nice walk and we were happy to get out with the kids. We spent the afternoon going to a little amusement park where Zyla had a blast.
The next day we got inspired to continue our city hiking. Connie and Jim had gone to do a hike around Pinnacle Peak. We decided that this sounded like an excellent hike for us with the kids. It was a short half hour drive from where they lived. When we got to the trailhead, it was packed with cars. We knew this was going to be a different experience.
 The trail was just full of people and while the scenery was still nice, it made it less enjoyable to have so many people there. The trail was still in good shape and we enjoyed the hike, but it just takes something away when we are constantly surrounded by people. On this one, we let Zyla get out and hike for a bit, but we do not go anywhere very fast with a 2.5 year old hiking. So it didn't last long. We hiked out to the end of the trail to where it goes down to the other trailhead and then just had to turn around. While we were hiking, the weather seemed to turn and it got much colder. Jacqueline was concerned about the kids, but they were both happy. We were concerned that one of our kids would not be good hikers, but they were content with riding, looking, and mostly sleeping. When we made it back to the car, it was time to find a place to have some food and then get prepared to head up to Jacqueline's Aunt Kris' house up near Sedona.