Saturday, October 29, 2011

Cottonwood, AZ - Red Rock State Park

There is a plethora of things to do in the Sedona area. We find the hiking superb, the colors of the rocks amazing and I understand the shopping is great. We haven’t been to Red Rock State Park yet and today, we wanted a short hike and didn’t want to walk around the campground as we sometimes have. This park has the same red rocks and greet foliage as Sedona and we enjoyed our hike and will come back here to hike again. However, our memories are of the tarantula and the lost couple.
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When we hike, I usually keep an eye glued to the ground: firstly to find my footing and secondly to watch for snakes and other unpleasant things. Well, today, we rounded a corner and a guy ahead of us pointed down and whispered ‘tarantula’ as if he didn’t want the tarantula to hear him. Sure enough, there it was. I kept urging Gary to stand near it so, when I took a picture, I could have a human reference to show how big it was. But he was reluctant. Both of us were trying to figure out how to get by it, whether to be first or second.
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This park closed right at 5:00, not a minute earlier, not a minute later and, if your car was in the parking lot at night, it would be in the parking lot in the morning. No ifs, ands, or buts. We were hiking pretty fast since we didn’t not want to spend the night here and, towards the end of the trail we found a couple holding a map, admitting they were lost and asking us where they were. They told us they had been on this part of the trail 3 times, walking different directions and didn’t know which way to get out. We pointed out where they were and how to get outBut they wanted to see this and see that and were shuffling along the trail. We walked with them for a while but wanted to see more so left them.

There’s a beautiful stream flowing through the park with a picturesque bridge over it.
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We finally got close to the 5:00 witching hour and hurried along. When we got back to the Visitor Center, we told the Rangers about this couple and that they might need to look for them.

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